Ok This is Messed up....

[dherron]

Ok Here is how the story goes. For the longest time my car would grind into 5th gear. Obviously I thought immediately it was the syncro. Well was I ever wrong. It led to big and not so better things.
I pulled out of my friends driveway in reverse and as soon as i put it into 1st i heard a sound i never heard before. (never a good thing) so i went down the road about 35mph and i started to hear things falling from my car and rolling down the road behind me. Come to find out when i got home it was my Fifth gear and syncro. now i know this is not suppose to happen.
So being a mechanic I took the side housing off the tranny and found that mysteriously the nut that has been on my transmission for 220,000 miles backed off all by itself. Every thing else was in clean order.
So my real question here is, Has this happened to anyone else? And also if anyone would have a junk 1g fwd transmission, Manual of course, would you consider selling your side case and 5th gear, syncro, and shift fork? Thanks bro's

 

[Masochist]

...So being a mechanic I took the side housing off the tranny and found that mysteriously the nut that has been on my transmission for 220,000 miles backed off all by itself. Every thing else was in clean order.
So my real question here is, Has this happened to anyone else?

This nut that fell off, was it the top 36mm nut? If so it has happened to others as it is covered on the VFAQ page.

On a side note, sorry man but I laughed out loud when I read your line about hearing parts rolling down the street behind you. Don't mean to laugh at your demise but the visual was great.

 

[dherron]

well thanks and ya it is kind of a funny visual and i was laughing when it happened just because i know these cars are the way they are. And I am not sure that nut was that big but yes it was the top one. Thanks and good luck with your dsm haha we all need it

 

[Defiant]

So my real question here is, Has this happened to anyone else?

Yup.
http://www.geocities.com/qwik93awd/Vfaq/shifter.htm

Helpful hint: when you hear a noise,
DO NOT KEEP DRIVING.

 

[forGEE63]

I just had almost the same thing happen to me yesterday. (95 tsi fwd, trans has never had any shifting problems ever) I reversed out of a driveway, and than all of a sudden a strange noise, i thought i might have ran somthing over, so i put it into 1st (no problem) began driving, shifted into 2nd (no problem) and than into 3rd which was hard to put in, but didnt grind (which is abnormal) and there was a whineing sound in 3rd. I came to a stop sign, and i put the clutch in, shifted from 1st - 5th, finding 3rd, 4th, and 5th all hard to put into gear, but none grinded going in. No strange noises when driving EXCEPT in 3rd gear, it makes a whining sound when crusing. When i got home, i figured that i should try reverse again, because that is when the problem occured. When i put it into reverse, it went in, but again hard to put in, but didnt grind. When i started letting the clutch out, a terrible grinding noise came from the trans, and would not move. I have not tried driving it since. Any suggestions?

Brian.