Transmission / gearbox problem. What is the right replacement?

[art-b]

I have a 1981 Scirocco mk2 GTi. Yesterday was driving on a motorway and suddenly lost torque in 5th gear and it made a ungodly sound not unlike the sound it makes when I've not managed to get the reverse gear on. Now all other gears work fine. I think that the first two are making a slight rattling noise, but I might just be paranoid.

Any ideas what might cause the problem?

If I have to get a replacement gearbox what is the right one? I've searched on google and found a few tables, but I'm still unsure what the right one is. From here http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/index.php?page= ... misc&id=25 (golf gear boxes) I would guess that the right one would be either FM, FD, FK (Close ratio but unsure of the year) or 2H (close ratio GTi, but the year is wrong).

Any help in identifying a replacement is greatly appreciated. Also hints for where to source the replacement would be wonderful. I like in Finland.

best,

Artturi

[mark1gls]

Another good guide to gearboxes.
http://brokevw.com/

Flanges can be swopped over if you do get a gearbox with different size to your drive shaft as it's worth replacing the flange seals while the box is out and looking at the input shaft seal as well.
Have you checked the gearbox oil level and how old is the oil but if you have lots of noise you may be to late but may be worth checking an topping up to see if it helps?

You can see the gearbox code stamped in to the bottom of the gearbox to see what you have fitted.

Gearbox code here.

[art-b]

Great, thanks for your reply mark1gls!

I haven't checked the oil levels in the gearbox and actually have no idea how old they are. I'm a little bit in a bind with the oil since I'm on a road trip and would have to continue forwards on tomorrow Sunday before the repair shops open.
I'll check the code from under once it stops raining! On a Finnish VW-forum one user suggested that the problem might have been that the lock-ring for the gear broke (not sure if it's actually called the lock-ring, but anyways the thing that keeps the gearwheel in place). This would have sent the cogs in the gearwheel flying all over the box. Does this sound like a reasonable guess as to what happened?

If this is indeed the case (or actually any other for example burned 5th gear (http://www.brokevw.com/0205thdamage.html)), would you think I would do further damage by driving the car with the gears that are still working about 150 miles? I'm currently on a road trip in Estonia and have about that much to drive to the ferry the get back home to Helsinki. It would be much easier to figure the repairs out there.

That link seems to have tons of info. Thanks for sharing it.

[art-b]

Found the code: it's FK29091, so I think that means that it is model FK manufactured in September 29 1981.

[mark1gls]

I see your problem with the gearbox, not being an expert on gearbox as not had any problems with mine other than swooping them over I don't know what to advice but if it was me.... to rebuild a gearbox is expensive and requires specialist tools you can pick up a good 2nd hand gearbox for £100 and you may be lucky and find a good one for a lot less.
Don't know about driving and damage????

[bengould]

As far as driving with it as is. It really depends how many broken bits there are, how big they are, and where in the gearbox they have ended up.

It is probably safe to assume your gearbox is dead and will end up being replaced, so with that in mind you have 3 options, drive it and see what happens,find a gearbox locally, or get the car recovered back home.

If it was me, bearing in mind that your box is probably internally damaged already and needing to be replaced, I would just go for it. The worst that could happen is that it picks up a broken bit of gear and fires it through the case or kills some more gears, in which case phone recovery and get taken home.

Ben.

[art-b]

Thanks for all the info and suggestions. I ended up leaving the car here since I realized that it's way cheaper to do the repairs here. I'll come back and pick up the car later. I'll get a quote for the rebuild and if it is prohibitively expensive, then I will get a replacement box. My car is in the historic car register (or museum reg.) and I would like to keep it as original as possible.

[art-b]

Just a small update. The garage where I left the car to worked on sent me a message. According to them the gearbox is not broken, but the bushing from the stick is gone and needs to be replaced. What is your opinion, can worn out bushing cause the 5th gear to stop working and the loud rattling sound?

[the edmundator]

Yes.

[Village Idiots]

That's good news: going to be a lot cheaper!

[mark1gls]

Worn bushes are a common problem and easy to replace, worth getting them replaced and go from there.

[art-b]

A final update:

So the garage did some more digging and decided that it was nut just the bushing that was gone. Because of the language barrier I wasn't really sure what they thought was broken. Anyway they took a gearbox from a 1.8 Golf from 96 (gearboxcode DFN 18126 3 14). I think the ratios are close to what my original box had.

Do you think this box is ok for the time being? I took the old box with me and was wondering what should I look for in it to diagnose how it's broken?