Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, got some whirring noises coming from the syncro gearbox. The noise disappears when the clutch is engaged.There is more of a noise on first start of the day and it dramatically improves within a short drive. There is a small leak from side of gearbox(nothing to drastic),fresh oil was put in in August when a decoupler was fitted.
There are no problems with driving the van, no gears popping out etc...
Just worried about noise from the gearbox, got a long journey coming up and won't risk it if damage is gonna be caused.
thanks.

Noise disappears when you disengage or engage the clutch??

i.e. it rumbles, murmurs in neutral with clutch up, disappears when clutch down ??

Or opposite as you've stated

Yes/No

Go on give us a clue, which engine ?
What's the history of the box, what was the drain plug like when you changed oil ?
What's the noise, whirring, clicking, grinding, does it vary with revs
If you can do another oil change then the drain plug may give a clue or two, for £20 it's cheaper than driving on an unknown box might be.

The noise disappears when the clutch is down and returns when up. The noise is whirring,grinding sound(could this be a bearing?).The noise is not horrifically loud or anything but i've got to know my bus now and that noise although not loud is there and i want to figure out whats going on.
The bus is a '92 vanagon with a 2.1mv engine on 96'000 miles.
She drives great, pulls well through the gears with no jumping out of gear and there are no noises at speed.
The oil that was drained during the fitting of the decoupler was OK i believe.
The leak seems to be coming from the seal where the shift shaft enters the gearbox housing.
Thanks guys for the replys...

The noise disappears when the clutch is down and returns when up.

OK, needed to clarify that, opposite to your first post then...

Input shaft is turning when clutch is up

This could just be the spigot shaft bearing rattling (nice if thats all it is)

But might be an input shaft bearing

See what Aidan thinks

I'd hazard that the input bearing has failed and the input shaft is skipping like a rope causing the oil thrower to be worn and hence the input seal cannot cope with the oil load it is receiving. If this is the case then the mainshaft may well be damaged by the remaining outer race of the bearing. The input shaft will also be worn by the oil thrower.
It can also be caused if the spigot bearing collapses as the input bearing is not fully supported at both ends, but I'd expect some feedback in the clutch pedal as the clutch plate bites and self centres each time you take up.
Similarly it could be caused by major wear in the mainshaft main bearing, but I'd expect some noise in 4th gear and possibly R and G too.
I'd recommend dropping the oil and seeing what you find

Thanks for the info, i'll drop the oil this week and let you know. Aiden, what am i lookin at if the problems you describe are there, is it serious money or are we looking at a rebuild?