BHW/01E 6 Speed Swap

Well it's been well over 50K now (close to 60), so time for an update.

I'm still rocking the stock clutch (240mm). Car was de-tuned to 22PSI as it would slip at anything above. I couldn't even nurse it like an old man, the boost would always managed to creep up with my heavy foot! That was 40-45K ago, stock clutch bedded back in and has been fine since. Next project is to finally put in the Sachs SRE setup with a new 240mm dual mass. That will likely happen soon. Windex was kind enough to supply me with his extra pilot bushing so I can resolve that as well. Although it must have some engagement as it has been fine.

Mileage - yes I've been lazy and stopped tracking it some time ago. My summertime mileage is averaging around 5.3L/100K. That's 80% highway. If I hyper-mile to work and back, I can manage 4.6L/100K but who has patience for that? A straight highway run into Toronto with stop and go traffic tends to net low 5's. If I do much city driving it goes up to 6L/100k. To be expected with this heavy tub.

I've enjoyed this car very much. Almost put 60k on it since I bought it, and other than the oil changes I've just driven it. Later this summer I plan to either upgrade the BSM or remove it. I drove Windex's car to compare, and I'm on the fence about the BSM delete. I must be getting old as I've enjoyed the quiet smoothness of the ride. I bought sport springs and they still sit on the shelf too! My mounts are starting to get sloppy so they will be replaced with the clutch upgrade.

So far it's my favorite daily I've owned. The car is just "right" with the manual. Can't wait to turn the boost back up.... I highly recommend this conversion to any B5 TDI owners.

With the new mounts, the BSM delete vibrations have settled to the point where I don't really notice them any more.

I have 12k on mine liking it a lot.

Uberhare said:

W I highly recommend this conversion to any B5 TDI owners.

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Agreed. Manual (5 speed vs 6 speed is personal preference), stage 2 tune and delete have been the best "upgrades" I have yet to perform. Always fun to drive.

As detailed earlier in the thread, despite advice from many, I went with an 01E FRF for my B5 manual conversion. The transmission was procured out of the Czech republic, and all signs were initially good that I received a trouble free box (shifter tight, no abnormal noises, synchros working fine, fluid was nice and clean etc.).

Lately however, I'm starting to get a whine up through the shifter that sounds like an output shaft (pinion) bearing that is just starting to go bad.

The noise is road speed dependent and most noticable around 45mph - below that there is not much noise, and above that road noise tends to overcome.

Does not seem to be load dependent (does not change pitch much when I accelerate vs coast), My next step is going to get the car on stands and hold the speed at 45mph while I listen to the case with a stethoscope - does anyone know if the "typical" pinion bearing issue on an 01E is the bearing at the pinion/diff, or the one at the other end of the output shaft?

I was thinking of ordering the pinion from Scott Dewitt's site - and looking through the manual and several sites, the 01E FWD preload is done via selective shims/ snap rings. Talking to Scott, the actual issue from the factory seems to be that the preload was set too tight.

Le sigh. I'm still driving it, as I need the car, but I plan on parking it and tearing down the transmission for inspection in a week or so.

This sux Adam, sorry to hear that.

Yeah, sucks. Now I need to figure out how to commute while I have to transmission torn apart.

I preemptively ordered a bearing set for the transmission - which has to come out of the UK, as that (2wd - 6speed) was never offered here - the AWD version was, but the bearings are different.

Going to park it shortly and tear the transmission down - will post pics.

Alrighty. Transmission is back out...



And after I got the rear cover off, and the oil diverter, I was presented with this stupidly tight bolt:



Once I managed to get it out (breaker bar and many hands holding the transmission), the next step is to pull out the center/rear bearing race:



The race has an inner lip, and the proper tool engages in that lip, and pulls the race upward and out. Without removing that rear race, the rear cover cannot come off

The tool:



So I'm stuck... I need to find the tool, make one, or drag the transmission to a tranny shop and beg/pay them to pull the race out.

Le sigh.

