Gearbox

[paultv]

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Got the Getrag out to sort the noisy clutch.


Paul

[paultv]

And look what's inside the bell housing

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Yuck!

Was changed 4 years ago by the lovely people at Fritz's

Paul

[Be30]

What is that stuff?!? Old bits of worn clutch or something?

[paultv]

It's really old almost solid oil and clutch dust - I had a new clutch and input shaft seal fitted by Fritz bits 4 years ago (LUK) and the release bearing has been really
noisy for ages so I finally decided to open it up and take a look - obviously its never been cleaned out since the car was new and has suffered some serious leaks.

The return spring in the housing has almost worn through - so it's probably the original too.

Needless to say whilst I'm in there everything will be replaced and cleaned up.

Paul

[ocde30]

That stuff is not nice. I will be dropping my box out in a couple of weeks onto the garage floor like you. It will be interesting to see what it is like inside the bell housing compared with yours.
I think my clutch is original (65k miles) as there is no record of replacement in the history file. Actually the clutch is OK but the fork spring clip is either broken or come adrift so a good opportunity to check it out. Thanks for posting the pictures - any help / advice / comments is always appreciated.

Cheers

Trevor

[Foe]

Fair play, nice work Paul. That's a fair bit of crap in the housing!

What else you doing while the box is out?

[paultv]

I guess it depends what I find - I have to check the centre bearing in the flywheel - and clean it all up - but the prop/exhaust and so on are all good from previous work I did.

Sooooo, I'm thinking to head to the rear end and start the trailing arm bushes, backplates, drive shafts and wheel bearings as well as the flexible brake lines whilst the car is perched and
the underside is cleared of all the necessary stuff - don't really want to have to pull the exhaust and prop again! although I'm getting real snappy at doing this !

Paul

[Satan]

Ah the joys of gearboxes, lucky you don't have an auto as I had mine rebuilt last year as i thought it would be a better option than going for a used unit.

[paultv]

Jeez - two of the hex headed pressure plate bolts had partial stripped heads - but I got them out in the end by hammering in a Torx and using a breaker bar - one really hard yank to crack them open.

The pilot bearing is a write off - original is with the felt washer, so it's ancient - another sign of bad maintenance - why would you open up the transmission and not make it all good??

Makes the 1200 quid I spent a few years ago seem like a total waste - I've had to replace every single thing that was fitted by those guys - including re positioning the split prop which was put back in the car out of balance giving me a really bad vibration at 50-70mph,

Oh well, stop moaning and get on with it!

At least I know I'm doing it right.

Paul

[paultv]

Getting cleaner!

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Make sure you don't forget to buy the fork retainer spring as it doesn't come with the clutch kit, mine is worn half way through, a real pain if it failed after the rebuild considering it costs less than a fiver!

Paul

[Satan]

Jeez - two of the hex headed pressure plate bolts had partial stripped heads - but I got them out in the end by hammering in a Torx and using a breaker bar - one really hard yank to crack them open.

The pilot bearing is a write off - original is with the felt washer, so it's ancient - another sign of bad maintenance - why would you open up the transmission and not make it all good??

Makes the 1200 quid I spent a few years ago seem like a total waste - I've had to replace every single thing that was fitted by those guys - including re positioning the split prop which was put back in the car out of balance giving me a really bad vibration at 50-70mph,

Oh well, stop moaning and get on with it!

At least I know I'm doing it right.

Paul

Out of interest what was the 1200 spent on?

[paultv]

LUK Clutch, guibbo, centre bearing, rear beam bushes, lollipop bushes, new rear springs and LSD re fill.

I supplied all the parts ....

Paul

[Satan]

Ahhhh okay wehre was the work carried out as my son knows a decent spanner monkey in Germany but may be too far from you.

I "think" my gearbox rebuild was about £1150 in London.

[paultv]

It was all done by Fritz in Somerset a couple of weeks before I moved to Germany - I took it back because of the vibration from the prop but didn't get anywhere... problem was I had no time to work on the car and needed it to be "fit" to drive to Germany...

I'm not really dissing them, but there were errors made, I had no time to really let them sort it out.

Anyhooo, back to doing everything myself - much better.

Paul

[paultv]

So I removed the knackered pilot bearing then noticed....

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So, one over long bolt - from the pressure plate to flywheel. This, when tightened into place by an over zelous moron pushes the ring gear away from its correct position, which
usually results in the ring gear disintegrating.

gear _2.jpg

Mine didn't, but it sure soon will - the ring gear is so deformed.

gear _1.jpg

Now I'm really screwed, supposed to be off on a trip!

It's un F'ing believable what some idiots can do to a car -

Paul

MAYBE THIS THREAD SHOULD BE PUSHED TO THE TECHNICAL SECTION AS ITS GETTING MESSY!!

[flybynite]

Ouch, everyone can have an off day but I wouldnt be happy to find that either.

It is such a pain to get the box off (and back again) I have always done everything I can while I am there. Cleaning things just makes it nicer to work on when putting it back together.

