Just my luck, lost speedo gear in transmission. Please help.

[Smokey Eddy]

I spoke to Brian from Broke VW.com and he said that if i rotate the trans backwards in a high gear like 5th by spinning the tire off the ground it should turn up the gear oil enough to bring the speedo gear back to the vicinity of the speedo hole.
The issue is i can't hold the clutch down, turn the wheel, and look in the hole for the gear all at once by my self

Brian never mentioned that i should just take it apart though which surprised me.

So, R.O.R.-2.0, to remove the tranny you jack the car up, drop the trans down and slide it out the front of the car from underneath?
How much work is it to disconnect everything?
I took tomorrow off work so i can deal with this Shaz

[Henchman]

I spoke to Brian from Broke VW.com and he said that if i rotate the trans backwards in a high gear like 5th by spinning the tire off the ground it should turn up the gear oil enough to bring the speedo gear back to the vicinity of the speedo hole.
The issue is i can't hold the clutch down, turn the wheel, and look in the hole for the gear all at once by my self

Brian never mentioned that i should just take it apart though which surprised me.

So, R.O.R.-2.0, to remove the tranny you jack the car up, drop the trans down and slide it out the front of the car from underneath?
How much work is it to disconnect everything?
I took tomorrow off work so i can deal with this Shaz

Being that you've already been in and out of that engine bay a few times, you should be able to have the tranny on the ground in 1/2 hour.   Support, Halfshafts, shift linkage, speedo cable (oops, already done), starter (be wary of the mount),  tranny mount, tilt, 4-6 bolts, tranny on ground.

Ian

[Henchman]

And take the few minutes to remove your front clip and the tires.

Ian

[rallydiesel]

I find it much easier to get the trans out if I take out the front mount and both the trans mount brackets. Support the oil pan with a jack and you can tilt the engine down and slid the trans out without too much swearing. You will need to rotate the trans to move the diff housing up and over the trans mount.

[Smokey Eddy]

From Brian @ brokevw.com

Ed --

It'll want to drop down and towards the flywheel a small bit, as it settles to the bottom of the box.

The shafts spinning may or may not bring the gear up... to be honest, it is a long shot that it will work, but it might be worth trying.

No chance on getting the gear to either the drain or filler holes. The drain hole is in front of the ring gear, and there is no space for the speedo gear to get there. The filler hole is in the 5th housing, and the 5th gears are in a separate compartment from the rest of the trans, so it'll never go to one of those holes, the only option is back out of the speedo hole it dropped into.

... You can keep fishing, if it doesn't work, drain the oil and try again.... but you wouldn't be the first person who couldn't get it out. I've had them sent here for just a speed gear issue.

I managed to get them on the bench, drained, and then with a 2 lb. nylon deadblow hammer I smacked the case as I rolled the trans around until I heard it dislodge, then I worked it back to the speedo hole by standing the trans on the case so the hole was at the bottom, and when I could finally see it I grabbed it with a claw.

Hopefully you get it removed without pulling the trans, but if you do, you may be able to get it without opening the trans up.

Brian

Guess I'll be removing it tomorrow then and trying to shake it out.
My drain plug is also stuck closed which will make the whole process extra messy.

[Dakotakid]

Put some heat to the drain plug...it should turn then.

[Smokey Eddy]

Yes, I was able to fish it out through the speedo hole. Use the wire hook to sweep  for it. Tends to hide towards the front of the trans (ie. front of the car side).

Holy balls you must be some kind of god. I tried for the better part of an hour never to feel anything move even slightly.
I hopped into the car and went through all the gears. When i push the shifter down to go into reverse i hear something hitting something that wasn't there before! Voila! Only, i don't know where that "something" is ... in the transmission...

augh never mind. It's the linkage hitting my exhaust... I don't have to push the shifter down to shift into reverse so i never noticed that before.
sigh. I think i'm just going to drive the car and say F-it.

[rallydiesel]

It sucked. I think it took a couple hours and I was quite drunk by the end of it as a way of staying calm! My hamstrings were sore too from bending over the engine. It really is a crapshoot. I made a poster after I finally got it depicting the hunting of the gear as my version of Captain Ahab's Moby Dick. I think I was still drunk. 

[Smokey Eddy]

Oh nice. Brain from broke VW described where it would be resting.

In this pic, when the gear settles from gravity, it will be sitting on the bottom of the case, on one side or the other of that small reverse idler gear there...

That being the smallest lowermost gear in the picture.
Rally, how did you bring it all the way back up? I'm having a terrible time even getting my length of wire to go past that first shaft.

[R.O.R-2.0]

I spoke to Brian from Broke VW.com and he said that if i rotate the trans backwards in a high gear like 5th by spinning the tire off the ground it should turn up the gear oil enough to bring the speedo gear back to the vicinity of the speedo hole.
The issue is i can't hold the clutch down, turn the wheel, and look in the hole for the gear all at once by my self

Brian never mentioned that i should just take it apart though which surprised me.

So, R.O.R.-2.0, to remove the tranny you jack the car up, drop the trans down and slide it out the front of the car from underneath?
How much work is it to disconnect everything?
I took tomorrow off work so i can deal with this Shaz

Being that you've already been in and out of that engine bay a few times, you should be able to have the tranny on the ground in 1/2 hour.   Support, Halfshafts, shift linkage, speedo cable (oops, already done), starter (be wary of the mount),  tranny mount, tilt, 4-6 bolts, tranny on ground.

Ian

half hour? in what universe?

[Smokey Eddy]

Yeah i looked at everything i'd have to disconnect... the CV's would be over 15 minutes just them selves...
never mind the fact that i have no clue how all the shift linkage comes apart

[theman53]

If it is stock linkage it should just pop off. Take a picture of how it looks just in case you forget.

I went to the missing linkz shift stuff and it is VERY confusing. The stock stuff seemed ok in that there is only one way to go on. No adjustment really.

[rs899]

I would like to meet the guy who can pull a MKII tranny in half an hour...  It took me 2 weekends to change my clutch.  That subframe is a bxxxx.

[R.O.R-2.0]

I would like to meet the guy who can pull a MKII tranny in half an hour...  It took me 2 weekends to change my clutch.  That subframe is a bxxxx.

took me ~6.5 to 7 hours to do a clutch on my mk2 GTI. and i did a dual downpipe upgrade, too. i left the engine in the car this time. the subframe isnt even a problem when you pull the trans mount and front engine mount. my trans came right out of there.

anyone who can get the trans out of a running driving mk2 VW is about a quarter inch away from an overdose.. they need to slow down, eat a sandwich, and take a nap. no sober human being can pull a trans in a half hour.

i cant even get close to that, and i am what i consider to be a decent mechanic..

[macka]

2 hours comfortably to drop the tranny and another hour to split it and put it back together.Then 3 hours to hang it up again. I had the extra hour to put it back in as it just wasn't being co operative.