11/05/2026
For the first time in a couple of years I've had a transaxle in the cradle!
It's a one off, well, it's not a 'job'. Those days are over. This is the one out of Goran Syncro .
We are taking him overland shortly and a breather issue had caused the box to pressurise and blow oil out of the weakest part. In this case, it was fortunately on a 10mm section of the metal plate by the reverse idler and not a diff seal.
On a syncro many of you will know it's also a very thin bit of the casting, and quite vulnerable to stress so the sensible thing was to pull the box down to inspect the reduction gear housing, renew the plate and throw it back together again.
Having the box in the cradle meant removing the bell housing in order to rotate the box as is necessary during the build.
This in turn enabled me to have a peek at the crown and pinion gears. Gauging wear and making sure the big bearing was still locked in place.
It's probably 30k miles since the build, a third of VW life expectancy originally so a really interesting exercise.
