2005 Jetta tdi manual transmission not working

[Cj Tdi]

Hi so my brother just bought a 2005 mk4 bew tdi with the 5 speed, it starts and runs fine! The guy that sold it said the slave cylinder was out of it, he tried replacing it and kept blowing it! We endend up replacing the gear selector tower housing because it was busted and it won’t go into gear. We’ve tried putting it in gear with using plier with the shift linkage disconnected and it feels like it clicks into gear but it won’t.
any ideas what it might be? Possibly the transmission needs replaced?

 

[oilhammer]

Sounds like the clutch release fork in the bellhousing wore through at the pivot pin. I'd pull the transmission out and have a look. Slave cylinders don't fail on these cars, especially repeatedly.

 

[Cj Tdi]

that’s kinda what we’re thinking we’re gonna have to do, would that cause it to not go in gear even with the car off?
Like it click into gear but it is still in neutral

 

[oilhammer]

Tough to say, if something got jammed somehow, not really sure. In any event, you'll at least need to pull the unit out and see what you are working with. If you get it out, and the release lever is OK, then you know it is something internal to the transmission.... which you would have needed to pull it out to fix anyway, so...

 

[Cj Tdi]

Thanks! We pulled the trans pan before we pulled the transmission, and found all kinds of steel shreds and chunks in it, and it hardly had any fluid in it! so I guess we’ll rebuild it or swap a used one in!