Gear Box woes.

[Peter Jones]

Driving about today the MK1 stuck in 3rd gear. It was wedged in there solid. After pulling over and driving on for bit I could get 1,2,3 5 &R. 4th is completley out of the question. 1&2 take some convincing. 2>3 is an easy shift. R is difficult.

It's a bit dark and cold to do too much tonight.

A quick inspection shows all the linkages that I can see in the engine bay are ok. The engine mounts look OK too.

I suspect the shift forks in the box. Things just don't feel right between the gears. There were some noises too but those seem to have stopped.

Any thoughts anyone?

MK1 5 speed box (the tall ratio kind)

CHeers
Pete Jones

[gtimk5]

Wouldn't have a stray speedo drive gear in there, would it? I have seen that before.

[imported_brackie]

Dirty hands

Good to see you back on the forum again, Peter. Looks like you're about to get your hands dirty. Probably not a good time to ask you about cutting some stickers

If the linkages are OK then unless Andrew's suggestion is the cause (and you'll knoe 'cos the speedo won't work!), it looks like selector forks.

[Golf Loon]

Yup Hoorah for Pete Jones, nice to have you back from the wilderness mate.

I`ve got a couple of gearboxes that I can zip down to you if it gets too messy

[Peter Jones]

I'm still here. Work been insane; they sent me to the US for a little while so I've been out of the loop. Before that we were flat out with the Commonwealth games.I've also got a beetle on the go so I've been trying to track down bits for that. The RC car club has been keeping me busy too. www.brccc.org

Traffic was pretty heavy so I didn't need to change gears too much on the way home.

I don't recall if the speedo was working, I'll pull the drive and check it out.



All in all a very busy time the last few months! Not a weekend free to play with the golfs.

I'll take the linkages off the box and try shifting it directly to eliminate the linkages form the equation.

I think a friend has a 5speed box down here I can use or just rat for bits.

I hope I can salvage this box apart from a diff whine it's been pretty good.

Are the shift forks a common breakage?

Do you mind stickers with greasy finger prints?

I think I'm in for a dirty weekend!

Pete Jones

[Golf Loon]

We love greasy stickers

Usually the self machining rivets inside those boxes, not the shift forks, but you never know.

Go the dirty weekend!

[Peter Jones]

The box is out. Took me 4 hours.. there were many "challenges" to overcome. There's nothing obvious and I can't get the main cover off 'cos I don't have te tools to get 5th gear off the end off the mainshaft. So it's off to my tame mechanic on Monday!


Meanwhile my other golf has been running way too hot. I suspect a blocked radiator but I was concerned about the head gasket too so I've just pulled that off and it all looks Ok. So tomorow it's back on with the head and swap the radiator over with golf number one. That way I can get the radiator looked at at the same time I get the box fixed, might as well drop off the heater core too.

Pete

[gldgti]

thats organisation...

respect mate

[Peter Jones]

Job's done, just beat the rain. I was moving a bit slower today! I think I spent about 50% of my time looking for tools, 30% looking for things I dropped and about 20% was the actual work!

No surprises, no left overs and it fired up on the first crank!

Next stop gearbox and radiator doctor!

Watch this space!

Pete Jones

[Golfwise]

Thermostats are the Golfs worst enemy.
Always look there first

[Peter Jones]

Yep the thermostat was stuffed but completley removing it didn't help.

Next step water pump! Perhaps the impellor has fallen off????

I picked up a brand new pump cheap on ebay last week so in it goes!

If that doesn't fix it I don't really know what else to do....My pet mechanic tells migh it may still be a cylinder head issue despite the head looking to be straight and sound.

Even very short trips of 5km/5min send the temp off the gauge and yes there is coolant in there!

(Despite this the heater has never worked and it's bloody freezing inside the car. I think I might have to cut some holes in the firewall to use some of that excess heat!)

Dropped the box radiator and heater core off this morning. hopefully I'll know soon what's up with the box.

Pete Jones

[Golf Loon]

Is the gague working properly? Is the engine actually overheating?
Compression test?

[Peter Jones]

I'm going to change the sender to be sure but the fan is kicking in at the right point on the scale so I'm fairly that's not it.

I'm wondering now if that steel tube that carries water from the back of the motor back to the pump isn't blocked with rust. That would explain the heater issue too. Because the sender is passed by the water going to this pipe perhaps it's just a local hotspot. Although the expansion tank fills the radiator ok.


Pete

[Golf Loon]

Take the waterpump and the metal hose off I reckon mate.

[worm]

Keep the updates comming, I am really keen to know the outcome..... My heater doesnt work either and my car runs hot enough for the fan to be on almost all the time and its freezing outside