GRJ and tower diags

cheechy

cheechy

A2OC Donor
I'm trying to diagnose and rectify some minor issues with some sloppiness in the gearbox along with some issues going from 5th to 4th.

I see these as being distinctly different topics with potentially different fixes.

I've discussed the issue in some detail with @depronman and to describe it...I have occasional issues finding 4th from 5th...but once found it goes in fine. Description perhaps infers that synchro is fine and I may have issues with the selector tower and in the friction piece (slop due to wear on the plastic guide). The tower bearing might also play a part but it's likely (or possible) that if it is damaged then the whole tower may need replaced due to overall wear.

Suggestions? I guess replacing the tower bearing is a relatively cheap option with little cost risk.

I also intend to change the shell sleeve around the selector but to be clear I guess I'm more concerned with the 5th to 4th and capturing as early as possible.
 
Scott - you will be well aware that I'm a novice at these things along with bacon recipes. Have you tried a cable adjustment - particularly one of the two cables is involved in swapping between the 5/6 ; 3/4 ; 1/2 planes within the gearbox - and so conceivably if this was a wee bit out, it could affect this transition? Granted, I've only just watched a gear change cable adjustment video where this was discussed, so probably a long way from the mark. Best of luck! Robin
 
Hi robin yup it's on the list to do for sure...but given the nature of the issue given its 5th to 4th I assumed the issue was wider than the good old cable reset.

Feels like transition between the plain that 5th is on to 4th isnt quite mating up right.

Given prices I think I will invest in 1j0711202f to deal with some slop first and take it from there...
 
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I would definitely start with the cable adjustment, really straightforward once you've watched the video guide. I tried changing the tower bearing on one of my tdis but found it pretty difficult and the other parts of the tower were pretty worn out, the spring was rusted out on mine, alot of effort. In the end I replaced the tower from a good box at scrapyard for £10. The tower swap is straightforward.cheers
 
Ditto what nod did on the TDI I bought off Skipton a while back, he did say it was iffy with gear changes so got a tower and swapped it, the large spring was vertualy in bits due to water ingress because the water drain cup was missing.
Gears are fine now after a bit of fettling with the adjusters.
 
No, they are specific to the gearbox.
I managed to get one from a same reg early TDI for mine, just dropped in and bolted up.
 
I would add if I may that I have used the approved pin-locking method to adjust the gear selection on two cars now and not found it very nice.

In the end I tend to start by disconnecting both cables (slide collar and lock), and make sure the gear-lever is in its relaxed, neutral position and the box is in neutral. I then release the cables and see what it feels like. If, say, the lever feels a little tight over on the right hand side, I'll go to the gearbox end, give a wiggle to eyeball which way the,say left-right (at gear-lever) cable needs to go and just tweak it.

Sorry, that's a bit word-spaghetti: basically start off in the middle and then tweak each cable as needed. I've gone from almost impossible to get (say) first, to it dropping in perfectly. In short, the approved method doesn't always work, so if this doesn't do the trick it's well worth having a fiddle.
 
Please check this as I think the tower is likely to be common NBC across the 02J family of gearboxes
This means for the A2 that a petrol will not fit a diesel but I ‘think’ any diesel will fit any other diesel box as they are all 02J boxes with different cog ratios

Paul


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I'd be interested if you find out if the towers are interchangeable between tdi75 and 90.
If no one gets to the bottom of it, I have a spare tdi75 tower in the garage, I'll try it in the 90 to sort this, but won't have time for a couple of weeks. Cheers
 
depronman said:
Please check this as I think the tower is likely to be common NBC across the 02J family of gearboxes
This means for the A2 that a petrol will not fit a diesel but I ‘think’ any diesel will fit any other diesel box as they are all 02J boxes with different cog ratios

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Paul - I'm assuming you didn't need to change the tower over when you put in the JDD gearbox?
 
cheechy said:
Paul - I'm assuming you didn't need to change the tower over when you put in the JDD gearbox?
Click to expand...

No the jdd box with its own tower straight into the car
Only the quadrant which bits to the shaft in the top of the tower needs changed over


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Yes, or a bit of grinding sorts that issue on the original jdd weight, I might have a photo...
 
IMAG1279.jpg
before
 
And here's the other bit that needs chopped out if you're considering a jdd box...
IMAG1286.jpg
as it arrived
IMAG1287.jpg

Bracket removed
 
IMAG1288.jpg

Original box out of tdi75

IMAG1289.jpg

Jdd with bit chopped out to allow a2 gearbox top mount bracket to fit. Cheers
 
I didn’t use the part from the jdd box that the cables connect to. The cable ends are rather different on the jdd cables than the A2 cables
So I used all the A2 parts that the cables attached too and as such the A2 quadrant that bolts to the top of the tower
The jdd quadrant is quite different to the A2 quadrant so not sure how you would get the two to work together or even why you try when all the A2 parts already work perfectly in the A2 and also got the jdd box

Paul


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