30 minutes ago, Wino said:

Nice going man.

I agree on the wriggling the box out bit being the trickiest stage. Pretty sure you'll find it easier on the way back in, 'cos you know what to expect, and what it all looks like. Fingers crossed that the weather co-operates for you on Saturday.

 

By the way, good idea taking the arch liner out for better access and visibility, not sure if I did that or not, can't remember now!  

Clean out the standard giant clomp of wet mud at the rear where it meets the front of the sill, must be a rust-starting liability the way it collects there behind the liner/mudflap.

Tell me about it, I removed the rear arch liner not long ago and it was filled right up with mud and all rusty underneath.

Forgot to mention but the second worse part of the job was removing the plug on the reverse sensor, clip was snapped and just had to pull it until it broke and came off.

Might have to improvise with some sealant or cable ties when i re fit it

 

 

I think this is the right connector if you wanted to replace. That listing is just the housing 1J0 973 702, you could extract the pins, wire seals etc. from the old housing, then transfer them across. Alternatively, some listings for that part number include the pins, wires, seals.  Check the part number against what's on yours before buying anything.

14 minutes ago, Wino said:

I think this is the right connector if you wanted to replace. That listing is just the housing 1J0 973 702, you could extract the pins, wire seals etc. from the old housing, then transfer them across. Alternatively, some listings for that part number include the pins, wires, seals.  Check the part number against what's on yours before buying anything.

Thanks for that, I'm not going to bother yet as I think the seal gives a tight enough fit for now. Will definitely replace it in the future though as its not too hard to access.

At this sort of age, and with the cable size/type used, there's a distinct chance of cracking the  wire insulation near the cable entry just by the action of unplugging the connector. From there, it's not far down the line before the wires corrode and it stops working.  This happened to my Polo not that long after replacing a failed reverse light switch. 

Thinking about it, that's a good argument for buying a ready-wired connector rather than trying to reuse existing wires into a new housing.

 

As you say though, it's not exactly an emergency if it does come unplugged, so fix when it's nicer outdoors!

Am I'm right in thinking its only for the reverse lights- and if they stop working I'll know its just this sensor

I don't think reverse lights are a legal requirment anyway so its my least priority at the moment lol!

Also used (indirectly) to switch the cabin air to recirculated automatically when you select reverse, and to activate rear wiper if front ones are on when you select reverse.  Both rather liveable-without. You're right, MOT doesn't require reversing lights to be operational.

I can live with that, the rear wiper doesn't work anyway and I'm not bothered about the recirc thing

 

A very small point in the scheme of things, you will probably find that the plastic  "cage nut" sorts of things that the wheel arch liner gets fixed in with will have hardened with time will have broken when you removed the screws, so maybe get some new ones ordered in - I found that out too many years ago and ordered in about 10 of them and some screws, which made my life a lot easier over the following years.

 

Edit:- another small point, if you don't like the idea/look of making up a tie wrap harness to keep that reversing plug in place, and only want to replace the plug casing, I usually use something like a small vise to crush the old casing - just enough to crack it and so you can easily harvest the old parts you need without the need to use the correct extractor tool, which a few of us already own, or pins/needles/small drills to extract the pins from the still intact plug casing.

Edited 3 March, 20179 yr by rum4mo

1 hour ago, rum4mo said:

A very small point in the scheme of things, you will probably find that the plastic  "cage nut" sorts of things that the wheel arch liner gets fixed in with will have hardened with time will have broken when you removed the screws, so maybe get some new ones ordered in - I found that out too many years ago and ordered in about 10 of them and some screws, which made my life a lot easier over the following years.

 

Edit:- another small point, if you don't like the idea/look of making up a tie wrap harness to keep that reversing plug in place, and only want to replace the plug casing, I usually use something like a small vise to crush the old casing - just enough to crack it and so you can easily harvest the old parts you need without the need to use the correct extractor tool, which a few of us already own, or pins/needles/small drills to extract the pins from the still intact plug casing.

