Dauntless
15+ Year Contributor
- 101
- 0
- Feb 18, 2004
-
SF Bay Area,
California
My '93 TSi FWD recently began exhibiting the dreaded 5th gear complex, where it makes noise and sometimes pops out of gear, so after reading this thread and reviewing the VFaq, I decided it was time to take action. I couldn't find anything that illustrated (with pics) how to perform the nut tightening exercise, so decided to document what I did to illustrate how easy it is. It took me about an hour of easy work to do it. I hope you find this thread useful. Please feel free to chime in with comments, corrections, or suggestions. 
First I gathered all the tools I needed and 2 quarts of fresh gear oil, then jacked up the car and removed the right front tire. I was then staring at the inner fender liner, as you see in this photo:
This piece of plastic is attached with 5 or 6 12mm bolts and a phillips screw. A 6" extension is usefull for getting at the bolt heads without busting your knuckles. Remove it and set it aside. You are now looking at the end of the gearbox, like this:
I removed the fill plug (17mm) and then drained out the tranny fluid (24mm), then removed the seven 12mm bolts that hold on the end cap. Note that the two bottom bolts are longer than the others, and will need to go back in these holes. There was no gasket on my gearbox, so I tapped it a couple of times with a rubber mallet, and it popped right off, leaving me looking at this:
Experienced readers will note that the outer syncro and wave lock are missing. They came off with the cap, but were in there. Notice that the top nut (the one that normally comes loose) is slightly ground down. This nut was not even finger tight when I opened the box. It was completely loose, and had been wearing against the retaining plate. When I pulled the outer syncro off its retainer, it was banged up pretty good, with each engagement dog looking like this:
I heated it with a torch and hammered it flat (NOT recommended!
) before reinstalling. The syncro wouldn't stay in the gear cluster like it should, so I got it to stick in place by coating it with a thin layer of CV grease. I then torqued the 36mm nut to 109 ft-lbs and repeened it into place. I also cleaned off the threads and put a few drops of lok-tite on them to preclude the nut backing off again. Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. There is no gasket for the end cap, so I used high-temp red RTV gasket maker. It seems to be working well. To finish up I added 2.2 quarts of fresh gear oil to fill the 'box.
A few notes:
This is a temp fix in my case. The car drives fine, but I can hear a buzzing from the box in all gears, but no vibration in any of them. I presume the sound is from the bad syncro, which did not perfectly fit back into place. If that is all that's wrong, I guess I could just buy another syncro and install it. If the gearbox continues to have issues, I will have to face buying a junkyard box or having mine rebuild. Decisions, decisions.
First I gathered all the tools I needed and 2 quarts of fresh gear oil, then jacked up the car and removed the right front tire. I was then staring at the inner fender liner, as you see in this photo:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
This piece of plastic is attached with 5 or 6 12mm bolts and a phillips screw. A 6" extension is usefull for getting at the bolt heads without busting your knuckles. Remove it and set it aside. You are now looking at the end of the gearbox, like this:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
I removed the fill plug (17mm) and then drained out the tranny fluid (24mm), then removed the seven 12mm bolts that hold on the end cap. Note that the two bottom bolts are longer than the others, and will need to go back in these holes. There was no gasket on my gearbox, so I tapped it a couple of times with a rubber mallet, and it popped right off, leaving me looking at this:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Experienced readers will note that the outer syncro and wave lock are missing. They came off with the cap, but were in there. Notice that the top nut (the one that normally comes loose) is slightly ground down. This nut was not even finger tight when I opened the box. It was completely loose, and had been wearing against the retaining plate. When I pulled the outer syncro off its retainer, it was banged up pretty good, with each engagement dog looking like this:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
I heated it with a torch and hammered it flat (NOT recommended!
) before reinstalling. The syncro wouldn't stay in the gear cluster like it should, so I got it to stick in place by coating it with a thin layer of CV grease. I then torqued the 36mm nut to 109 ft-lbs and repeened it into place. I also cleaned off the threads and put a few drops of lok-tite on them to preclude the nut backing off again. Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. There is no gasket for the end cap, so I used high-temp red RTV gasket maker. It seems to be working well. To finish up I added 2.2 quarts of fresh gear oil to fill the 'box.A few notes:
This is a temp fix in my case. The car drives fine, but I can hear a buzzing from the box in all gears, but no vibration in any of them. I presume the sound is from the bad syncro, which did not perfectly fit back into place. If that is all that's wrong, I guess I could just buy another syncro and install it. If the gearbox continues to have issues, I will have to face buying a junkyard box or having mine rebuild. Decisions, decisions.
