JP Race - gearbox rebuild

[jez1272gt]

Hi there guys. After deciding that i dont have the time or probably the patience to fully rebuild my g gearbox with my Quaife diff i have decided to give the task to someone else. I am not far from JP Race and have heard mainly good things from everyone that has taken their cog box to them, but from reading the company review on here i was wondering if anyone had had any experiance with jp race recently? I want the job done properly and i would rather go somewhere that wants to do the job like they care (as anyone would)!

If anyone has any input i would be interested to hear from them...

Thanks

Jez

[Max]

Top blokes at JP Race, they know their stuff.

They rebuilt my 'box and fitted my LSD last year.

Highly recommended.

[hayesey]

hmm, heard plenty of bad things too to be honest.

The LSD that was fitted to yoofs box, the driveshaft flanges kept coming out meaning it barfed all the oil out in the road on several occasions.

We took the diff apart at my house as I have a fair few spare gearbox parts knocking about in my gearbox graveyard.

JP had made up some new driveshaft flange nuts for some reason which would be OK except they were shit and made from far too soft metal and the bolts kept pulling out.  Simply replaced these with the much harder nuts from a normal standard open diff and he's not had any issues since.  I have also heard of at least two other people who have had similar issues too.  Plus the box that Andy Strange had done at jp has only last a couple of thousand miles before going rather rattly and noisey so he's not too impressed either.

[Yoof]

The layshaft in my spare ATV also rattles, after a couple of thousand miles after a full £300+ rebuild at JP.

Not massively impressed to be honest. Rather DIY now.

[jez1272gt]

Thanks for the replies guys... exactly what i wanted to know, mucho appreciated!

From the sounds of things i wont be giving JP Race a toffee box let alone my ATV from those reports. A few thousand miles is shocking from a professional outfit and Yoof's diff problems sound like something else. They have obviously employed a monkey or two! Shame cos they used to have a really good rep as well..

If you want a job doing properly - DO IT YOURSELF!! Looks like that will be what im doing then... I cant say i have ever pulled a Polo box apart so it could be interesting!

I dont supose anyone has a list of parts (and/or part numbers - would be good  ) for everything needed to rebuild an ATV? If not dont worry as i will have to have a look on ETKA when i have a moment..

DIY here we come

Thanks again

[hayesey]

I would prob want to get it done professionally really. Might be worth talking to a local garage who you know are good and see if you can find out who they send gearboxes away to for repair.  My mate who is an MOT tester uses a local company called Tameside Transmissions (in Tameside funnily enough....) and says they are good.  It's not like a G40 gearbox is anything special so any decent gearbox rebuilder should be able to do a good job on it. 

If you want to DIY it then get hold of a copy of the Haynes Gearbox Rebuilding manual as this specifically covers 084 gearboxes (the 4 speed version of the 085 as used on g40s but similar enough).  Make sure you have a decent set of gear pullers and a DTI gauge with magnetic base stand for setting bearing preloads.  Have a read of my diff bearing FAQ on this site first as setting the preloads on the input & layshaft bearings will be the same process too. 

[jez1272gt]

Yeah i am in two minds about it really. Just unsure of wether to get it done professionally or do it myself. I want it to go to someone reliable if i send it off but should really do it myself. Its not like i havent stripped a couple of gearboxes for rebuild in the past, and i helped build a few Quaife boxes in my time there.

What i dont want to do is commit more of the 'very little time' im finding to work on the car, with stripping/building the gearbox and then not finish doing it for weeks..

Food for thought over the next few days..

How easy is it to aquire the parts for a rebuild? VW dealer or are they obselete now?

Any info along these lines would be very helpfull..

Cheers

[hayesey]

parts are all available from VW yeah.  At a minimum you'll be wanting 2x diff bearings, 4x shaft bearings, 2x diff oil seals, 1x input shaft seal, 1x selector rod seal kit.  Then whatever else needs replacing, I guess the synchro ring on 2nd gear is likely to need doing!

[supercharged spaniel]

Well ihad mine done at jp and although it seems they did a reasonable job as ivedoneover 3 k miles more like 20k it was there attitude, proper grumpy old twats.  They were especially so when I rang them to ask about the selector rod bush and why it was leaking to be told in a not so good attitude ' well you never said change it' well why would I? Your the gearbox specialists! Anyway ihadto drop all the oil back out I'd put in, and replace the bush (they only replace the seal). So mixed views really. Alright I suppose but bad attitude!

[jez1272gt]

Thanks for that Super'Span. Yeah to be honest i would rather not give my gearbox to someone who might not do the job properly and they also sound a little moody which is never that promising! Think im gonna brave it, we shall see..

[Dan]

Why not try Competetion Transmission Services. Looking at the website and speaking to them once, their attitude would seem better.

[polo dan]

only another moan about jp race . renegade rob had his done their and that spat a flange out after 40 odd miles and has had rattly lay shaft and an odd clicky noise on lock , box was always fine before the diff went in and it had to put up with 200+ bhp . their atitude is not good either 

[hayesey]

yeah I remember rob saying about that. it'll be the same thing as yoof's was no doubt.  I've no idea why JP goes to the effort of making crappy new flange centre bolts when the ones you can just pop out of the stock diff are far, far better (in as much as they actually work).  Perhaps they just don't know you can remove them?  The centres of the gears in the gripper diffs are clearly machined to accept the standard bolts.

It's fair enough to say that a gearbox with a plate diff in it has a harder life than one with an open diff in though?

[Nick_S]

Are these the bits that fail from JP in your photo?

[hayesey]

well that's a photo of me putting the normal stock ones into my diff yes.  JP make their own version from too soft metal for some reason.