Club 80-90 Forums

Just want to share with you the results of stripping Matt Flints gearbox
it's been noisy for a while and he's been putting off the day......
250,000Km
early 1985 build
oil changed at least twice in the last five and a bit years, with Redline
Matt also found a couple of loose ball bearings on the plug first time he oil changed it

and we found it was totally original, not previously rebuilt

backlash was a bit high but apart from 0.6mm of play in the pinion bearing and similar coming together between G gear and the RG synchro inner hub the box was in exceptionally good condition with very low wear on the synchro rings and needle bearings generally; one broken slider bearing (that's where the balls came from) and a worn selector fork, otherwise a good rebuildable core box, unlike the one he bought off Will, that came out of his sika, that wasn't half as good and had been rebuilt badly before, with no synchro ring at all on first gear

proves absolutely nothing apart from maybe life expectancy less than 250k km in a westy camper syncro in practice

And its been running a wheezy 1.8 golf petrol engine for a long time.. so less torque has been going though it.. Pretty good though..

Got the notes from my very late original box that had pinion bearing whine at 140k km.. I reckon it had a hard life as a "works truck" in the early part of its life though..

how would a golf engine compair to a wbx?

neil

Aidan wrote:Just want to share with you the results of stripping Matt Flints gearbox
it's been noisy for a while and he's been putting off the day......
250,000Km
early 1985 build
oil changed at least twice in the last five and a bit years, with Redline
Matt also found a couple of loose ball bearings on the plug first time he oil changed it

and we found it was totally original, not previously rebuilt

backlash was a bit high but apart from 0.6mm of play in the pinion bearing and similar coming together between G gear and the RG synchro inner hub the box was in exceptionally good condition with very low wear on the synchro rings and needle bearings generally; one broken slider bearing (that's where the balls came from) and a worn selector fork, otherwise a good rebuildable core box, unlike the one he bought off Will, that came out of his sika, that wasn't half as good and had been rebuilt badly before, with no synchro ring at all on first gear

proves absolutely nothing apart from maybe life expectancy less than 250k km in a westy camper syncro in practice

Remember this .....

Re: Syncro gearbox lifespan

Post by syncropaddy » Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:24 pm

syncropaddy wrote:My box had 260,000kms up when I gave it to Aidan to refurb. He said it was in good condition and didn't really need doing at that time but I decided to do it anyway

and the oil had never been changed and my balls were in the right place .....

Devils advocate ............

If its had an inline petrol engine in it did it start off as a factory diesel or has someone messed with it enough to swap out the WBX belohousing? Can you do anything wrong when swapping a belhousing or would it have no effect on the gearbox in genral (never taken one off so don't know what gets desturbed in the process).

axeman wrote:how would a golf engine compair to a wbx?

neil

A lot less torque...

syncropaddy wrote:

Aidan wrote:Just want to share with you the results of stripping Matt Flints gearbox
it's been noisy for a while and he's been putting off the day......
250,000Km
early 1985 build
oil changed at least twice in the last five and a bit years, with Redline
Matt also found a couple of loose ball bearings on the plug first time he oil changed it

and we found it was totally original, not previously rebuilt

backlash was a bit high but apart from 0.6mm of play in the pinion bearing and similar coming together between G gear and the RG synchro inner hub the box was in exceptionally good condition with very low wear on the synchro rings and needle bearings generally; one broken slider bearing (that's where the balls came from) and a worn selector fork, otherwise a good rebuildable core box, unlike the one he bought off Will, that came out of his sika, that wasn't half as good and had been rebuilt badly before, with no synchro ring at all on first gear

proves absolutely nothing apart from maybe life expectancy less than 250k km in a westy camper syncro in practice

Remember this .....

Re: Syncro gearbox lifespan

Post by syncropaddy » Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:24 pm

syncropaddy wrote:My box had 260,000kms up when I gave it to Aidan to refurb. He said it was in good condition and didn't really need doing at that time but I decided to do it anyway

and the oil had never been changed and my balls were in the right place .....

Devils advocate ............

explain why mine didnt do 250k then???

Nice fresh oil or 20 year old oil with bits of metal floating around in it....
hhmm, now let me think.

Goldschlager has bits of metal floating in it and I like that

gold is a real good lubricant, hic