QuickTD said:

Get this,

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Pullers-And-Bearing/Blind-Hole-Bearing-Puller-Set/8104036.p

Then get a chunk of pipe, a heavy washer and a piece of threaded rod with the same thread as the slide hammer in the kit. You may even get it with the slide hammer. I doubt that it is very tight on the shaft. You might want to pick up a bearing seperator and a few other assorted pullers while your at princess auto, it's going to get much worse inside...

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I saw that too, but I'm hoping to avoid the $149 price tag

I'm on good terms with the service manager at the local VW dealer, and apparently they are required to have a full spread of internal puller tools including the one above. If it were something I would use often, I would get it, but once this job is done, it would gather dust much the same as at the VW dealer.

I have a hydraulic press, and bearing separators/snap ring pliers of all sizes, so the rest of the transmission doesn't really concern me - just this initial race with the confounded internal groove.

I think I recall 3275 is one of the required tools.

Well, struck out so far - two transmission shops and the Burlington VW dealer. The Serv. Mgr at the VW checked, and said "it's not a push (compulsory) tool, so we won't have it." The Mr T. on Fairview st had an internal blind/lip puller, but it was too large and wouldn't have grabbed properly. The third (independent) transmission shop's tranny guy was out for lunch, so they didn't know where it was kept.

The internal diameter of the bearing race is 32mm. Next steps are going to check Bike shops, and a few other Mr. T.'s, after than I might hit up the Snapon dude and see if he can order it. I'm leery of the Princess auto kit, the lip on the bearing race is very shallow - I am not confident the metallurgy will be up to the task.

Go back to the last transmission shop before lunch.

Success. I was able to get the race out. A local TDIclubber had the princess auto blind puller set, it was decent quality, and the 30mm worked perfectly. More pictures to come.

Windex said:

Success. I was able to get the race out. A local TDIclubber had the princess auto blind puller set, it was decent quality, and the 30mm worked perfectly. More pictures to come.

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Great news Adam.

What are you driving now if the B5.5 is out of commission and the B4 is long gone?

mrrhtuner said:

Great news Adam.
What are you driving now if the B5.5 is out of commission and the B4 is long gone?

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See this is the justification I try to use on the wife - There is a reason that I need more than one car.

Since the transmission came out, it has been a combination of the Wife's CRV, and this: (when the weather permits)

Bring the bike here for a few days and you can take my Passat...Oh you might need to leave your license too.

So, I'm stuck.

I got the tranny apart, and even got the output shaft pressed down and pinion bearing replaced, but I can't get the bad bearing race out of the transmission housing...



Pictures!
Once you get the endcover housing off, you are greeted by fifth and sixth gears:



At which point you better have a good selection of pullers:



Then eventually, you get all the gears off save the sixth driven gear:



At which point you can separate the gear carrier housing from the differential housing:



And after some manipulation and removal of shift shafts, you get to the offending bearing: (you can just see the pitting in the bearing rollers)



And the corresponding race in the differential housing:



And a zoomed out shot of that same bearing race in the housing:



It's this one I can't get out - it does not look that bad, but I'm set on replacing it. The official VW tool is a slide hammer type affair, and I guess it much be bigger than my slide hammer, because I was slide-hammering it up pretty hard, and it hasn't budged.

Le sigh.

get out the arc welder and run a bead around the inside of that race!
What that does is shrink the race and it will fall out easy!
Easy fix just cover everything up to protect from welding splatter.

I have a mig - Haven't heard of that one before - how does running a bead "shrink" the race?

Keeping the inside clean is easy. The diff comes out the side of the case, and I can fill it with rags/other stuff to keep the spatter out.

I was planning on cooling the race and heating the case - the whole transmission has been very tight to press apart.

Here's an old thread with pics for the weld bead method.

Sounds weird but it does work.

After reading that thread and some other googling, the weld bead (when it cools) shrinks enough that it pulls the race into tension and contracts it enough that it is no longer tight in the race.

Will try this tomorrow night after work.

Good thing is that pressing in the new one is easy- just line the transmission up in the press and press down into the housing.

And the wife said I didn't need a hydraulic press in the basement...

The link was a bit misleading.
You weld the race to remove it.
you freeze the new one and warm the case to install the new one!
Drops right in!

