How long have I got with my gear box?

[ermie571]

Hi all...think I have gear box whine. .... changed the oil. Now have fantastically smooth and easy gear change. Whine still present when under load...disappears as soon as clutch is depressed. Picture of the Christmas tree....

[The Bishop]

Yeek that's a lot of metal on there.

[ermie571]

I know....seen better. ...seen alot worse. Lol. Reckon that's gotta be 5 years at least. ...

[Titus A Duxass]

Oooer!
You'll have to wait for the gearbox god to come along, he's usually around this time of day.

[Aidan]

sludgy stem = worn main bearing, mainshaft or more likely pinion bearing, and whine on input clutch on off suggests mainshaft bearing but it could be release bearing or clutch
spikey head is gears/crown and pinion wearing due to things being out of allignment due to wear in main bearings
which box is this, the syncro or one of the many 2nd hand 2wd ones you have Emma ?

[ermie571]

Aidan - I knew you would be along! Thanks for the diagnosis.

NOT the syncro box fortunately - Its a 5 spd on a 2.1 upgraded from a 1.9. Believed to the original kit the bus was supplied with.... G plate 1.9 DG velle GL (is what it came to me as)
Clutch a couple of years old, so should be life left in that - all three parts replaced

so....what do I need to do??

Repairable??

Also....the gearstick is making what I think is a transmitted noise..this changes in tone, and can almost go away if i move is slightly left / right.

Thanks Aidan for the info

(after the gear oil change, the gear change is alot smoother, but can be notchy)

Em
xx

[ermie571]

Just so folks know - Aidan has contacted me privately about my gear box.

I may need to rob a bank! Where is the balaclava emoticon??



EM
xx

[ghost123uk]

Just so folks know - Aidan has contacted me privately about my gear box.

I may need to rob a bank! Where is the balaclava emoticon??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also....the gearstick is making what I think is a transmitted noise..this changes in tone, and can almost go away if i move is slightly left / right.

The (DK) box on our TinTop has done this since we got it (9 years ago). It has had 2 gearbox oil changes since then (not too bad a Christmas tree on ours though). It's not got any worse. If I recall correctly, there is supposed to be a kind of rubber "UJ" that is missing on ours though ( = welded up iirc ) , so that would emphasise "transmitted" noise in the stick I reckon.

[ermie571]

Thanks Ghost.

decided the robbing bank option is a bit risky, as the get away vehicle is not exactly inconspicuous or fast!

So - need the head in a bucket of sand emoticon instead!!

Em
x

[ghost123uk]

need the head in a bucket of sand emoticon instead!!

Or get some of THIS - Only joking Aidan

[ermie571]

Rebuilds and restores metal parts and protects them from future wear, reduces friction

Good lord!! It will recrown my crown, and under-pin my pinion.

All for 14.00 squid.

How the hell do they substantiate such claims?!

Have to admit though, I was considering a drop of molyslip to get a few more miles out of it - chances are its going to be replaced with a SH box and then shipped to Aidan to see if there is any value to it.

Em
xx

[Aidan]

5 speed (and syncro) box can self destruct in a way in which the 4 speed boxes can't, 1st gear (G gear in syncro) is sandwiched between synchrohub and thrust bearing in end case, when shaft moves gear has nowhere to go so wears against the hub, burrs the end of the gear, pinches the needle bearing, melts the bearing cage and the bearing collapses and in worst case scenario needles will friction weld to the shaft and the debris going through the rest of the box can chip or break gear teeth and crown and pinion teeth

additives are fine on good well maintained boxes but they can't repair existing wear and some additives are little more than sludge that reduces noise
regular oil changes is the only way to keep the box sweet and timely maintenance when the drainplug is like the one above

either that or fill the box with something to quieten it down than sell the van to some unsuspecting 'mug' punter and wash your hands of it, that's what most unscrupulous peeps do and why I get so many calls from people who have recently bought a van and find themselves with a noisy box and are really surprised when I tell them they are looking at say a grand minimum to rebuild it properly (having heard what the symptoms are) as that could be as much as half of what they paid for the whole van - I do not condone anyone doing this, but it does happen, a lot; all you can do is to be aware if you are buying a van

10 years ago thousands of these vans were scrapped every year and useable second hand boxes were £50-100, but now the vans have become so sought after that they have become too valuable to scrap so fewer good used parts available and all those parts are 10 years older and more worn especially as the wrecks that do get scrapped are generally only scrapped because beyond economic repair, hence T4s offer better apparent value than T3s now, and in a year or 2 T5s will be better apparent value than T4s, but whilst the more modern vans have lots of fancy aftermarket parts available for them genuine parts will be obsolete relatively sooner than they were for ours because of the change in the way VW procure parts, ie today they build 250 vans/day and they have delivered to the factory the parts for 251 vans per day - something like 500 HGV movements a day into Hanover works delivering just in time with minimal inventory of parts held in reserve

new gearbox for a T3 from VW classic parts is now 3000-5000 euros exchange, but they still have them in some codes, not the ones that people want like AAP though, but VW don't have many T4 boxes, even some codes of early T5 boxes are nla

demand for T3 parts is such that they are being remanufactured, but prices are increasing as the capitalisation of that remanufacturing is at today's prices, and often being made in the west (so western labour costs) rather than being made in China or Brazil so will be a lot more than Bay and Splittie bits, but will be generally of better quality

[ghost123uk]

Rebuilds and restores metal parts and protects them from future wear, reduces friction
How the hell do they substantiate such claims?!

I know, it's mad isn't it

Dear Sir,

I bought some of you oil additive and was very disappointed that it did not rebuild the wear on my big end shells.

I intend to sue you for wasting my time and money.

[300CE]

How often do you recommend changing the oil Aidan? I changed mine about 6 months ago but just wondered whether its something like every couple of years or mileage based.

Sorry to high-jack the thread Em & hope you manage to get it sorted

[Aidan]

3 years maximum, 20k miles maximum
more often if driven hard (accelerator is on off switch - brickie stylee), long distance (eg. motorway to Italy in 2 days), off road, bigger engine
I do mine every 24 months, standard syncro doing 8-9k miles/annum these days
oil £25
gearbox rebuild £500 upwards, you know it makes sense