Lucky the ring gear lasted this long

[paultv]

What's particularly troubling is that there is ONE over long bolt and TWO points where the ring gear has been pushed out and deformed - which means the bolts were removed last time the clutch was changed and put back in a different position creating the second deformation.

My opinion of Fritzbits gets ever lower.

Paul

[Foe]

In all fairness, to see you takle these jobs, keeps my faith, that we can do some of the work ourselves

[paultv]

Thanks - I sometimes think I'm over stepping things a bit, no crane, my compressor was left in Spain, like my mig welder, so I'm doing everything the "old" way - brute force and the right tools where possible!

I just built a wooden cradle for my trolley jack - instant gearbox lift !! needs must.

Problem is I have to work - which gets in the way of all this fun!

Is it usual to have a Japanese Koyo pilot bearing in a BMW?

Old Pilot.jpg

Paul

"looking forward to my next road trip!"

[DanThe]

Nothing wrong with a Koyo bearing, if LUK used something decent then your release bearing would probably still be quiet too!
Ive had 2 customers complain about release bearing noise in the last year where ive fitted a brand new LUK item, there is a quality problem there.

You should be able to push the ring gear back, id certainly give it a go before binning the flywheel

[steve_k]

i've got a clutch to do on my mates e30 soon, not looking forward to it at all after seeing this thread,

as for the gearbox cradle, you can get them from ebay for anything from £50 - £100, i've got one in the shed, cost me £35 a few years ago, got it fitted to a 3 ton trolley jack & it stays on there.

also, heard a few folk complaining about noisy release bearings on LUK clutches on other cars, definatley a problem somewhere.

[paultv]

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The flywheel face is oil contaminated and the ring gear will go back some of the way but it has damage marks on it, looks like its been hit with a hammer and punch,


Looks like a crack or forge mark???

Paul

[paultv]

Yeah the LUK new clutch release bearing I have here is real wobbly, so I'm going with Sachs this time around

Paul

[paultv]

Friction surface

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[flybynite]

The flywheel face is oil contaminated and the ring gear will go back some of the way but it has damage marks on it, looks like its been hit with a hammer and punch,

Looks like someone has had a good go at hammering it back before, even between the punch marks. As Dan says it should still go back but I wouldn't be trying too hard until I had put a good bit of heat into the ring gear (plumbing MAPP burner is what I use) and maybe a pipe freeze kit on the flywheel. Amazing how much plumbing gear comes in use on a car

You could see what a bit of wet and dry does to the face?

Looks like a crack or forge mark???

AFAIK it is the weld joining the ends of the ring gear together. That bit looks ok but as for the rest of it

Yeah the LUK new clutch release bearing I have here is real wobbly, so I'm going with Sachs this time around

Always used Sachs and had no problems. Only tended to use LUK on DMFs as I think they seem better. Have heard Sachs have stopped doing the 325i clutch kit but the bits were available separately when i last looked.

[martauto]

I have been a toolmaker all my life and find the complete misunderstanding of the basics very troubling !!!!!

If it does not fit find out WHY and DO NOT resort to brute force and hammers !!!

What else have they done to soooooo many cars in the past ???
F******* ********g cowboys at the very best.

Well spotted Paul, the ring gear should go back fine and if it had been a crack it would have spun around or fallen off before today.

Shame these B***** ***** mate, they are screwing around with lives.

Mart.

[paultv]

Things are getting cleaned up slowly....

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Starter motor is good for another ten years!

I can't help myself when it comes to painting !!!!

[Foe]

Wow! Nice work

[Satan]

So Fritz Bits are shite?

[paultv]

My first thought was "that's a bit harsh " but then setting yourself up as a mark specialist, means you should be offering better than normal services -

Presenting yourself as a professional and knowledgeable facility makes owners feel well looked after... and that their car will be well treated and carefully handled.

I'm not sure "shite" is spot on, but I expected more, and certainly did not get what I paid for, As I pointed out earlier, I did revisit a week after the work was finished to try and chase down
the prop vibration, but a test drive and "tighten everything up" resulted in driving away with the same problem - when I took it all apart the prop was simply not re fitted in its balanced position,
so a rooky mistake - also they knew I was leaving the country so.....

You really need recomendations from the guys on here for service and so on, to be sure of getting good quality work done - there's so many rip off merchants out there just wanting to make a quick few quid out of you.

Paul

[Satan]

So shite rip off merchants...........

[paultv]

Pilot bearing in after good clean out.

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There is an end stop so tap the bearing in using a socket as a drift until fully home, no brute force required here....I've heard people not putting the bearing fully home and then having trouble mating the box.

Paul

[martauto]

So shite rip off merchants...........

Mart.

[paultv]

I recieved my Sachs clutch kit this morning,

It's going to replace the LUK.

Which one would you choose?



Sorry about the crap phone video!

Paul

[flybynite]

Which one would you choose?

Preaching to the converted

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