been keeping my self busy...

[SteveBAM]

Hi guys, well after a problem that accrued with my transmission (couldn’t select reverse) I thought I would go ahead and remove the tranny my self, and since I would be doing that I thought I might as well do a couple of other things as well.

-timing belt,water pump,tensioning roller,belt tensioning damper change

-new V belt

-oil sump and pump cleaning

-oil and filter change

-new NGK spark plugs

-new EBC redstuff brake pads

-new custom organic clutch plate,disc and clutch release bearing

-Left and right connecting links

-steering rubber mounting

-new top mounts

-new anti-roll bar rubber mountings

and anything else that comes up. Also since i was going to remove the front bumper and hood i sent them to get some fresh paint..

I started working on the car last Saturday and since then I have removed the tranny and taken it to be repaired(don’t know what the problem is yet with reverse) and also last night I finished with the timing belt water pump side..
to get the transmission out I removed the sub frame to make things easier,the 2 bolts connecting the transfer case to the transmission where PITA to remove and who ever had the idea of putting the turbo bracket right in front of one of them was an id!ot if you ask me. To get it down and off I used a car jack to lift it just a little and then I pulled it out through the drivers side wheel arch. Just for the recored I did this my self with no help at all but getting it back up there will be far more difficult I think. If I had a engine hoist would of made my life much easier.

I will keep you guys updated..

 

[Steveo_A3_1.8t]

thats the way to do it mate, all in one go!!

wish i had a nice garage like you :-(... all the best with the work buddy.

 

[SteveBAM]

thats the way to do it mate, all in one go!!

wish i had a nice garage like you :-(... all the best with the work buddy.

thanks Steveo..

 

[SteveBAM]

by the way, that blue bike in the picture is my other little toy...

 

[<tuffty/>]

You haven't just fitted Neuspeed pulleys have you???

Sorry mate but I would advise you to remove them... the crank needs a damped pulley to stop crank harmonics from destroying the engine...

Worst case is the crank snaps and all the insidey bits take a trip to the outside through the nice new hole in your block...

Harmonic balancer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Broken 1.8t crank carnage - picture - SEAT Cupra.net - SEAT Forum

Good work on everything else though :thumbsup:

<tuffty/>

 

[SteveBAM]

You haven't just fitted Neuspeed pulleys have you???

Sorry mate but I would advise you to remove them... the crank needs a damped pulley to stop crank harmonics from destroying the engine...

Worst case is the crank snaps and all the insidey bits take a trip to the outside through the nice new hole in your block...

Harmonic balancer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Broken 1.8t crank carnage - picture - SEAT Cupra.net - SEAT Forum

Good work on everything else though :thumbsup:

<tuffty/>

Thanks for your concern mate, but no i have not fitted them, i just had them in the pics. I had ordered them last year when i bought some stuff from ECS and then found out that i shouldn't install them...
thanks anyway

 

[Jason.s]

Might aswell fit the others though surely and just leave the crank standard?

 

[Westy]

Good work matey and nice garage

I'm about to tackle the clutch and flywheel very soon so if you wouldn't mind posting as many pics as possible of al the gearbox removal work you have that would be a great help.

 

[SteveBAM]

Good work matey and nice garage

I'm about to tackle the clutch and flywheel very soon so if you wouldn't mind posting as many pics as possible of al the gearbox removal work you have that would be a great help.

thanks, well i haven't taken many photos but i can give you some tips that might help you.Getting it out was easy so ill let you know how it goes getting it back in.Just make sure you have all the right tools needed. The most criticle ones are the 8mm long Allen you will need to get to the bolts holding the transfer case to the transmission and a long 6mm allen to get the drive shaft out shown below..

 

[Westy]

Cheers Steve. I had been warned about the long allen key and bought one at the weekend :thumbsup:

 

[SteveBAM]

and a quick one for the specialists in here..
Does it matter that i didn't put any sealant on the water pump? i just used the new O ring that came with the pump and also cleaned the heads surface..

 

[<tuffty/>]

and a quick one for the specialists in here..
Does it matter that i didn't put any sealant on the water pump? i just used the new O ring that came with the pump and also cleaned the heads surface..

