02j flange seal debacle

Recently I replaced a 5 speed in a customers golf. He supplied a "good" used transmission and some seals etc. to install in the trans before the reinstall.
I installed the passenger side flange seal no problem, but the drivers side I hit a snag. Upon removal of the flange retaining bolt I heard something drop, looking inside I could see the diff pin the spider gears ride on. Has anyone experienced this before?? The threaded plate that sits in the backside of the side gear fell out and went into the bottom of trans!?! I've done a few sets of seals and have never ran into this before. I didn't even think there was enough clearance between the side gear and the pin for this plate to fall and when removing the other side I found that no amount of wiggling could get the opposite side to drop out.

I got another replacement trans and changed the seals with no problem and finished the vehicle for the customer. Thought I'd post up and see if anyone ran into this before or maybe he supplied a very worn out 02j.
Cheers,

This happened to another bloke on vortex where he managed to drop both diff washers into the transmission after removing the drive flanges. Unfortunately he had to do a full teardown in order to retrieve them - fun

Not too sure how this can happen, but obvious it does from time to time

Could it be the cause of bad luck or perhaps excessive play/wear in the diff carrier?



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