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

[RadoTD]

I totally forgot about this, Ed...
You shouldn't have to pull a subframe to get the tranny out. Rotate it until the diff is point close to up and it should slide out and drop down... breaking 2 or 3 ribs as it dropped down in my case.
I've never pulled one apart, but yeah, about 2 hours to get it out. It'll be a full day job, but you should have the car ready to go again by the end of the day. I'd help you out, but I've got a lot to do tomorrow and my next day off I'm hoping to pull my engine.

[rabbitman]

My uncle used to work at a vw dealer back in the mk1 era and he said him and the other guys would time clutch changes to see who was fastest. He said the record was 1 hour start to finish.

[R.O.R-2.0]

I totally forgot about this, Ed...
You shouldn't have to pull a subframe to get the tranny out. Rotate it until the diff is point close to up and it should slide out and drop down... breaking 2 or 3 ribs as it dropped down in my case.
I've never pulled one apart, but yeah, about 2 hours to get it out. It'll be a full day job, but you should have the car ready to go again by the end of the day. I'd help you out, but I've got a lot to do tomorrow and my next day off I'm hoping to pull my engine.

dude, mk2 tranny is cake as long as you get that stupid little cover off down by the drive flange. just had a mk2 trans out less than a week ago. it was cake. just take the front engine mount off and you can pull the engine towards the radiator enough to get the trans out just fine. i thought it was going to be alot harder, but it was just fine.

[Smokey Eddy]

I totally forgot about this, Ed...
You shouldn't have to pull a subframe to get the tranny out. Rotate it until the diff is point close to up and it should slide out and drop down... breaking 2 or 3 ribs as it dropped down in my case.
I've never pulled one apart, but yeah, about 2 hours to get it out. It'll be a full day job, but you should have the car ready to go again by the end of the day. I'd help you out, but I've got a lot to do tomorrow and my next day off I'm hoping to pull my engine.

thats okay matt. No hurry. I'm going to drive it as is. At some point it would be a good experience to change some of the stuff i bought for it AND get that gear out. I know where it is in the case its just impossible to get out. It wouldn't be so hard if all the internals were aluminum or non ferrous and the gear WAS

[Henchman]

This universe.  Keep in mind he's already had everything apart lately, so there should be any issues with seized bolts and such.  1/2 hour probably a bit of a stretch, but I've done MK3 engine/tranny pulls from complete car to sitting in my driveway, middle of winter, no air tools in less than 90 mins.

Speaking of which, when people refer to "subframes" on the MK2, are they referring to the cross-member that connect the L & R sides across the front which provides support for the front engine mount?

Ian

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?

[R.O.R-2.0]

yea, i took 2-3 hours to take my trans out, and about as long to go back in. but i had ample smoke breaks, pee breaks, and food breaks.. im kinda a slacker tho, i never sit down and just bust it out. and its only the second time ive really had a mk2 that far apart. took me 7-8 hours to do the clutch the first time, but it always seems that i get more work to do, than just change the clutch, whenever im about to do it..