Jumping out of 4th gear

[Trundler]

OK guys, I'm getting the picture now. Looks like I need to PM Aiden...

[Trundler]

OK, booked in with Aiden for a rebuild now. My next question is, if I decide I'm too lazy to hoik the gearbox out myself, how many hours labour should a garage charge me for the removal and refitting??

Roughly....

[Aidan]

if you are too lazy then 8 hours out and in plus a clutch and sundries, figure £500, on your own on the drive figure a day each way if you've not done it before, plus clutch and sundries, Pete can get them out in 40mins

[Trundler]

Cheers Aiden. The clutch is only 14,000miles old so I don't think I'll bother replacing that at this point. And that reminds me - the 'box must have been out when the clutch was done 2 years ago and that cost me £230 so I would have thought that £200-ish would cover the gearbox out and in...?

PS - who's this wondrous individual called Pete...?

[John Potter]

Took me two (cold, dark) long days in January to get the box out and three days to get it back in. Thats by myself, in the drive, van up on axle stands but a lot of that time was spent sitting and thinking (or just sitting ) and I did drop the sump off and replace the oil seals and grease the cv's and stuff.....

I reckon that with a buddy to pass tools, help with heavy stuff and the like I could get it down to about 5 hours each way now.

It helps that I now know where everything is (and of course the CV bolts are new and all the other bolts have been out recently)

I guess a garage with a ramp and a gearbox support could do it much quicker, maybe under the 4 hours mark each way so £140 @ 35ph

£230 to fit a clutch is a miracle assuming that includes the parts...

[silverbullet]

I extracted the syncro gearbox in about 7 hours from first lifting the hatch to having it on the ground. That was my first Transporter gearbox and included leaving the engine in-situ, getting all the engine and prop protection off and it was done at home on the drive with just ramps and a trolley jack, all on my billy no mates own.
I've had worse days on the spanners, I just can't remember when or what...

[Trundler]

£230 to fit a clutch is a miracle assuming that includes the parts...

Well, it did include the parts. Not only that, when I first got the van back, the young lad at the garage hadn't secured the gearchange linkage properly with the result that it fell apart with the van in 4th gear about 15 miles up the road. When I rang to report this, the same young lad said I should try to get the van back to them The resulting slipping of the clutch badly damaged it but the garage owner accepted it was his fault and replaced the clutch A SECOND TIME and didn't charge me any extra....

I don't know what happened to the young lad...