MK6 manual gearbox > MK5?

[svvg]

Hi mate - is it a straight swap? My box has a bit of lateral play in the input shaft again (after shimming it and fixing it for a year/6,000 miles) and the clutch pedal’s getting stuck again. Might consider a mk6 box if it’s an easy swap?

[pudding]

Yeah it is mate 

I would swap over the metal gearshift relay over from your box to the new box as that part switched to crappy plastic from 2008 onwards.  Other than that, straight swap.

It’s solved all my clutch and gearshift issues.  There wasn’t a huge amount of play in my input shaft, much less than I expected, but it was enough to cause major problems when hot. The new box makes the car feel new! Hard to believe a slicker gearshift can have that affect but it’s so much nicer to drive now.....especially dropping down through the gears approaching roundabouts.  Way smoother and slicker    Dropping from 4th or 3rd to second used to be a real chore.

[svvg]

Nice one. Thank you. So KZS box if I can find one.

I’ve got some thinner shims which I need to dremmel down to the correct circumference to see if I can pack out the slack in the input shaft on my box - I fitted one 0.65mm shim and this cured the issues I’d had, but as mentioned they’ve now returned. Can’t quite get another 0.65mm shim in place, so will see what I can do with the 0.1 shims I’ve picked up. Otherwise replacement box is cheaper than a repair!

Thanks for this.

[pudding]

Yep. There were loads on ebay when I looked. As an idea of cost, I paid £350 for a 31K mile old one. Not horrendous money but please do seek a second opinion before spending that kind of money off the back of a forum post 

It’s worth a go! I put a 0.12mm shim in the KZS box to remove all play completely, just for good measure! The only play in the shaft is from the bearing itself. It did the trick. The pedal and shift are both night/day better for me!  Hopefully you’ll see the same improvements!

[svvg]

Thanks for this (and the reply to my other post) - much appreciated. Will attempt another shim - it does need brake fluid - quite urgently - so will bleed the brakes and clutch (noting the pick up for the clutch line is at the top of the fluid tank) - but it feels more of a mechanical issue than hydraulics.

Incidentally - where did you get the shims from? I’ve had to buy oversized ones for a ford gearbox and Will dremel them against a template to get the inner bore/diameter big enough (the shims I found were 80mm outer diameter, so 2mm bigger, but should fit ok, and 63mm internal diameter....). Have also read not to go too nuts with removing the play - as can lead to premature bearing wear (although hardly a major concern based on the current problem!) and can even jam the shaft...

[pudding]

Erm, we used one the standard VW 0.65mm shims and shaved it down 

Your method is probably less of a faff! 0.12mm is what it had to be shaved down to to get it to fit. Yeah I’ve read the same about the input shaft but even with all of the shim slack removed, there is still play! I don’t track my car or thrash it, so I doubt mine will see the kind of stress & heat to seize the shaft. That bearing is barely even a press fit as I understand it. When things get really bad and the gear shafts start forcing each other apart, the outer race starts ovalising the casing.....which means a new gearbox anyway.  This mainly only happens on aggressively remapped and/or track raced cars.

It wasn’t strictly necessary to do that to my new box but my OCD wasn’t thrilled by the play in the new box, even though it was signed off as ‘in spec’. I just know how sensitive the pedal & bite point are with shaft play, so did it anyway! My mechanic (who is a gearbox guru) said it would be fine, but on your own gearbox, obviously only do what you’re comfortable doing 

[svvg]

Thanks - I don’t have a surface grinder - and can’t really measure the thickness required - so easier to (trial and error) fit set thicknesses (and easier to diy dremmel the internal diameter of the shims, which doesn’t need to be very precise than to diy the thickness of the shim!).

Thanks again. All very helpful.