Thanks for that advice, I might look into replacing them if there going to cause problems.

The reverse plug will have to wait for now but in the future I will see what I can do to fix it.

I need a new lambda sensor connector bracket as well as it snapped ages ago and Ive had to bodge it with cable ties to stop it getting caught in the AC fan.

Just popped out to try and remove the ball joint from the hub and it aint going no where.

I don't actually own an 18mm spanner and a socket wont fit as the access is not good.

Tried some mole grips and it wont move so Im guessing its going to need cutting off.

The rubber boot is split and the ball joint is all floppy and loose so definitely needs replacing!

 

 

Well, started at 9:30 this morning and finished everything by 1 so not too bad really.

Getting the gearbox back in was a struggle as it was getting stuck between the subframe and the flywheel, but after adjusting the height of the engine and a lot of pulling and twisting it finally slotted on.

The rest was just re assembling everything and torque-ing all the bolts up which was fairly straightforward. Those driveshaft bolts were scary doing 180 degrees on the tiny M8's.

 

Took it for a test drive and gearbox is really smooth. Clutch is really light as well which took a bit of getting used to and stalled it twice lol.

It does seem that the clutch biting point is higher, so i might try bleeding the clutch cylinder just in case of any air locks. It doesn't slip or anything, spun the wheels ok when I did a hard pull away.

One thing about the gearbox that wasn't the case with the old one is that going from 5th to 4th gear requires you to go to neutral before it will go into 4th. Before I could pull the gearstick almost straight down from 5th and it would direct itself into 4th gear. Not really a problem tho I guess i will get used to it.

I am going to change the gearbox oil within the next 1000 miles as I think for the sake of £15 I might as well keep it working as good as possible.

Also got to get and order a new offside ball joint, as if its in the same condition as the nearside one I replaced then I don't think it will be lasting much longer

 

Thanks very much for everyone's help, not a bad job really as long as you have all the tools and the right parts

 

High bite point is normal with a new clutch. If there was air in the system the biting point would be lower.

Edited 4 March, 20179 yr by TMB

Regarding going from 5th to 4th - have you tried the adustment procedure on the linkages?

Edited 4 March, 20179 yr by TMB

12 hours ago, TMB said:

Regarding going from 5th to 4th - have you tried the adustment procedure on the linkages?

Yes, ive adjusted it a few times. I can just get used to it and i think it will be ok

 

When you say high biting is normal with new clutch, will it get better as it wears in?

Edited 5 March, 20179 yr by clarendon462

34 minutes ago, clarendon462 said:

When you say high biting is normal with new clutch, will it get better as it wears in?

 

It might gradually drop a bit with wear but it's normal and you will get used to it.

Ok, as long as I know theres nothing wrong with the clutch then im happy.

 

Doing some more testing on the shift between 5th and 4th, if i pull the gear lever straight back without moving it to either side it slots into 4th perfectly, which i expect is how its designed to work.

Im guessing the difference is  my old gearbox wouldn't go into 4th from 5th without pulling the lever backwards and keeping pressure towards the right, and I've probably got so used to doing it like that that when I try shifting like this in my new gearbox it doesn't like it and stops just out of 5th gear.

 

I've just spent some time disassembling the old gearbox to try and find what's at fault, will upload some pictures later of the components that look damaged/worn.

 

Sounds like it's all working perfectly

Just posting a few of the pics I took of the old gearbox in case anyone's interested

This is 1st gear, the main synchro ring has quite a bit of wear to the points of the teeth. 2nd gear was similar although not quite as bad

Edited 6 March, 20179 yr by clarendon462

Lots of wear on the 1st/2nd gear selector lever. (cant really see it all that well on the picture)

Main magnet inside gearbox casing

 

Oooh, look at those nasty chips out of that gear on the right in the first pic.

Someone should have went to specsavers....

2 hours ago, w.t100 said:

Someone should have went to specsavers....

 

What ya mean? Is it meant to have those marks on the points of the gear teeth?

Edited 6 March, 20179 yr by TMB