Date: Sat, 2 May 2015 09:29:35 -0400
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: How hard is it to rebuild a transmission?
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEu+ZOr2hVneFeE8PV1E0WKUCpkqWiR6bQQNahj9VLrEDVA@mail.gmail.com>
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I would say that yes you can rebuild the late vanagon transaxles. You will need to at least purchase the socket for the pinion nut and fabricate something for the axle bearing end nuts. You will need a 10-20 ton press for some operations. You will find that most of the cost of rebuilding these is in the parts. If the ring and pinion has been whining and you kept driving most likely it will need to be replaced. They set replaced as a set. As yours is a five speed, in 4th gear push the shifter forward lightly and work the throttle accelerating and decelerating alternatively. If you feel the shifter moving with engine power the gear carrier housing is shot and you will need machine work or a replacement to take care of that. Your 5th driven gear our 4th) is known to break at the hub so that should be replaced and I recommend replacing the complete 4-5 (our 3-4) slider hub assembly. Synchronizers I always replace 2nd gear (your 3rd) and the others as needed.
If you need to change the ring and pinion set or the main housing you will need to re-set the pinion position. Like the engine cases the transmission case is a consumable. Without the VW special stuff you can do this using transfer dye to set the gear mesh. This takes skill. Critical hardware such as ring gear bolts and the pinion nut should be replaced. The Bentley gives some good information on doing this job.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Don Hanson
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 9:46 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: How hard is it to rebuild a transmission?
...I know, a subjective question, but is it possible for a home mechanic to rebuild a manual Vanagon transmission with only the normal
tools in the average home shop?... Is there anything in the rebuild
process that takes huge expensive machines or VW Special tools that one couldn't 'make' at home?
My poor old 84 with it's inline Jetta motor and 5speed trans, it's in need of some rather pricey maintenance on things that are being 'used-up'....While there are no operational problems, it is whining a little louder as the years pass and the miles accumulate...it's coming on time that I can no longer defer taking action, but I simply do not have a
few grand to spare to send this work out right now. I'm trying to get an
idea if I can do some study and then tackle the job on my own...