Not that I was boasting of my skills ref Cherry, it was just SO EASY. Obviously with all the stealers starving to death, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.
The VW gearbox was a 3 day swearfest due to the engine bay being precisely 5mm too small in any desired direction, but after looking in the engine bay of a new Fud Focus turbodiesel I hired on holiday, I didn't know how lucky I was. Put a piece of cheese in the middle of that lot, release a million mice, all the mice will starve. Dealers must be giggling though. £50p.h. + vat.
Pity vw didn't look at the G.M. Vauxhall Opel gearbox, as with the o20 pushrod setup they were nearly there, pity.
If for whatever reason you've got to gut one of these gearboxes, replace the wretched crownwheel rivets with proper stress graded bolt kit & captive tabs. Allegedly VW sell a kit to do this. Look up a previous post I did, as it will give the relavent Bently page, don't ask how I know. :roll:
If the cooling system has been neglected, whilst you have the gearbox off, notice how there is a core plug hidden by the bellhousing waiting to rot and piss coolant out once you've put the gearbox back on. Hmm.
The Haynes manuals, and most others, seem to give the wrong torque settings for the "clutch" to crankshaft bolts, mine were shouldered, and if memory serves, I used the 55ftlb figure + locktite. Apparently it's supposed to be 70something or other ftlb. Oh Bum.
Good Luck