chris3234 said:

VAG Volkswagen Audi group
At least I presume that what they are on about lol

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Right, just a second while i pop on my anorak. O.K. here we go - VAG actually stands for Volkswagen AktienGesellschaft which roughly translates as Volkswagen Incorporated. Makes sense i guess, there's more to it than VW and Audi so it'd be more like VASSBBPLG excluding motorbikes, trucks & buses. Glad you read it now, are'nt you - not!

Hi guys,

I've taken the damaged gearbox out and, as I said I would earlier, have stripped it down and taken pictures of the damage and the offending part.

Turned out to be the main shaft bearing that failed throwing lots of debris and ball bearings into the diff housing.

As you will see in one of the pictures it was one of these ball bearings that broke through the casing.

I hope this will help someone else diagnose their problems in the future, although I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I managed to get a recon gearbox with a 1 year warranty from "The Punto Shop" in Oldham. ("oldhamfiatgearboxes" on eBay)

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

Knowing my 18yr old son as I do, I'll no doubt be back asking for more advice again soon.

maggers said:

Right, just a second while i pop on my anorak. O.K. here we go - VAG actually stands for Volkswagen AktienGesellschaft which roughly translates as Volkswagen Incorporated. Makes sense i guess, there's more to it than VW and Audi so it'd be more like VASSBBPLG excluding motorbikes, trucks & buses. Glad you read it now, are'nt you - not!

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See - Doesn't matter how much you think you know you should always be humble because there's always something waiting in the wings to knock you back down again.

I've been messing about with older VAG stuff for quite a while and sometimes have a chat with the guys at our local Audi/VAG independent. I've never heard VAG translated into anything other than Volkswagen Audi Group. I too will don my anorak next time I'm there and try the Volkswagen AktienGesellschaft on them. I might just wear my crash hat in case someone throws something at me!

shiny8163 said:

Hi guys,

I've taken the damaged gearbox out and, as I said I would earlier, have stripped it down and taken pictures of the damage and the offending part.

Turned out to be the main shaft bearing that failed throwing lots of debris and ball bearings into the diff housing.

As you will see in one of the pictures it was one of these ball bearings that broke through the casing.

I hope this will help someone else diagnose their problems in the future, although I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I managed to get a recon gearbox with a 1 year warranty from "The Punto Shop" in Oldham. ("oldhamfiatgearboxes" on eBay)

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

Knowing my 18yr old son as I do, I'll no doubt be back asking for more advice again soon.

Click to expand...

Thanks so very much for posting those images shiny. As we've said earlier in this post, rebuilding a damaged box at home, apart from being a difficult task for the amateur/enthusiast - often needing specialist tools you don't have, is nearly always complicated by the fact that detritus enthusiastically distributes itself around the whole box. So merely replacing a worn bearing or a few other component parts without dismantling and thoroughly cleaning every component part and every wee hidey hole will often mean tears soon after reassembly!

Your box just illustrates this so well!

The bearing failure must have been sudden to be this catastrophic without giving audible warning. Maybe there was a metal fragment from elsewhere swimming around the box until it got into that bearing race and suddenly fractured it? You'll probably never know.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you that the "new" box is a good 'un. and thanks again for posting your results, it's so frustrating and we all learn much less if people don't complete their thread.
Kind regards
Jock

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd update the post and let you know that the car is back up and running again with the recon gearbox in it and in my sons words "that feels totally different because it is so smooth."

Just a pity he hadn't told me the old one wasn't right till it was too late.:bang:

Anyway, I just wanted to say again that I really appreciate all the help and advice that was given.

Thanks guys.

shiny8163 said:

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd update the post and let you know that the car is back up and running again with the recon gearbox in it and in my sons words "that feels totally different because it is so smooth."

Just a pity he hadn't told me the old one wasn't right till it was too late.:bang:

Anyway, I just wanted to say again that I really appreciate all the help and advice that was given.

Thanks guys.

Click to expand...

I knew it was too good to be true!!!!
I've just replaced the gearbox in my sons car AGAIN!!!!
This time it was the shaft that the thrust bearing slides on that sheared off, cracked and seized the bearing onto the broken part of the shaft.
My son also thought it would be smart to get a mate to change his clutch when it started making noises even though I told him I'd replaced the clutch the last time. "18 Year olds know better."
Well, this new clutch decided to give up the ghost at the same time as the gearbox went so I don't know if the shaft was the cause of the problem or the clutch just made it worse.
I've just replaced the "old " clutch with the new gearbox and all's well again.
TILL THE NEXT TIME!! :hm:

Hmmm. Seems to be a wee bit of a theme developing here. How long do his tyres last? Any possibility that he's a secret drag racer/drift wanabe? Probably not a very practical suggestion but are you friends with any of his mates? you could ask a few delicately worded questions.

My oldest boy, who is deeply into his guitar and had his own band but has no interest in cars at all, had an old Allegro for years and all I ever did was service it for him. My younger boy was/is a bit of a tearaway (even now in his 30's) but when he was younger I would be "fixing" something, on the many cars he owned, almost weekly just because he abused them so much.

this is what dads are for!!!!!