Brett San Diego
Veteran Member
I’m in the middle of my first of two back-to-back 02J rebuilds. This is my first time inside a manual transmission. I started a few weeks ago, and I thought I might document things from the beginning, but then I thought, nah, there’s enough out there already that it probably wouldn’t be helpful. Now, partway through, I’m finding there’s a number of things I wish I had known from the beginning from parts and tools that I would need to techniques for accomplishing specific tasks without special VW tools. So, I’m going to start a thread documenting most of my rebuild that, hopefully, will give folks a single place to find all or nearly all the information needed to rebuild an 02J. I won’t guarantee that this is comprehensive as there may be other issues other people may face with their transmissions that I didn’t. This is also not a step-by-step how-to. My intention is to provide some up-front information and fill in the blanks on certain parts of the rebuild showing methods that worked for me.
First, Resources. I have consulted a number of documents, web pages, and youtube videos.
B4 Passat Bentley manual. The most comprehensive documentation. 218 pages on the manual transmission alone. Note this is for the 02A transmission, which is very, very similar to the 02J internally. I bought a .pdf copy on eBay for $10. Worth it.
A rebuild document that I downloaded from the below link. Less detailed than the Bentley but a quicker read to get the gist of things.
Somewhere, I found a .pdf copy of the Alldatadiy.com section on the 02J, but if you have the above two, there is nothing new here.
A thread on this site about doing modifications to the case for 5th gear oiling. I did both: drilling some holes to allow the 5th gear compartment to drain and adding the 5th gear oil trough part that was installed at the factory in later transmissions.
Youtube videos by Andrew Lewis. Great series of 5 videos. You should absolutely watch these. I don’t think he was rebuilding a transmission per se. He seemed to be piecing together a transmission from various used parts, so he doesn’t go into detail on what parts to replace when rebuilding.
A short article showing pics of damaged and worn parts.
An article on replacing the rivets holding the ring gear with bolts. I will not be swapping my differential or ring gear, but there are nice pictures showing details of the differential assembly.
An old step-by-step text description of a rebuild on vwvortex. It seems it had pictures in the past that aren’t there now. I found this early in my searching, but I haven’t gone back to it once I had the above reference items.
A good resource for transmission parts diagrams and some general info on the VW manual transmissions and for parts, too.
www.zelek.com
Edit 2/28/2023: Another workshop manual website that I just learned about. This exact link below takes you to the output shaft page, but there are a lot more sections. Same general format as the Bentley manual, but for the 02J.
Edit 5/21/2023: Hands down the best resource. A Youtube series just created by forum member Matt-98AHU and professional transmission rebuilder. Long videos, but it's real time, so you get an idea how long things take. These videos are about building a 6 speed transmisson in an 02J/04A hybrid case using 02S internals. Really cool. Here's the youtube channel. Click on the "02S 6 speed to 02J Mk4 conversion" playlist.
And the thread on the forum:
Tools next.
First, Resources. I have consulted a number of documents, web pages, and youtube videos.
B4 Passat Bentley manual. The most comprehensive documentation. 218 pages on the manual transmission alone. Note this is for the 02A transmission, which is very, very similar to the 02J internally. I bought a .pdf copy on eBay for $10. Worth it.
A rebuild document that I downloaded from the below link. Less detailed than the Bentley but a quicker read to get the gist of things.
Somewhere, I found a .pdf copy of the Alldatadiy.com section on the 02J, but if you have the above two, there is nothing new here.
A thread on this site about doing modifications to the case for 5th gear oiling. I did both: drilling some holes to allow the 5th gear compartment to drain and adding the 5th gear oil trough part that was installed at the factory in later transmissions.
02J 5th Gear Lubrication Modification
Here's an invaluable how to to modify the 02J case in improving lubrication to the 5th gear area. This photo is the case as it is before modification. In the area marked, take a 1/4 inch drill bit and drill holes, pushing to the side to make a large oval for the port in the middle. The final...
forums.tdiclub.com
Youtube videos by Andrew Lewis. Great series of 5 videos. You should absolutely watch these. I don’t think he was rebuilding a transmission per se. He seemed to be piecing together a transmission from various used parts, so he doesn’t go into detail on what parts to replace when rebuilding.
A short article showing pics of damaged and worn parts.
An article on replacing the rivets holding the ring gear with bolts. I will not be swapping my differential or ring gear, but there are nice pictures showing details of the differential assembly.
An old step-by-step text description of a rebuild on vwvortex. It seems it had pictures in the past that aren’t there now. I found this early in my searching, but I haven’t gone back to it once I had the above reference items.
DIY - Splitting the O2J transmission case for repair or...
www.vwvortex.com
A good resource for transmission parts diagrams and some general info on the VW manual transmissions and for parts, too.
www.zelek.com
Edit 2/28/2023: Another workshop manual website that I just learned about. This exact link below takes you to the output shaft page, but there are a lot more sections. Same general format as the Bentley manual, but for the 02J.
Volkswagen Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > Golf Mk4 > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02J | Gearbox,mechanics,gears,shafts,internal operation | Dismantling and assembling output shaft
Golf Mk4 > Volkswagen Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02J | Gearbox,mechanics,gears,shafts,internal operation | Dismantling and assembling output shaft
workshop-manuals.com
Edit 5/21/2023: Hands down the best resource. A Youtube series just created by forum member Matt-98AHU and professional transmission rebuilder. Long videos, but it's real time, so you get an idea how long things take. These videos are about building a 6 speed transmisson in an 02J/04A hybrid case using 02S internals. Really cool. Here's the youtube channel. Click on the "02S 6 speed to 02J Mk4 conversion" playlist.
And the thread on the forum:
02S 6 speed conversion into 02J case
Poking around some used cars a couple months ago, I came across a 2020 Golf 1.4 TSI with a 6 speed. This was news to me as the earlier 1.4s came with a 5 speed as their optional manual transmission. I've been looking at transmissions in the VW Parts catalog via Partslink24.com lately just to...
forums.tdiclub.com
Tools next.
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