On my '85 Jetta 5-speed with 140,000 miles, I suspect the synchros are shot - it grinds into 2nd and 3rd and won't go into 1st at all unless I'm at a dead stop.
I'm a fairly passable 'amateur' mechanic, been maintaining my own VWs and Audis since the early 80s and I've even overhauled an engine or two.
And I've swapped out transaxles but I've NEVER rebuilt one - Would I be foolish to attempt it on my own ?
- FM -
Building a manual tranny isn't all that bad. The main thing is to have a Bentley and the CORRECT tools. Without those 2 most important items, you will fail.
Now the specs are easy to get from your Bentley Manual, it pretty much walks you though a tranny teardown. But some of the tools needed are not something the average garage bandit will have stilling around, and that is where I could see problems forming. No job is imposible with the propper tool.
You will MUST have access to a machine press to press the main bearing back into the case before you put the two halves back together. That would stop most people if you have that then read on. At one point I had 2 trannies. One leaked where the two halves came together. I was able to split the halves to replace the gasket only to find that it was warped. I was able to get it back together ok but of course it still leaked. I was thinking about trying to rebuild the other one. I split it only to find that it was beyond repair so I played with it to see if I could have done the job and with the possible idea of maybe using the case for the other tranny.. If you have the machine press you will also have to get creative in pulling the main bearing and some gears off the shaft. None of my gear pullers arms were thin enough to get behind the bearing to pull it off. I went to a couple of tranny shops and they didn't have the right tool either. Finally I found a guy that used a machine press "clam shell" to walk it off for free. I was never able to get all of the shafts out of the case and ended up getting a good deal on a rebuilt one (thanks again to Roger Brown).
If you have the right tools you probably could do it with a Bentley. If I were in your shoes I'd pull the tranny myself and then take it to a shop.
HTH Steve
How's the shift linkage?
Naw, that's how I learned. Grabbed a Haynes, pulled the tranny (no beer the first time) and started ripping it apart. You'll need a 12 mm (maybe larger) 12-point (triple square) socket to remove 5th gear and a good pair of retaining ring pliers (not snap-ring pliers). Don't mix up the 1st gear synchro and there's a washer that sits atop the pinion shaft bearing--remember which way it goes since the manuals don't go into that level of detail (in my experience). If you're replacing the diff. or pinion shaft bearings you should have a shop preload them however I never have (at the recommendation of a couple local VW dealer mechanics); I've had great success with simply installing new races/bearings. Aha! You'll need a tool to compress the driveaxle flanges--some 3/4 " still bar with a hole drilled through the center to accomodate the appropriately sized bolt. Tighten the bolt and tighten a screw down on the bar to compress the flange spring. Make sense?
Hopefully nothing on the mainshaft is shot cuz that bearing is a pain to remove (have a tranny shop do it for you). Do NOT pull on the main bearing retaining plate (or whatever that thing with the 4 bolts is).
Clean the case and paint it Chevy orange (add a few HP).
Good Luck! Darryl. p.s., don't forget to take pictures.
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