rebuilding a gearbox yourself

[z3i]

Well i need my box rebuilt, and looked through a few guides on here and think i could do it
i found a rebuilt kit for the 085 boxes and all the seals and bearings came to £120 ish which is pretty cheap!
im still unsure if i want a diff or not as its alot of money, hopefully i can get one off here for decent price
my question is i have loads of play in the gearstick like you know if its neutral you can push it left and right and it returns to the centre? Mine doesnt, it has resistance one side but not the other, its just floppy like stiring soup
ive changed all the linkeages and still does it, someone told me its a part inside the box
could someone enlighten me? I cant find any rebuild parts for the selector rod, what is actually going on in there? Has anyone had that bit apart?
many thanks taylor

[JoeH]

I don't know much, but I had my gearbox rebuilt and the left/right movement on gear stick in neutral got its springness back.
I understand there are return springs inside the gearbox, that a good rebuilders will/should replace...

[z3i]

I don't know much, but I had my gearbox rebuilt and the left/right movement on gear stick in neutral got its springness back.
I understand there are return springs inside the gearbox, that a good rebuilders will/should replace...

if thats the case i may get someone to do mine, where did you get it done?

[JoeH]

I'm down in Devon, if you want details pm me, but TBH I would just go with a local gearbox rebuilder who is respected locally. That is what I did. Its only a polo gearbox after all, you just want an honest company who will replace ALL the bearings seals etc.

[JoeH]

Be prepared to pay at least £300 and possibly/probably more...

[hayesey]

yes the springs are inside the gearbox that make the stick return to center.

If all you want to do is to replace the bearings, seals and those springs then it's not hard to do it yourself.  It's if you want to start stripping down the shafts to replace actual gears or synchros that it really requires tools you aren't likely to have and some experience. 

I did an FAQ guide to doing the diff bearings, it's not especially hard.  To do the gear shaft bearings you'll need to remove 5th gear and then pull out the shift mechanism and the gear shafts.  It's certainly DIY'able (I've done it for example).  Just take care to note how everything fits together (particularly the shift fingers as they are a bit like a 3D jigsaw). 

When you open the box up you'll see the springs that make the gear stick return to centre, easy to replace.

If you are buying bearings from somewhere other than VW, be careful that you are buying quality parts as cheap bearings can be awful quality and wont last (watch out for chinese-made knock off ones too, don't buy them off ebay )

[z3i]

thanks for that, i was gonna buy ebay ones, but will go to vw now
and yeah just read your guide, looks spot on! Though i dont understand all this setting up the end float
i got quoted today £500 from a local place to replace the bearings and seals, seems dam expensive!!!
Is it any harder to do than rebuilding a supercharger as ive done that
thanks for that info on the springs for the selector shaft mate cheers

[hayesey]

yeah, don't buy bearings from ebay.

VW will be expensive, give GSF or Euro Car Parts a try, just look for decent make ones like FAG or SKF etc...

Getting the preload set correctly is pretty important so give it another read till you understand it.

Haynes do (or did at least, not sure if it's still in print) a gearbox rebuild manual which has a section on the VW 084 gearbox which is the 4-speed version.  It's very useful.  It'd be worth getting your hands on that if you can.

[z3i]

Ok mate, thanks for the advice, still debating whether to do it myself, really dont want to brake it

[GR40]

This will probably fix the play in the gear selector.
http://www.polog40.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5428.0

and these are what u probably need to replace

[z3i]

This will probably fix the play in the gear selector.
http://www.polog40.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5428.0

and these are what u probably need to replace

thanks for the help, but its inside the gearbox as hayesey says, the little spring bits, ive replaced both those parts you have posted
thanks

[hayesey]

You're very unlikely to break anything.  I'd just give it a go.  At very least you could crack it open and replace those springs.

[z3i]

You're very unlikely to break anything.  I'd just give it a go.  At very least you could crack it open and replace those springs.

ok lol, ill give it a go, you may get an inbox full of messages if i get stuck haha
thanks for your help mate hopefully getting the box off this weekend

[z3i]

Was looking around and found this, what do you think?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171015208053?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648

phoned gsf and they wont give me trade discount anymore as we dont order enough stuff, skf bearings are bang on, what about the other ones?

that seems dam cheap

thanks in advance

[hayesey]

I would just avoid ebay at all costs for these things.  There's a chance that what you get wont be the same brands as the picture.  Then there's another chance that they will look like decent brands but actually be counterfeit.  Ebay is full of counterfeit parts, there's also a lot of counterfeit computer parts, flash memory drives etc,.. on there.  Same goes for Amazon.

If it seems to cheap to be true, it wont be true!