Very stiff gearbox change :(

MOI

MOI

A2OC Donor
Morning all. I’ve had a bit of a search on the forums but can’t quite find what I’m looking for.
In short my gear change is VERY stiff. Like so stiff I’ve had to use two hands to move it. Once moving it loosens a bit but its defo not smooth or comfortable.
It’s been getting worse over time and I’m trying to work out what to do about it.

Should I:

a) just hand it over to my local mechanic to fix?
Not sure they will know how best to deal with an A2 issue such as this.
b) book it in with the WOM chaps?
c) use this as an opportunity to swap out my gearbox for a 6 speed?
I’ve heard this might be possible but also that my 2001 (51 reg) SE TDI might not be suitable.

Appreciate any pointers here. Thanks.
 
The first thing to try is to reset the gear linkage cables, and examine the tower bearing on top of the gearbox. There are vids on YT about this, but you'll find threads on here about it too. You could probably point your mechanic at that task as it's a generic VAG thing.

Regarding 6-speed compatibility, the issue is mostly to do with the where the speedo is driven from. At some point around the 2002/3 model year, the speedo feed from the gearbox on the A2 was replaced by a feed from the ABS. With 6-speed VAG boxes being from later generations, they don't have the speedo output. Obviously your car has ABS, but I believe if it currently has the gearbox speedo feed, you'd need a later instrument cluster which handles the ABS feed instead (and possibly some wiring to bring it there), which would need coding to the ECU and the key. However the JDD wide-range 5-speed box is from an earlier generation and has the speedo output.

The speedo feed isn't the whole story where fitting alternative gearboxes is concerned. One thing is for sure, if you do go down the gearbox change route, WOM are certainly the people with the experience to perform the other required modifications for you.
 
Just bought my A2 yesterday and noticed stiff gears on it too, going in ok just stiff switching and gearstick movements, looked on tinterweb and suggestions are to unclip linkage at gearbox end to see if it is still bad, manually try to operate gears on so called tower to see if thats where problem sits...mine aren't bad bad don't have to "use both hands" to change gear, will have a look to mine ASAP
 
Agree first port of call is to work out whether the problem is the selector mechanism at the lever end, the cables or the tower at the gearbox end - or the gearbox itself…. or a combination of some / all of these!

The six speed upgrade (or other longer ratio 5 speed conversion such as MZN or JDW) will fix the problem only if the gearbox or shift tower is at fault (obviously) - however I’m heavily biased in favour of these mods as they do more to upgrade the everyday usability of the car than anything else, depending on your typical usage and preferred driving style.
 
Ok thanks chaps. Very useful. I’ll pop along to my reg mechanic to see if they can sort this. I think i’ll then begin the process of looking in to a gearbox upgrade.
 
Be aware that in itself, the six speed conversion using the MYP gearbox actually makes the change worse, not better, all other things being equal.

The reason for this is that on the Passat donor, the gear selector arm that sits on the top of the gearbox is about 33% longer than the A2's five speed version. I assume the internals on the 6-speeds require a higher internal 'ratio' for space reasons, evened out by using a longer lever externally.

Usually, the A2 lever gets moved across and all looks well. The reality is that in the forward / back plane at the gear-lever (inside the car) has now lost 33% of its travel, effectively giving a fast change, but less leverage. Left - right remains unchanged.

By time this goes through a cable based shifter, the effort required to change gear is probably 35-40% more than it was.

My solution was to machine up a gearbox lever extension which gives the A2 gearbox lever virtually the same dimension as the original Passat one. This did involve shaving some engine mount away (which I did in a gentle curve to reduce possibility of stress risers, plus it looks hugely over-engineered to me).

Anyway net result is that gear-change quality is now probably a bit nicer than the original A2's and infinitely better than the MYP as it was first installed. I had already dismantled the internal selector mech and lubed it plus rectified an error in someone's re-fitting of the selector cables.
 
One other possible cause; failing selector cables. Disconnect at the gearbox and select manually, if you can do that check the cables by operating the gear stick and feeling for stiffness, the outer cable will need to be secured to check this. If stiff cables most likely cause which are NLA.
 
MOI said:
Morning all. I’ve had a bit of a search on the forums but can’t quite find what I’m looking for.
In short my gear change is VERY stiff. Like so stiff I’ve had to use two hands to move it. Once moving it loosens a bit but its defo not smooth or comfortable.
It’s been getting worse over time and I’m trying to work out what to do about it.

Should I:

a) just hand it over to my local mechanic to fix?
Not sure they will know how best to deal with an A2 issue such as this.
b) book it in with the WOM chaps?
c) use this as an opportunity to swap out my gearbox for a 6 speed?
I’ve heard this might be possible but also that my 2001 (51 reg) SE TDI might not be suitable.

Appreciate any pointers here. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Question I forgot to ask earlier.

Stiff how ? Fore-aft plane, or left / right? That would direct you to which cable, and which movement-translation at the selector end is in play.

