Transfer Gear Advice - drivetrain slack

Hi all, another drivetrain slack thread!

I have for some time on my 200tdi 1993 (100K miles), had a knock whn releasing the clutch. I have checked the balljoint and it is not that, there is probably a bit of wear in the bushes, and I am in the process of polybushing, but this thread is specifically ref the transfer gear.

Using this useful guide : https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhfmtstj_0ghdpj7jh&hl=en

I today removed the middle seat, and from the top, removed the PTO cover to get the trasfer gear out. It was easy to remove the cover and the bearing track carrier, both of these are aluminium, but just a gentle knock on the side with a soft mallet freed them both easily.

The gear itself was another matter. As I had feared, I had the dreaded "red paste" and although the gear slid out easily about 8mm, it was then solid, and I had to get a bearing puller on it to extract it, I ended up pulling the inner race off of the gear first, and then getting the puller over the shoulder exposed by removing that inner race in order to pull it off of the shaft.

I was fearing the worst at this stage as from what I had read it should have just come out "with a bit of wiggling" - hmmmmm. So if you have the same trouble, believe that it does come out, even though it feels like it will not.

Once I got it out and cleaned it up this is what I found (see pictures).

Now I have several questions:

1 - Although the wear in the splines inside the gear does not look too bad to me, at least when comparing it to that picture on the guide, I am guessing from the "red paste" that there is wear evident, and also the gear that I have is not the cross drilled type, so I have decided that I will change it, the replacement gear is about £45, plus £20 for bearings.

First question: is it possible to remove the outer race of the bearing which is furthest into the box? Clearly the inner race of that bearing comes out with the gear, but I am guessing I might have to leave that in situ and use it with a new inner race.

Has anybody done this job?

2 - It was not possible to see the condition of the shaft, as I did it from above, I used my iphone to take the pics inside the box. I toshed a load of copaslip on the shaft and inside the gear before refitting, and even then I had to help it onto the shaft with a mallet. I guess that now it has been out it will be easier next time though. I assume this is due to corrosion on the shaft?

I am hoping that the replacement gear will improve my clunk, I know it will not cure it but at least with a cross drilled gear it should not get worse.

I hope this is useful to anyone else doing this job, the hardest part was extracting the gear with the puller as it was difficult to get a purchase on anything (hence removing the bearing first).

I would much appreciate any advice before ordering and fitting the new gear.

I think I will order it from Ashcrofts as they seem to be the people in the know, although there are many on ebay for similar price.

Great forum guys, I hope my thread helps someone else in the future.

an update: I spoke to Ashcrofts this morning, very helpful.

I was hoping that I could fit a new gear, which would have longer internal splines, hence picking up on the unworn part of the shaft - as per the pictures in that guide document.

This however is only available if you have an R380 gearbox, which has a long output shaft. The LT77 that my 200tdi has - is with a short output shaft, and the whole spline is used in the gear, so is all worn.

He did say that the wear in the gear dosnt look too bad, but sometimes the male is worse.

I am going to fit a new one in any case so as to eliminate future wear.

One last point to note, he told me that most people re-use the bearings, and by doing so negate the need to set endfloats etc, his advice was to re-use unless they are clearly totally shot.

So I will order the new gear and try to post some more pictures when fitting it.

Thanks for the post, I'm about to look into my knock also so thus info us helpful, I have an R380 box-they do a longer input gear to fit this do they?

yes they do all variants, I spoke to Dave Ashcroft, if you are not sure give him a call, he was very helpful.

I have just ordered the gear so I will report back as I progress with the job.

http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=43

just a quick footnote before I do the replacement (gear due tomorrow):

I put it all back together with the original gear, and today took it out for a few miles, and hey presto the CLUNK has all but disappeared!

I can only put this down to having probably inadvertently put the gear back in a different position relative to the shaft, and the wear on both not being even.

This gives me hope that replacing with the brand new cross drilled gear will give me some success, as I will have zero wear on the splines on the gear, and the cross drilling ought to reduce/prevent future wear.

Lets see what happens. Will report back.

For those thinking of doing the same, it is not that difficult a job, I was scared at first as removing a gear from a gearbox sounded pretty major, but its relatively straight forward if you are OK on the spanners.

well its all done!

Fitted the new gear today, the old one was a bitch to get out again, despite only having removed it last week and caking the splines with copaslip - but the new one slid in a treat.

Some pictures attached, if you ever have to do this job a couple of tips:

1 - mark the cover, and the flange behind it before removing them (I did ith with a black marker see pics). As they need to go back in the same position.

2 - If the old gear is tight, squirt a load of WD40 into the end of it, then use a small bearing puller to extract the bearing inner race (pic) - then use the same puller to pull the gear out.

3 - There wer no gaskets in mine on the covers, not sure if there should have been, so I used some instant gasket when replacing them.

I gave the old girl a test drive after and the clunk is gone! Hallelujah - there is still a slight wobble/knock when pulling away, but I am pretty sure this is the balljoint on the A frame, which is on my list of to do jobs.

I am very pleased with the gear replacement, and as I have not seen a how to guide on this have atttached a load of pics of the job. Not quite up to Busters standard but hopefully some help to someone in the future.

I was so happy I even treated her to a wash this afternoon!

Glad ur sorted-thanks for the great posts too-there's never too much info on anything