In to Gear - Gearbox fitted
We now have the gearbox in. Not without a saga though. Just as the old gearbox fought us all the way out this one wanted a fight before it would go in. If I ever meet the man from the Haynes manual who glibly says that refitting is the reverse of removal I will happily punch him in the mouth.
Lifting the gearbox into place in the tight confines of the engine bay was relatively easy, and a little juggling got the input shaft settled onto the driveplate. With the help of my assistant Thomas locating the first two bolts the gearbox itself pulled nicely into place. The starter didn't want to go back in either, and resisted, but eventually yielded and bolted into place with two bolts, with the third strangely missing, even though we had pushed them through a piece of card and labelled them all - the spares we had acquired with the gearbox provided the long lower bolt that was absent. The gearbox mount and rear engine mount bolted up nicely with just a little jiggling required to align everything - it was looking good. Next the offside driveshaft swung up into place and was bolted in. Going well. And now for the nearside drive shaft...….. which was about an inch and a half too long to swing into place. This defied all logic. loosening off the engine and gearbox mounts failed to provide enough room, and despite jacking the gearbox up and then down and jiggling things nothing worked.
The solution it seems would be to remove the driveshaft at the hub end and bolt it on at the gearbox end, then remove the lower arm and the driveshaft to allow the hub to swing out on the strut far enough to push the driveshaft back into the hub. After removing the rollbar this eventually worked, but made the job far longer and much more difficult than refitting is the reversal or removal as promised.
With the driveshaft finally in place, and everything else bolted back together it was time to connect the gearbox to the selector mechanism. This requires the assistance of a Thomas, who must sit in the car and hold the gear lever firmly in place between 3rd and 4th gear position and cranked over to the right. With the gearbox in neutral the connecting rods can then be set.
The first attempt gave us 1st and 3rd gear only. the second attempt gave us 1st, 2nd, 3rd and then the linkage popped off whenever we selected 4th. This, I decided would not be convenient for motorway cruising. I referred back to the Haynes manual and realised where I was going wrong, the gear selector was not sitting correctly on the ball mechanism and the pin was going into the wrong locating hole. (why are there two anyway?)
Armed with the new knowledge I tried again, and yes, success, we now have four forward gears and a reverse gear.
Finally it was time to hook up the clutch cable, which we will need to adjust once we get running again, connect the speedometer drive and reverse light switch and we are, in theory, good to go.
Except we are not. remember when we disassembled the car and took the gearbox out we damaged the engine coolant tube? Well we are now waiting on a replacement. Without the coolant system we can't start the engine to test the gearbox.
The part however is not currently available new, and used parts are as rare as hens teeth. Luckily Thomas' friend Jacob is a trainee welder fabricator with a free reign to practice his skills on small projects such as for example a replacement coolant tube for a 1982 VW Polo. Even better is that hopefully he can make it from stainless steel, not just replacing the part but improving it and making it future proof.
So Jacob will make us our part and keep the pattern, so if it's a success we can maybe remanufacture the part for other Polos, maybe clawing back a little of our costs by selling them at a reasonable profit. And of course being stainless steel they will be shiny. Did I mention I like shiny things?
Lifting the gearbox into place in the tight confines of the engine bay was relatively easy, and a little juggling got the input shaft settled onto the driveplate. With the help of my assistant Thomas locating the first two bolts the gearbox itself pulled nicely into place. The starter didn't want to go back in either, and resisted, but eventually yielded and bolted into place with two bolts, with the third strangely missing, even though we had pushed them through a piece of card and labelled them all - the spares we had acquired with the gearbox provided the long lower bolt that was absent. The gearbox mount and rear engine mount bolted up nicely with just a little jiggling required to align everything - it was looking good. Next the offside driveshaft swung up into place and was bolted in. Going well. And now for the nearside drive shaft...….. which was about an inch and a half too long to swing into place. This defied all logic. loosening off the engine and gearbox mounts failed to provide enough room, and despite jacking the gearbox up and then down and jiggling things nothing worked.
The solution it seems would be to remove the driveshaft at the hub end and bolt it on at the gearbox end, then remove the lower arm and the driveshaft to allow the hub to swing out on the strut far enough to push the driveshaft back into the hub. After removing the rollbar this eventually worked, but made the job far longer and much more difficult than refitting is the reversal or removal as promised.
With the driveshaft finally in place, and everything else bolted back together it was time to connect the gearbox to the selector mechanism. This requires the assistance of a Thomas, who must sit in the car and hold the gear lever firmly in place between 3rd and 4th gear position and cranked over to the right. With the gearbox in neutral the connecting rods can then be set.
The first attempt gave us 1st and 3rd gear only. the second attempt gave us 1st, 2nd, 3rd and then the linkage popped off whenever we selected 4th. This, I decided would not be convenient for motorway cruising. I referred back to the Haynes manual and realised where I was going wrong, the gear selector was not sitting correctly on the ball mechanism and the pin was going into the wrong locating hole. (why are there two anyway?)
Armed with the new knowledge I tried again, and yes, success, we now have four forward gears and a reverse gear.
Finally it was time to hook up the clutch cable, which we will need to adjust once we get running again, connect the speedometer drive and reverse light switch and we are, in theory, good to go.
Except we are not. remember when we disassembled the car and took the gearbox out we damaged the engine coolant tube? Well we are now waiting on a replacement. Without the coolant system we can't start the engine to test the gearbox.
The part however is not currently available new, and used parts are as rare as hens teeth. Luckily Thomas' friend Jacob is a trainee welder fabricator with a free reign to practice his skills on small projects such as for example a replacement coolant tube for a 1982 VW Polo. Even better is that hopefully he can make it from stainless steel, not just replacing the part but improving it and making it future proof.
So Jacob will make us our part and keep the pattern, so if it's a success we can maybe remanufacture the part for other Polos, maybe clawing back a little of our costs by selling them at a reasonable profit. And of course being stainless steel they will be shiny. Did I mention I like shiny things?
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