Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, currently in France close to Nantes on holidays with family and we need a replacement gearbox for a water cooled '85 bus - engine is a 1.9D (Y) from a golf which has just recently gone in along with a replacement clutch - kinda sender pressure time wise so any help would be much appreciated, regards

Sure it's the box? Not the selector mechanism...
Did you put a spigot bearing in the flywheel recess? Input shaft play?
Symptoms?
Might be able to connect u to the French Syncro Clube.

I'm not a mechanic I can only go on what the mechanic is telling me and he didn't seem to have any ambivalence, he seemed certain it's the box - the symptoms were alot of gearbox oil on the ground, alot of difficulty changing gears esp into 3rd and a loss of engine power esp in 2ns, engine roaring but very little power alot of the time - what are the chances of being able to repair a gearbox, I know it's how long is a piece of string kind of question but initially I thought no chance but looking into it there seems to be a decent chance depending on availability of parts and a decent mechanic - any advice?

From that brief description I would be looking at the oil seal - oil contaminating the clutch. Possibly due to no spigot bearing?

Wait for more expert views than mine though.

My thoughts as well...
No spigot bearing.
You could call Aidan Talbot gboxes in Wales for any contacts down there.
Gbox needs dropping out first see.
I'll point Aidan at this post anyway.

Yes this happened to my mate who forgot to fit a spigot bearing, took gearbox out and seal had worn from input shaft movement, gear oil all over his clutch. They are only a few quid for the bearing, change the gearbox seal if it is as it would have probably worn if no spigot bearing was fitted.

Interesting comments there, we did have the clutch replaced a month ago as well as the engine and it didn't seem to have the same pick up in the lower gears and I noticed a small bit of oil leaking from the box, told our mechanic about it and he said not to worry about it that he may have caused it while changing the clutch/engine but that it wasn't a big deal, would replacement of the spigot bearing have been involved in a clutch/engine change? I did contact Aidan and he was very good to get back straight away but he said he doesn't have contacts down here though a good bit of news he gave me was that a box from any water cooled T25 would do as a replacement - contact dealings for the French club mentioned in an earlier post would be much appreciated, many thanks to all who posted in response to this

Apologies, Aidan did say the only contact he had was with the French syncro club, if anyone could advise me how I can make contact with them I'd appreciate it, regards

Ok I will PM you. No unless knackered. Spigot brg is either in there or not it's a needle roller brg. In neutral and clutch up noisy: clutch down rattle goes away.. that's the symptom. Is your mech. T25 alt.engine savvy?

Looking forva French Syncro Clube de France member close to you. . It's a big country
Chin up and enjoy those aperitifs

Clutch up noisy, clutch down not - yes, that describes what I'm hearing alright

Input shaft support (spigot) brg shot or not installed. T25s need them the original FWD cars don't having a much shorter well supported input shaft.
So common it's driving us nuts saying it on here in Alt Engines
You'll need a new clutch probably, a new oil thrower (not an easily replaceable part nor obe that can be bought) and an oil seal at minimum.. plus a needle roller spigot brg for a T25 JX diesel.
Audan might talk you through the oil thrower stuff but tobgrt home perhaps could ignore it.
Will keep looking firca contact there...

PS. Prepare some suitable language for that 'mechanic' when you get back. ..

Many thanks Harry, yes working up the translation for the mechanic there's a VW garage close to us also, starting to consider bringing it there if parts and expertise are going to be an issue, should know more tomorrow one way or the other

Ps, anyone got any thoughts about driving bus to mechanic, it's a few miles away or could it do more damage?