Should've shot me a ring with your trans questions. Before you tore the trans down, you should've put gear marking compound on the ring gear and gotten a pattern and photographed it. Also, turn both drive flanges at the same time and take a backlash measurement off of them with a dial indicator. Re-setting used hypoid gearsets to their old wear pattern is crucial. $20 says you will need to adjust your pinion depth with the new bearing in there. Doing so is a huge PITA. Read up on basic ring and pinion setup, get some yellow marking compound, and read up on how to interpret patterns. Proper countershaft bearing preload specs are .12-.15mm. Take out the shim behind the rear countershaft bearing race to get the free play measurement.

That pinion bearing is actually available most cheaply as a porsche part here in the states, go figure.

Ok, the weld-a-bead around the race trick worked like a charm:



With two beads around the race, and a few minutes to cool, the race darn near fell out (two light taps and out). I'll be remembering that trick for next time.

And I got the new race pressed in:



... but I went to check the pinion preload, and it wasn't adding up - there wasn't enough...

then I noticed that one of the two shims under the pinion bearing race stuck to the old race. Now I need to get the new race back out again, without destroying it... or pony up for a whole new bearing.

With the shim out, (.4mm, 0.015"):



The gear contact pattern is too far down the teeth on the crown



So, now I need to order this:http://www.ecstuning.com/ES1356957/ orpony up and get one from a local porsche dealer - which sucks, as all I need is the race, the bearing is already pressed on the shaft and still fine.

Or... if someone here can come up with a surefire way to get the race out without destroying it...

Go to the local bearing supply store and see if they can order just the race. If it's a standard race, they might.

Yep - see if you can read the race # off the old one. Any bearing shop should be able to get it for you. Most of the time you can get bearings that way, just need to find the #s.

You will have to weld that new one sorry!
You can buy a new race separate

Find a bearing race driver that sits inside the race on the differential side but clears the case. With the diff out, warm the case up with a map gas torch and use a mini sledge turned sideways inside the diff housing to smack the driver and push the race out. It will take a few minutes, but it will work. Did it a few times before I made a puller tool. You won't be able to find the race at any bearing supply place, trust me. Went down that road a long time ago.

Whitbread said:

Find a bearing race driver that sits inside the race on the differential side but clears the case. With the diff out, warm the case up with a map gas torch and use a mini sledge turned sideways inside the diff housing to smack the driver and push the race out. It will take a few minutes, but it will work. Did it a few times before I made a puller tool. You won't be able to find the race at any bearing supply place, trust me. Went down that road a long time ago.

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Thanks for the advice. I had checked with Canadian Bearing - the biggest bearing place up here, and they said that it was "automotive only".

I'm going to try to beat it out the way you suggest tomorrow.

Very good advice indeed. I ground down the lip on the old race, and ground down the circumference a few thou so it wouldn't get stuck in the bore.

HUZZAH! The race is back out and now sporting both shim rings

*stupid apprentice mistake*

Race is now chilling in the freezer, and case is still being toasted by two space heaters.

Preload to come...

My previous measurements put the preload at about .005" without the extra shim, which would total about .020" if the shim had been installed. According to the manual, the preload should be around .010, so the preload was about double - confirming Scott's info that these were preloaded too much at the factory.

Windex said:

Very good advice indeed. I ground down the lip on the old race, and ground down the circumference a few thou so it wouldn't get stuck in the bore.

HUZZAH! The race is back out and now sporting both shim rings

*stupid apprentice mistake*

Race is now chilling in the freezer, and case is still being toasted by two space heaters.

Preload to come...

My previous measurements put the preload at about .005" without the extra shim, which would total about .020" if the shim had been installed. According to the manual, the preload should be around .010, so the preload was about double - confirming Scott's info that these were preloaded too much at the factory.

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Glad to hear it worked. Remember, shims under the pinion bearing set pinion depth, shims under bearing race in cast iron mid housing set countershaft bearing preload. So recheck your gear pattern with both shims under the pinion bearing and go from there. Once gear pattern is good, then worry about bearing preload.