I was tempted to do mine in white to match the body but chickened out and went with the standard black
The only reason I did my gearbox flange lip seal was that the drive shaft cup was noticeably wobbly and it had sprayed what seemed like a mass of oil (about 50ml..) . Changed the seal and knocked the cookie cutter ring in about 3mm past the mark I made before taking it off. Wobble gone, leak gone. Basically the recon on the gearbox or wear had left it a bit loose so all I did was tightened it down a fraction on the premise either its fubar and I cant make it much worse and I will need a new gearbox anyway .. or I can tighten it up a fraction and fix it.
Tightening diff bearing housing like that is asking for trouble, it controls bearing preload and pinion mesh depth. Those must be set correctly and precisely. Very often the little movement of the flange is a result of loose splines rather than loose bearings. So by doing that you might have accelerated damage to you gearbox...
I agree one should not be messing with the adjustment of the two roller bearings in the diff output. My attitude to taking risk was if its knackered then this can only make it worse or fix it. And as the drive shaft was visibly slapping around with about .5mm play something had to be done. If I remember right the cup was still tight on the splines. A quick tap with a screwdriver and maybe another £650 or a definite replacement for £650. This gearbox has alway been whiny and noisier than the box my bus had when purchased in 2010 ... but that one lost third gear after managing to climb out of Lyme Regis it failed to climb a hill near my house en route to the post holiday chippy run. That hill I can drive easily in 4th at 30mph. This newer box has done 50 k miles and at least 20k since the subtle tightening.
Flange may seem to be tight but if you can take it off and put it back with your hands it will wobble just as you described. Over tightening the bearing will result in bearing overheating and potentially collapsing all together and changing the R&P mesh will most likely pit the surface of the teeth making it a expensive rebuild since you will need new R&P. There is no need to spend £650 on rebuild. I could do a budget rebuild (as long you didn't shag your R&P)
That actually looks fine - just marks from the clamping bolt. It's wear on the hockey stick shaft or bushes that causes wobble.
That's good to know. I'll delete my wanted post lol Should it slide out easily. I'm having a right game getting it past the inner bush. Do I need to smooth the marks out first. There's also a lip on the nose cone which I need to sort.
Came out a treat. Also removed the inner bush. Just the lip to sort out. I hear a flat surface and some sand paper should sort it. Open to suggestions though.
that looks like well over 1mm wear, so you have a problem. you could fly cut the nosecone, its better then not but bearing bore is loose. it also indicates high mileage so could have more issues too.
I'll pop down to my local machine shop on Tuesday and see what they think. Gearbox seemed fine other than a few leaks.
Of course the other trick is tapping the gouges with a ball pein hammer - it flattens out the damage without removing metal. Then go with the file. Mine got very chewed in an effort to change the bushing without removing the gearbox. This is impossible. But the ball pein hammer meant I did not have to file down the hockey stick.
Made some good progress today Got the nose cone back today the chap at bears fitted some genuine vw bushes as the ones from machine 7 were crap. Hopefully get it refitted tomorrow along with the final drive seals. Bit of a leak to sort on the engine case. Inlets media blasted and painted, have come up great. Shift rod aldso blasted and painted. Going to wire brush this lot tomorrow hopefully!! And give it a coat of rust treatment. Also fitted some new fuel breathers and a replacement filler neck.
Got the shift rod fitted today managed to re use one of the shuttle cocks which were wedged in the tube. The aftermarket one I had was a bit crap so I managed to modify it with my soldering iron. Was worried it was going to fall of the lug so cut a spare one down and attached it on. Lubed it up and it fitted a treat
not sure if this has been mentioned, but what about changing the oil cooler seals ? ideal time to do them, I'm just about to drop my engine to investigate an oil leak from behind the tinware in that general location !
Oil cooler seals changed. Having a few issues lining the engine and box back up. Got there in the end but the hockey stick won't fit inside my new coupling. Looks like it's all coming down again
