City Utility Caddy, Bad Gearbox...

[gPhilipC]

It was with much sorrow and frustration i found out today that my 2001 city utility gerbox selector(the one in the gerbox) finds it extremely difficult to move in and out. So selecting 3rd and 4th are fine movie the gear lever to the left is hard, and to the right aswell. 5th is a no go as it only seems to select it half way. The gearshift are rock hard and im getting a tennis elbow.

It has oil in it, and all the linkages are washed clean and and as new. I actually removed the linkages from the gerbox amd foun the problem with that selector shaft in the box. You cant seem to pull or push on it. Of you are standing in front of the engin. Moving it side to side if fine.

My question(s)
Is it a matter of adusting the shaft itself?
Are the selector arms inside damage?
The forks inside the box?


1,2,3,4 and R are great when you are actually in gear. While diving its easear to select. 5th gear is no go.

Thanks for the help... In advance.

[Sean Trollope]

Hehe. My old golf did this all of a sudden one day. Just bam out of nowhere. It was basically impossible to select any of the gears. What causes it I still haven't figured out exactly. But it got to the point where we stripped the gearbox down(it was also slipping out if 5th which was the main reason) but we came to a few general possibilities.

1) the gearbox oil is no longer lubricating.
Drain it. Put a bottle of valve ease into the gearbox and fill it with oil again. The valve ease is basically a graphite based lubricant and it helps get all the grime and sediment that has built up over the years loose. After about 1000km drain it again and fill it with the correct oil only. (Should be 4 or so litres if I can remember correctly) I found this worked wonders although I didn't quite get it right the first time(didn't leave it in for long enough) I had to repeat the exercise.

If this still doesn't work

2)it coukd be that the bearing that sits just as the selector goes into the box has disintegrated (you can try any shop or mechanic and they will tell you there is nothing that is supposed to be there and you won't find that bearing anywhere) so we made a brass sleve bearing as Well as machining the rod down itself so that it wa smooth. Often they are badly pitted and this doesn't help the shot bearing.


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[Sean Trollope]

Oh and when you drain the oil in take the dedent plunger out (it should use a 17 spanner) that sits just in front of where the selector shaft goes in. And try and get as much of the gunk that would have built up. Use a bit of penetrating oil and try to flush the area out before you drain the oil.

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[gPhilipC]

Morning.

Thank you for the advice. Wil start today and see where we end up...

Hopefully i don't have to take the whole thing out.

[gPhilipC]

Ok so...

I drained the oil... It was brown water like "oil"... Took of that dedent plunger. Its seem less happy with life. Blaas it and what ever els i could fit that red nozzle in.

New oil and some ATF wil help lubricate everything again. R, 1to 4 great... Feels a bit better. 5th gear however it feels like it wants to go into gear but stops halfway amd grinds... Just doesn't want to slide all the way in.

Will drive it a bit and see what happens. It only took 2 liters though...

[Sean Trollope]

Give it a chance. 5th gear will take a few km to get all the new oil there as it is fed by 2 small holes.

If the problem persists on 5th of then it could be down setting the linkages.

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[gPhilipC]

Thank you for the advice. Will try it and update in a few days.

[Jetta2]

Never use ATF in those gearboxes in any quantity........ just use decent quality oil of the proper spec and nothing else.

[gPhilipC]

So... Getting myself a new/recon box. It would seem that the gerbox clever people said that the selector shaft on the inside of the box is damaged and or bent, hence my problem.

So taking it out new one in and should be good to go.

[Sean Trollope]

How much do you want for the old one

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[gPhilipC]

Getting a recon swap so not sure what it be worth, can still get a recon one for a good price even if i don't swap and just buy it.

[gPhilipC]

Update on the box.

I took the car to Geartoria in Pretoria. What a great bunch of people, they had all the time for my questions and sorted the box out.

It turned out that there was n C clip that was broken. And prevented me to get 5th gear. But they told me that the box needs a rebuild on the long run as it is old. But i have 5th i can drive frew way now and will go back to them for the rebuild.