Cracked transmission case. Ok or replace?

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burn_your_money

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My dad was push starting his BEW in reverse and when he let the clutch out there was a popping sound but the car started. He drove it 30 minutes to town and back and after the car sat he noticed a 10” diameter puddle of transmission fluid on the ground. We cleaned it up and found the cracked case, as seen below. The crack looks smaller than it is in the picture because it is covered in Seall All at the moment.

The question is, can he run it like this or should it be replaced?

 
mittzlepick

mittzlepick

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Run it for now but unless its welded if possible structural damage is going to add up and leave him stranded in my opinion.
 
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eddieleephd

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Definitely replaced, drive it till you get another.
Automatic, or manual? If auto it's the perfect excuse to kill da auto wabbit

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 
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burn_your_money

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It’s a 5 speed. So far the opinions are in line with my dad’s thinking. I wanted to replace it now.

He’s going on a 5 hour drive tomorrow, should be a good test.
 
Nero Morg

Nero Morg

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Careful it doesn't lock up itself when it loses all its fluid.
 
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burn_your_money

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Do these gearboxes kick out of 5th if the oil runs low like the old 020s?

So far the seal all is doing it’s job, but it only has a 15 minute drive on it.
 
Tdijarhead

Tdijarhead

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I had an old diesel rabbit. On a long drive to Michigan it kept popping out of 5th gear. After arriving at our destination and eating dinner I pulled out of the restaurant parking lot only to loose all power. I had no choice but to go to a nearby vw dealer. The inner cv axle had come loose and sawn a hole in the side of the transmission case. The dealer used an epoxy to repair the hole and replaced the inner joint and I drove that car for another 100k.

Maybe the question should be, what caused the hole?
 
Powder Hound

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burn_your_money said:
... push starting his BEW in reverse and when he let the clutch out there was a popping sound ...
Click to expand...
I think this is the answer: don't push start in reverse. Apparently the transaxle can't stand it. Reverse probably isn't set up for much of anything in regard to torque. Used to be (and probably still is) that VW didn't even bother to harden the reverse gears. They probably saved 20 or 30 cents on each gearbox that way.

Cheers,

PH
 
Tdijarhead

Tdijarhead

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Powder Hound said:
I think this is the answer: don't push start in reverse. Apparently the transaxle can't stand it. Reverse probably isn't set up for much of anything in regard to torque. Used to be (and probably still is) that VW didn't even bother to harden the reverse gears. They probably saved 20 or 30 cents on each gearbox that way.

Cheers,

PH
Click to expand...



If this proves to be the case, something inside must be broken. Does the car work in reverse gear?
 
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burn_your_money

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The transmission is completely functional. My parents safely made it home but my dad says there was a new noise and it appears to have started leaking again. I’m still waiting on more updates from him.
 
pedroYUL

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Just for the record, I have bump started my BEW wagon countless times in reverse, and my transmission is just dandy...knock on wood!
 
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94cobra2615

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Id just get a cheap gas 4 cylinder trans at a junk yard and change the case half that is busted on the tdi trans.
 
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burn_your_money

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So my dad popped off that VW cap and found this inside. That’s a dime for size reference.



So we are now looking for a BEW tranny, unless there is a better bolt in one that is easy to find. Cruise control isn’t important.

Hopefully he will make it the 5 hours back down here.
 
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burn_your_money

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The hunt for a new transmission is underway. Regarding the 2 later style shifter styles, are they interchangeable? For example, if I get a 2001 ALH box, can I use my dad’s existing shift cables and ends without swapping the shift tower in the transmission? I’m not referring to the 99/00 linkage. I know you need to swap the tower in the transmission to make that work and I’m not going that route.
 
Tdijarhead

Tdijarhead

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The 01 linkage is the same. The BEW transmission has a slightly different 5th gear if I recall correctly.
 
Nero Morg

Nero Morg

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Just add a few spot welds to fill er in, then grab a file to true it up.

But for real, good find.
 
Tdijarhead

Tdijarhead

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Did you find a new transmission? Frans in the Netherlands is considered a good choice by many here.
 
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burn_your_money

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Yes I did find another, thanks. I installed it a few months ago. I just now got time to tear this one apart to see what happened.
 
pedroYUL

pedroYUL

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So...any indication on what exactly grenaded? To my untrained eye, it seems that a hard piece of metal "dislodged" from somewhere, and it was then chewed by those poor gears
 
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burn_your_money

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I haven't given it a thorough look over yet, and I'm certianly not a trained eye when it comes to transmissions but my initial thought is that my dad only had it half way in 5th gear. That put all the force on half of the teeth width which was too much. I seem to recall him saying his foot slipped off the clutch, so it was probably a pretty hard shock load to the teeth. I'm not sure if it shows in the pictures, but multiple teeth have half of them broken off. Reverse is the only gear on these tranmissions that the gears come in and out of mesh when engaging/disengaging them.
 
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