My gearbox revision thread

[goldnsx]

Testfitting the gearbox (without sealant). Reverse gear needs special attention. You don't want to install it like in picture no. 2. For mounting it the mainshaft has to be pushed up about 5-10 mm. If you lift it up by the sleeve or the gear you can end up with a damaged synchro. It should be lifted up by the axle with the correct orientation of the pin in the lower section of the shaft to match the tranny case.



New ISB seal and release bearing guide.



Testing the gear selection. All fine.

[goldnsx]

Greasing the clutch. What do you think? Too much or too less?

[goldnsx]

Clutch disc orientation. There are white marks on the single discs. But also pink ones. Not sure what they are for. The SM says that the marks near the spring cages should be 180 degrees of each other. Installed like in this it looks like in pic no. 2. Correct?

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

The key for the greasing is to fill up the narrow internal recess/groove/channel of the release bearing with the Urea grease.
You can see the internal recess in the 1st photo of your post #42. There are plenty grease in there but doesn't look like filled up.
Makes difference after many miles.

The balance marking is the one on the torsion spring plate and it’s the one facing you when installed at the correct orientation.
In your photo, it’s the white one on both discs.
In your 2nd photo, because you pre-installed the two friction discs on the main shaft, can’t see the white marking (they are facing towards the trans case side) but please set them with 180deg offset between the two discs.
You can’t see the pink ones once mid plate is installed any way.

Please align the triangle markers on the flywheel/mid/pressure plate.

I like your new release bearing guide.
Must item to be replaced for my CL service.
Even tiny amount of rust or wear could cause friction resulting in uncomfortable CL pedal feeling or not smooth sliding movement of the release bearing.

Kaz

[goldnsx]

Thanks for your extended reply, Kaz.

The new release bearing guide is very nice indeed. I've checked the diameter and the old one. It was still the same size (+-0.01 mm), even though it had grooves from wear in it. Just remember that it had 190k km on it. The clutch pedal was still smooth and light.

Dust must have contributed to the wear on the tranny side of the release bearing guide. I think I'll give it a little bit more grease there to prevent it but I'm not sure it that's a good idea (grease attracts dust). You can see that in the picture above. But in that location the grease will not find it's way onto the clutchdiscs anyway.

I'll recheck and repack the grease in the release bearing groove.

I wondered if the offset of 180 degrees has to do with the orientation of the springs of the clutch discs but it doesn't seem to depend on. In the pic above they are installed with an offset of 180 degrees and the springs are not parallel. Anyway, if it should be 180 and someone in the factory took his time to set the marks I'll trust them.

Tomorrow I'll install the clutch and prepare the gearbox for the reattachment on the engine. That's the next (and last) difficult task.

One last question: should I initialize the mid plate of the clutch before or after the installation of the gearbox? Is there a chance that it will move again while mounting (forcing) on the gearbox to the engine?

[austrian type-r]

nice write up. You cant initialize the clutch when the transmission is mounted.#

btw: was it easy to remove the intermediate shaft from the bracket? This is usualy a pain! IMO the design here could be better. Too bad the shaft with bracket can't get removed when the tranny is mounted. I always keep the shaft and bracket together and I remove it when I pull off the tranny from the engine. I pull out the engine anytime, even when just the clutch has to get changed, cause if this is the case, usualy more service has to be done anyway to the engine. Pulling out the whole power-train is not much more time consuming compared to just removing the tranny from the engine when all is installed in the car. I can not imaging people doing valve adjustment and timing-belt service when the engine is in the car.

[goldnsx]

I've mounted the clutch today. Thanks to ATR, I'm going to initialize the clutch before mounting the tranny.



It was not a perfect day. I just wanted to place the tranny under the car but then decided to mount it. Please guess what I've forgotten...



Anyway, one problem was that the gearbox stood at the front engine mounting. I think I'm going to support the engine and loose the front engine mounting more. I'm exhausted for now and will give it a try in two days I think.

ATR, intermediate shaft

I had no problems removing the intermediate shaft from the bracket, not now and not about 8 years ago. But I've used grease on the contact area back then.
I'll second your opinion about having the unit out of the car. You have a fully equipped workshop but I have to use the tools that are available to me. A motivation to try it was when I saw here on the forum that people have done it in a similar scenario. Guess what I'm planning for next year? TB with the engine IN the car. Yes, I know I always said...I'll have a deeper look at it and might give it a try. It's much simpler than gearbox internals...

Greasing the release bearing

One note to the remark of Kaz that the groove in the release bearing is not completey full of grease. When I put grease in there it was and looked full. But if you mount it over the guide once the grease 'works it's way' and that's how it's going to look like in the release bearing guide when you take it off the guide.

Time for a break for me...

[austrian type-r]

Don't know what you forgot, but maybe the shift fork?! *g*

[Pride]

I've mounted the clutch today. Thanks to ATR, I'm going to initialize the clutch before mounting the tranny.

Greasing the release bearing

One note to the remark of Kaz that the groove in the release bearing is not completey full of grease. When I put grease in there it was and looked full. But if you mount it over the guide once the grease 'works it's way' and that's how it's going to look like in the release bearing guide when you take it off the guide.

Time for a break for me...

Hi goldnsx, sorry to see you had a tough day but so far your repair thread looks amazing, you're obviously a competent automotive engineer/mechanic.

I'm just about to replace my complete clutch assy including new fork, release bearing and its guide shaft.
How much urea grease did you manage to put into the release bearing groove before you felt it was a sufficient amount???

Also what do you mean by "initialise" the clutch before mounting the transmission???

Cheers.

[austrian type-r]

Also what do you mean by "initialise" the clutch before mounting the transmission???
Cheers.

That means you need to adjust the clutch so there is equal play for each friction disc. If you don't do it, you have more wear on one disc. Another probelm could be that the clutch will not floating free when the pedal is not pressed, so you will not be able to shift. It is a must to initialize the oem clutch.