Club 80-90 Forums

On changing the oil in my 5 speed gearbox, my tame, and very excellent fitter found these small bits in the drained oil. There was nothing on the magnet, he says, and nothing else came out, no ball or needle bearings, no swarf, no nuffin.... except this.



I apologise sincerely for the outa focus image. It was the best I could do with a mobile phone. (Can you make phonecalls on digital cameras yet?) I must add the fag lighter and the tape measure were not in the gearbox! They are included for size reference.

They are obviously parts of some kind of oil transfer bush as there is a slight helical channel machined on the inner surface. The bits are very thin, and the larger piece fits fairly neatly around the end of the cigarette lighter (as mentioned, shown for comparison). I would guess the internal diameter of the bush to have been about 22-24mm.

To my eye, the broken edges don't look shiny, which probably means whatever it is has been broken for quite some time.

The gearbox works fine. Mind you, the reason we changed the oil was because it started to whine a bit on the way back from my last campsite. About 1.5 litres of oil came out, so the level was very low. Now the box is topped up again, the whining noise seems to have diminished (fingers crossed).

I am wondering whether a. It could be the residue of something that has already been repaired, b. Whether I dare keep on driving it (I have a very good RAC cover), as a gearbox change would seem to be the best repair option anyway.... so might as well see how far this one gets first.

The van operates on a shoestring budget, namely my pension, so I don't want to get into anything TOO expensive.

Waddya reckon guys??

Tony

Tony, as you suggest your photos are garbage but your description of the said items is pretty dammed good.
My guess is the pieces you have collected my well be selector rod support bushes, as the rods inside these boxes are basically flat bar section and I suppose the bushes are simply there to stop them from chattering about and eventually chewing their way through the sides of the gearbox.



The flat selector rods/bars can be seen in this photo (top right of picture).

I hope this helps to answer you question .

Regards

Fritz,,,,,,

PS, I guess as long as you now know you have a slight issue with your gearbox it may give you time to sort out a spare one if you should ever need one....

Thanks for that Fritz. If that's what it is, and it seems you are right, I wonder why the bush shattered in the first place.

4th has always been a pig to select. I wonder whether that has a 'bearing' on it?

Yes.... if it gets a lot worse I would be in the market for a box. Ormskirk is a long way to come for it though. What sort of wonga are we talking?

(Great piccy, btw!! )

Tony,

Read this post and the link within it...

Thats a pretty shagged pinon gear Fritz

Tony,,,,,,,,This may be your lucky day as I have a 5 speed box going spare in my storage facility, the only thing is it was taken from a diesel engined T25.

It can be adapted to fit a petrol engined van but will need to have the bell housing and input shafts swapped.

Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,,

Oops sorry,here's the link

http://www.club80-90.co.uk/forum/viewto ... all+sleeve

HarryMann wrote:Oops sorry,here's the link

http://www.club80-90.co.uk/forum/viewto ... all+sleeve

Ta very muchly for that. Nope..... they ain't the bits I got. Mine are much smaller, parts of a sleeve, and there's no sign of bearings.... so I'm inclined to go along with Fritz's idea at the moment.

I'm going to run the van around locally for a cupla days and see what shifts.

Fritz, me mate. As it 'appens mine is a 1.6D !!!!

I'll email you.

Tony

That link was parts of the support bushes/sleeves, the balls themselves rarely show up again - apparently! I think Fritz got ti right as well, and think these are normally the parts that fall apart, so to speak.
The gearchange often doesn't suffer though its more likely to jump out of gear, mine jumps out fo 1st from time to time, other tiems it satys in Ok, so I'm suspecting that selcor shaft has its locating sleeve damaged, or a shaft bearing has developed a bit of end play .

H'mmm... whether to let sleeping gear-dogs lie, or go for a gearbox change. Lots of 'if's involved.

I'll drive it around for a week or so and see what happens...

Thanks for all your interesting interest, guys.

Tony

Well Caneldrifter they don't look like the same parts I pulled from my sump plug the other day. But you do say it came out with the oil and was not stuck to the magnet. So if correct I'd be guessing it is made of a non feroucious (Non Ferous if you prefere) metal such as Bronze maybe? I pulled my box apart only a couple of weeks ago and I cant think of anything within my box which has any resemblance. Mine was a 4 speed box not a 5.

But as you say - it's only the diameter of a fag lighter - ummmmmmm I wonder ?

The main shaft and all its bearings will be way to large. The Layshaft again would be way to large. The reverse gear might just spin on a bearing or bush of that diameter but why the helicoil Groove within.

I think it's a bush that the input shaft rotates within. (primary drive shaft, first motion shaft or whatever you want to call it - the one which goes into the clutch anyway. Its about the right diameter I'd say.

When I did my box I noted that my input shaft wobbled around in the housing a fair bit, but I assumed this to be normal as the input shaft is basically a cardan shaft just passing through the diff housing, where it couples to the input shaft proper. A helcoil groove within a bush as you describe would be normal in a bush supporting a rotating shaft entering of exiting a oil filled vessel. Basiccaly to wind the oil back into the vessel. There might have been a bush in mine too cant say I noticed.

Is your engine the original unit? Of has a golf engine been put in at some time? - did they remember the bush in the flywheel? Has this caused the problem? This would hold true as you have been losing oil.

On another note - if anyone does find the bearings and the pressed steel housing for the selector shaft guide runners stuck to the drain magnet. It worth remembering 3 of the 6 bearing guides are situated at the rear (front) of the box (the one missing in mine was one of these) All you need to do is to drain the oil and drop the rear gearbox mount. Lower the whole lot down a few inches and pull the rear cover off. The reverse gear is behind that cover. You will see the bearing guides looking straight at you. With a pair of pin nose pliers and a screw driver and a bit of gear selection you can quite easily prize the old bits out (if any are left) and refit a new one. The other three need a total strip down to get at - but the one on mine was one of these. Easy job could be completed in an hour.

Drove the van over to Just Kampers this afternoon (about a 90 minute round trip from here). Had no problems whatsoever with the gearbox or shift, apart from a litle stiffness going into 4th (5 speed box) both up and down, helped very much by double declutching.... but that's how it always was.

The chief engineer of Just Kampers looked at the bits and had no idea what they were.

Now... I really don't think anyone would have tossed some foreign bits into a VW gearbox just for fun,... so I have to conclude that the JK engineer is not as clever as he thinks he is. Perhaps a point to note for the future when dealing with them?

The whining noises have disappeared, so lack of gearbox oil was obviously the cause of that.

So... I reckon I'll keep on trucking.... and if it all seizes up I'll call in the RAC and get some of my investment back from them.

Hopefully...see you at Vanfest then?

Tone