Secondly, is there any obvious initial slop before the resisted-motion occurs in the gear lever movement (suggesting worn bushes in the gearlever-end mechanism under the centre console or at the other end of the cables over the selector)?
 
I have four A2s with the MYP fitted. This includes a 51 plate car, you can tell if it’s a later speedo drive from the ABS by looking at the ABS module.
In all of these he gearchange is magically lighter than the 5 speed and shorter throw too. It is a brilliant upgrade for a Tdi A2.
I also have one with a rebuilt five speed box with an added sixth gear, it’s very good but the MYPs are so much better.
 
Proghound said:
The first thing to try is to reset the gear linkage cables, and examine the tower bearing on top of the gearbox. There are vids on YT about this, but you'll find threads on here about it too. You could probably point your mechanic at that task as it's a generic VAG thing.

Regarding 6-speed compatibility, the issue is mostly to do with the where the speedo is driven from. At some point around the 2002/3 model year, the speedo feed from the gearbox on the A2 was replaced by a feed from the ABS. With 6-speed VAG boxes being from later generations, they don't have the speedo output. Obviously your car has ABS, but I believe if it currently has the gearbox speedo feed, you'd need a later instrument cluster which handles the ABS feed instead (and possibly some wiring to bring it there), which would need coding to the ECU and the key. However the JDD wide-range 5-speed box is from an earlier generation and has the speedo output.

The speedo feed isn't the whole story where fitting alternative gearboxes is concerned. One thing is for sure, if you do go down the gearbox change route, WOM are certainly the people with the experience to perform the other required modifications for you.
Click to expand...

It is not that easy. The abs pump on the early cars does not provide the pulses for the speedo to come from the abs sensors so it is far more involved then swapping instrument cluster and bit of wiring. Changing the and pump for the latter style looks like a nightmare

I was working up a solution for this for earlier cars but never got further than the basic concept which was to make a ring to fit over one of the inner cv joints outer casing. In this ring add a number of magnets and then mount a sensor to count the pulses generated as the magnet passes the sensor
The number of magnets can be calculated from the original gearbox sensor by counting the pulses per rev of the drive shaft

As the pulse count would be on one drive shaft only the speedo would read under / over speed when making tight turns but in practice on the road the error would be marginal as when turning a corner the speed difference of the LH and RH drive shafts is very small

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
depronman said:
It is not that easy. The abs pump on the early cars does not provide the pulses for the speedo to come from the abs sensors so it is far more involved then swapping instrument cluster and bit of wiring. Changing the and pump for the latter style looks like a nightmare
Click to expand...

Yikes, that's way too involved just to get a longer top ratio :eek: So it sounds like the early cars are basically limited to either the JDD box or the long 5th gear mod. But if you've got the speedo feed from the (later) ABS module then you have your pick of the 6-speed boxes that are available.
 
Sorry I should have posted this earlier. This is the later type of ABS, cars with this take the six speed box without speedo drive mods.
 

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Proghound said:
Yikes, that's way too involved just to get a longer top ratio :eek: So it sounds like the early cars are basically limited to either the JDD box or the long 5th gear mod. But if you've got the speedo feed from the (later) ABS module then you have your pick of the 6-speed boxes that are available.
Click to expand...
Don’t forget the MZN five speed box that @Menno has installed on his - it’s a nice halfway house in terms of longer ratios between the standard and the very (some say too) long gears of the JDD
 
dj_efk said:
Don’t forget the MZN five speed box that @Menno has installed on his - it’s a nice halfway house in terms of longer ratios between the standard and the very (some say too) long gears of the JDD
Click to expand...
Indeed, Tom @timmus' sister has one of those in her A2. Tom says it's the box that the A2 TDI should really have had from the factory.
 
Hello again all. Looks like you’ve been having fun without me :). Ok so mystery over; it looks like its the gear cables that need changing according to my mechanic.

I’ve just spoken to WOM and they said the cables aren’t available at the moment and I’ll need to find a set off a breaker. Any ideas as to who might have a set available?
 
MOI said:
Hello again all. Looks like you’ve been having fun without me :). Ok so mystery over; it looks like its the gear cables that need changing according to my mechanic.

I’ve just spoken to WOM and they said the cables aren’t available at the moment and I’ll need to find a set off a breaker. Any ideas as to who might have a set available?
Click to expand...
Afternoon,

I have access to a set on a TDI AMF which I can remove for you. That said I’ve never removed them before so if you (or anyone else) was able to provide any guidance on removal then I should be able to grab them for pennies. Happy to load the car uk with the necessary tools next week.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
2work said:
Afternoon,

I have access to a set on a TDI AMF which I can remove for you. That said I’ve never removed them before so if you (or anyone else) was able to provide any guidance on removal then I should be able to grab them for pennies. Happy to load the car uk with the necessary tools next week.

Kind regards,

Tom
Click to expand...
Bit of a faff, there is a securing ring in the bulk head that you access from the engine bay, and then pull the cables back into the car...I find removing the tower connectors off the cables makes it a lot easier to get through the bulkhead pal.
 
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