No sealant needed... o-ring is all thats needed for the seal

<tuffty/>

 

[SteveBAM]

No sealant needed... o-ring is all thats needed for the seal

<tuffty/>

thanks for that tuffty because i was abit worried about that...

 

[beachbuggy]

I was thinking. "Gearbox out through the driverside wheel arch" that's a novel way of doing it. Then realised you had a left hooker! and the penny dropped! do you have any additional issues with the steering rack or is it out of the way on a left hand drive car?

 

[SteveBAM]

I was thinking. "Gearbox out through the driverside wheel arch" that's a novel way of doing it. Then realised you had a left hooker! and the penny dropped! do you have any additional issues with the steering rack or is it out of the way on a left hand drive car?

yes my car is left hand drive...
i didn't have any issues with the steering rack, just had to push it back abit to get it out of the way..Now talking about this, i think the easiest way to get it out, especially if you have limited space would be to take the hole front end off.That's a lot of work but it would make things easier..

 

[superkarl]

legend.

respect

 

[Andrew@A.L.D]

I have the Fluidampr pulley, so much better than the standard pulley

 

[s3dave]

Nice work Steve, hows the weather in greece i heard its snowing!!

 

[SteveBAM]

Nice work Steve, hows the weather in greece i heard its snowing!!

thanks Dave, well its been very cold the past couple days (1-2 degrees) and yes it has been snowing...

 

[SteveBAM]

ok, just an update on my transmission problem. I just got a call from the guy fixing it and he told me its ready.The problem was a bent shift rod and that's why i couldn't engage reverse and had abet of trouble with 6th.He checked all the gears and told me that the tranny is like new.So i guess it pays off to be using Motul gear oil..

I'm going to pick it up this afternoon and hopefully have the car ready within the weekend. Tonight ill be doing the oil sump and pump pick up cleaning..

 

[SteveBAM]

ok, I was busy tonight....

went from this

to this

my oil pick up did not have any serious crap on it, but the oil i had changed just a few weeks ago was more black than i expected to.

Also this is what the problem was with my transmission

now to explain in short, there are three pins as you can see,and the top pin from my stupid shifting moved out of place and didn't allow the gear selector to move down to reverse. Lucky for me a friend of mine had an S3 transmission sitting around and gave it to me..
I was also told that the short shifter i have helped out with the damage...

 

[Westy]

What shifter have you got and was it the front to back movement or the side to side movement that caused it?

 

[SteveBAM]

What shifter have you got and was it the front to back movement or the side to side movement that caused it?

dont know which movement caused it but my short shifter is a THS one..

 

[SteveBAM]

ok..
transmission is back in and let me tell you guys if I didn’t have a friend help me it would be impossible to get it back up in there. I did this a couple of years back on my mk4 Golf Gti,put it on my chest and got it up in place.That transmission had half the weight of the S3 one and I don’t really know why..anyway, you might laugh at our method but at the time it was the only way..I found a long peace of rope that I had in my garage, we tied it around the transmission and pulled it through the to of the engine bay. Then we sat the transmission on the car jack that I had and one of us was pulling on the rope and the other was jacking it up.As soon as it was high enough I got under it and started to move it into its right place.It went in easier than I expected and lined up perfectly.
So if anyone try's this, its easy to get it off by your self but impossible to get it back up without an engine hoist...

 

[SteveBAM]

I thought I would start the engine today just to make sure everything is ok before I got ahead and start putting the sub frame and all together. first I took the plugs out from the ignition coils to give the engine a couple of strokes and get some oil up before it started then put them back in and engine started like a charm. BUT...when it did there was a loud squeaking noise.
At the start I thought it might be the V belt but it didn’t seem to be coming from there. I put my ear close to the clutch area and it was obvious it was coming from there.I went on to bleed the clutch so I could see if that was ok.As soon as I pressed the clutch petal it would go away a little bit but when I would put it into gear it would stop comlpetly..
SO..any idea what it could be? im thinking maybe the presure plate might be faulty but I don’t know..
I took the transmission back down and had a look but could not find anything that might lead to the problem..