jim21070 2 Posted August 4, 2007 For a long while now my GTi has suffered from duff synchromnesh on 3rd and 4th gear. I've got to strip and rebuild my gearbox but having never done it before I wanted to practice on a scrap 'box first. Jackherer very kindly gave me such a box and on the weblink below is the fruit of my efforts in stripping a BE3 gearbox and documenting, with pictures, how to do it. I have developed a way around some problems which may horrify Miles and Co. I have posted it on my own website and please excuse the quality. I'm an engineer, not a web desigener!!! I trust it may prove useful and any comments are more than welcome... The web server is on the uplink side of my ADSL and may be a bit slow at times BE3 Gearbox Strip Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miles 331 1 Cars Posted August 4, 2007 LOL, 5/8 Whit socket, locking gear's, Just a couple of thing's that I tend to do, You don't need to remove the roll pin in the main selector, the fork's come out fine with it in, just need to take off the clutch release bearing carrier in the bell housing, this give's enough movement on the shafts to get them out. If you don;t have a puller for the input shaft you can tap the shaft on a lead weight and the weight of the gear's pushes the bearing off Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peetypug 5 Posted August 4, 2007 you are a bloody life saver i nearly threw my gear box across the garage today trying to strip it thanks jim a big thumbs up Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pug_ham 244 3 Cars Posted August 5, 2007 Nice one Jim, I'm part way through stripping a box to swap fourth, fifth & reverse gears so this will proove added assistance. Graham. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jim21070 2 Posted August 5, 2007 You don't need to remove the roll pin in the main selector, the fork's come out fine with it in, just need to take off the clutch release bearing carrier in the bell housing, this give's enough movement on the shafts to get them out. I used your method on a trial reassembly Miles and it works very well Thanks for that! I found it was not strictly necessary to remove the release bearing carrier completely, just loosen it off and that will give enough for the input shaft to tilt sufficiently. However, I (and I may have been a bit of a tart here ) found there was not enough "give" on the output shaft unless the crownwheel was removed. I was worried about chipping teeth again. If you just loosen the release bearing carrier, thus saving the problem of removing the invariably seized bolt in the clutch operating arm, you have to be careful of the shim below the outer race of the lower input shaft bearing. Also, the race was a little loose and it moved. On reassembly you have to be very careful to ensure the shim is relocated properly. If you have the crownwheel and clutch operating arm off during a full overhaul then this method is best as it saves driving out and replacing two rollpins. Against that, you have two more mating surfaces to reseal on reassembly and I notice the release bearing carrier has a paper gasket on it which I'm assuming acts in conjunction with the shim to set the preload on the input shaft bearings. For the kind of job I'm about to do it seems that the rollpin removal might be better as it saves disturbing the diff and the release bearing carrier. I'll document both methods on my website. I'm pleased the guide has been found useful I'll be adding the reassembly page very soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
welshpug 1,657 Posted August 5, 2007 where did you source replacement synchro's and bearings? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jim21070 2 Posted August 5, 2007 where did you source replacement synchro's and bearings? Miles very kindly supplied me a replacement used synchro cone. If they were originally OK and removed with care, bearings, pins and circlips can be reused. The latter may not be good commercial practice but for us, no worries. Miles can, I believe, supply virtually everything needed. New spares from Pug are VERY expensive and in the case of say, a duff synchro (£120 from Pug), I reckon it would be economic to pick up any good BE3 'box from a scrappy and recover servicable bearings and synchro cones from it. Chances are, those bits recovered from a 'box fitted to a base model will be in good condition. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miles 331 1 Cars Posted August 5, 2007 The other thing worth noting I think, Is when the input shaft bearing's are changed the input shaft must be re-shimed which unless you have a large collection this is almost impossible unless you r lucky sometimes and the old one works Most parts can be got thru me or Pug as the seal's and a couple of the bearing's can only be obtained thru them, The taper roller bearing's I get from my local supplier Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SPGTi 2 Posted August 6, 2007 There is also this guide available as well Changing CWP which would probably compliment the above guide nicely. Steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites