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Fitted the 8P today - works like a charm. No rattles, no jerkiness on the clutch, and the ratios are wonderful - almost 1,000rpm less than the old box at 70mph. Having to get used to driving in 3rd gear through 30 limits, I used to use 5th...

glad its good mate!

glad its good mate!

good stuff! how did the fitting etc go?

seriously though you should be able to manage 4th in those 30s... your old 5th really couldnt have been more than a few percent lower than it... could it?

gaz: thanks for that, i knew something changed size but had no real idea what. i first came to know of this through a small dutch (german??) mk1/mk2 site which had some gearbox infos. The best translation i could get hold of said there was one (smaller?) size in earlier cars, and a different one in the later ones. Pretty sure it was banging on about splines, but hey... dutch...

ZOMBIE wrote:glad its good mate!

I just drove the new gearbox to the south east meet in margate.. it's about 130 miles away from here. about 40 minutes into the drive, on the M25, it hopped out of 5th gear, and kept on doing this more and more regularly. By the time I got it to margate the differential was making a nasty grinding noise and I was pretty worried whether I was going to get back again. So, I let it sit for a few hours while we had a chat and a few games of cricket, then headed off for home. Coming back towards dartford, by this time having covered almost 200 miles and having completely lost 5th gear, I found that I could no longer change gear and dived into the nearest service station, which was a small shell garage with a minute shop attached. Noticing the gearbox was a little warm, I thought it might be an idea to check that it actually had any oil in it...

Guess what it didn't have any of...

So, two litres of diesel oil (they didn't have gearbox oil and this was the only vaguely lubricating thing they sold for the kind of money I had on me) and an impromptu bit of origami (concerning a funnel made of bits of the daily star) later and it did another 50 miles absolutely perfectly. Not a knock, rattle, crunch, nothing.

I see this as a serious testiment to german engineering I just don't understand how it could possibly run with no oil for 40 minutes without even complaining, and then run absolutely perfectly on oil that's far too thin after hours of oil-less punishment, it's just amazing.
Just hoping now that it holds up in the long term..

Tahrey, fitting went very nicely, got a friend to help fitting the new box but there were no real problems. As for the 30mph stuff, yeah, I can use 4th, but anything less than 30 or a slight incline and it's labouring the engine.

I guessed at such (30mph vs 4th) just estimating it on being 4.267/4.063 times higher than my own top gear, which is super-happy on part throttle from about 27-28 upwards, though not exactly stellar on hills below about 34-35 (where you've just passed 2000rpm).

Guessed it was the oil from about halfway into your story - that's really wild that you made it all that way and it didn't blow up completely! Lucky the service station was right there 'n' all. If only the shaft bearings weren't a weak point then these old boxes could probably bear a "bomb proof" label

(i wonder how much work it is to replace the bearings, then? if you end up with a "loose" gearbox after replacement after all)

I'm considering opening up the old box and finding out.. although I'm going to keep it in one piece until I've established whether or not the 8P is going to be trustworthy after the hammering I gave it today. I know GSF sell the bearings for not too much money, just don't know how hard it is to replace it.
I also need to work out how easy it is to replace a diff, as that was making particularly nasty noises today and I know they're quite prone to failure, it might just be necessary..

oh dear Ive done that as well. The first time it popped out of 5th you should have stopped straignt away but you wernt to know I suppose. The reason it happens is because the internals get too hot from the lack of oil and expand. Well i hope the damage isnt too serious so you have to change it again.

Yeah, I should have done but I thought when it happened it couldn't possibly be out of oil or it would have ground to a halt long before that, so I just assumed that 5th gear was knackered and continued in 4th
Never mind, I'll stick some proper gear oil in it and take it for a good test run.. it was performing perfectly yesterday after I gave it some oil, I'm just worried I may have weakened its components, so I'll have to give it some stick and see if it can still take it.

gawd, the input shafts AND the differentials tending to dodginess?
at least the actual ratio parts themselves seem to be bombproof (in your instance anyway!)

if you figure out the differential thing and it's fairly easy i'd be interested in the method, as if i can get the old 4-speed out and find an 8P myself, it'd definately be time for diff swappage. 5th would be uber for cruising, but 4th just a little too high in between that and 3rd.

plus it'd produce a 4-speed 1300 box, slightly more saleable even in knackered bearing form

Well, I don't know if diff failure is particularly common in standard polos but I have seen quite a few G40 owners complaining that the diffs just collapse under pressure, ditto mk2 golf owners, so it's clearly not a strong part.
Mine is whining a little at low speeds but it's not bad so I don't think I'll bother replacing it. Other than that (and the bearing which obviously took a bit of a hammering) the box has held up perfectly, I should think I've done a good 500 miles since I filled it with oil and it's hardly complained at all.

hmmm, i think a little whine is fairly normal - i used to use that noise as an audible speedometer so i knew i was somewhere between 25 and 35mph just one of the gears resonating or something.

not surprised the diffs would let go with the amount of stick a GTi or G40 one might get, but should ok for a couple hundred thou on a CL...