020 behind a tdi?

[Smoker]

hate being home this weekend..

Wanna trade??? This is what I'm doing at 1am on a Saturday night...



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[8v-of-fury!]

I fully agree with Chris, that the 5th's are the weak spot of the 020. Their reverse gears aren't anything to write home about either..
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I have been using an unknown-km 1986 ACN-020 behind an AHU M-TDI for just over 2 years at this point right now. I do tow with it (have been up to 1400lbs on the back of it) and I do drive spirited. If you get on it before the boost really picks up it will slip the clutch rarely in 4th and most times in 5th. But what are you doing really hard punching the pedal pre-boost right? lol

Even stock 02A/02J are weak at one or more points internally.. Granted it is more beneficial to build one of those over an 020, either 4 or 5 speed.

[RabbitJockey]

isn't the 5th problem some what to do with oiling?  at low speeds the oil isn't getting splashed around over to the 5th gear enough.  so stay out of 5th at low speeds?

[Blocksmith]

isn't the 5th problem some what to do with oiling?  at low speeds the oil isn't getting splashed around over to the 5th gear enough.  so stay out of 5th at low speeds?

Wouldn't that mean that we'd see lots of blown up 5th gears from everyone who tends to lug the motor a bit?

[vanbcguy]

The 020 5 speed was created by adding an extension on the 4 speed case, it wasn't "meant" to be a 5 speed from the beginning. As a result there are some design trade-offs.

5th sits high on the transmission. If the oil level is at all low 5th gear suffers before any of the others. This also means you can drive around with low gear oil for quite a long time in the city without noticing a problem.

The "typical" failure goes:

- fluid gets low over time
- take the car on a long highway trip
- 5th starts getting hot since it isn't properly lubricated
- the plastic bearing retainer starts getting soft and melting
- transmission pops out of gear

By that point 5th is probably heat damaged plus the bearing is in questionable condition. Just filling it up again may sort things for a while but it's a downhill slope from there.

The real takeaway is "make sure your transmission has the proper amount of gear oil in it"

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[Smoker]

I'm just gonna go with the 02a.  My goal is to keep this truck long term and use it as a truck, so rather than taking the easy road now and then doing the trans conversion later, I'll just do it all at once.

[vanbcguy]

The 02A is definitely a better transmission.  Looks like you will have a bit of fun getting one in to a Mk1 chassis though.  The 02A is hydraulic clutch and cable shift, the 020 is cable clutch and linkage shift.  I don't know if the 02A has provisions for a Mk1-compatible mount bracket either.  I am absolutely sure that there are other Mk1-chassis vehicles out there with 02As though.

[RabbitJockey]

The 02A is definitely a better transmission.  Looks like you will have a bit of fun getting one in to a Mk1 chassis though.  The 02A is hydraulic clutch and cable shift, the 020 is cable clutch and linkage shift.  I don't know if the 02A has provisions for a Mk1-compatible mount bracket either.  I am absolutely sure that there are other Mk1-chassis vehicles out there with 02As though.

they make mounts for 02a in a mk1 now.  the only challenging part of the swap imo is the clutch, if it were me i'd just use the eurovan parts to go cable clutch...

[theman53]

I think the clutch is easy as it is hydro and just like routing brake line. The shift tower I would get an O2J style. I have seen a guy put the normal 02J style in with the stock MK2 bolts and just used fender washers to secure it with the stock bolt locations.

[Smoker]

Yeah there's nothing extremely complicated about the conversion, just time consuming. I've seen a few cases where guys have put the clutch master inside the car, mounted on the stock pedal. I need to take some measurements as soon as I get the donor car back to my shop. Has anyone here done that specifically? Seems like it would be easier than mounting it on the firewall...

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[RabbitJockey]

I think the clutch is easy as it is hydro and just like routing brake line. The shift tower I would get an O2J style. I have seen a guy put the normal 02J style in with the stock MK2 bolts and just used fender washers to secure it with the stock bolt locations.

oh yes, i just meant the clutch is the only part that doesn't just bolt in super simply, like the shifter is not much of a challenge to adapt.