paper gasket gets damaged very quickly from thrust of helical gears, bearing is left unsupported by the nose-cone and starts moving back and forth wearing off intermediate housing and them hammering nose-cone further. Most common damage on those gearboxes.
The nose cone will still be damaged if you delete the gasket; it’s better to use a thrust plate. https://weddleindustries.com/products/1000292/1002215
without the gasket it survives much longer since bearing its clamped and not having small gap to hammer away the nosecone and wear off bearing bore
Understand that the nosecone gets stressed (both of mine showed signs of the typical cracks), but I can’t see how deleting the gasket is going to change things. It’s constant pressure, rather than hammering. A steel reinforcing plate, as @77 Westy suggests, is a much better idea.
you are wrong, every time you lift off foot from gas or going downhill mainshaft is sucked back. But suit yourself.
Agreed, but doesn’t preloading the bearing, if that is what deleting the gasket does, just delay the inevitable? The problem is the nose cone is too soft.
well, if you put gasket you will start hammering nosecone in less then 10k miles - and it gets bad quick because there is space for bearing to move. without gasket bearing is clamped and immobilized thats the purpose of the round bit in the nosecone (that is defeated by the paper gasket that designates instantly) - and last significantly longer - so like i said suit yourself.
and thrust plate is good idea anyway. I use them always, but if you have a nosecone off dont put that paper back there.
And of course the more hp you have the faster off lights you go (pay attention scooby fanboys) the more you hammer and wear off your bearing bore and nosecone.
Do you know anywhere that sells the thrust plate in the UK? I’ve not looked very hard but my gearbox has 190k kms on it and still has the gasket that VW installed so perhaps I should. No need to keep saying “suit yourself”.
I say that because there is general resistance on here to good advice. dont know why I even bother. and I get them from weedle. 190k have you had the box apart to see how much wear there is ? also the plate is a good idea but it wont magically fix your gearbox. its more preventative then fix
I don’t think that’s true, but most people want to know why, not a simple “Your gearbox would be much better off without this gasket.” But we got there in the end, thanks. As far as I know the box has never been apart but I’ve only had the bus for 10 years. I do know it’s had at least four engines and is about to get a fifth, not a Scooby but a 2316cc type 4 with plenty of low down grunt.
@Mark Darby Sorry to hijack your thread and go off at a tangent somewhat. Do you have a bit of kit that could cut a gearbox thrust plate out of 1mm thick steel?
