[T3] Transmisison fun

[Soren Jacobsen]

> On Sep 21, 2018, at 2:57 PM, Tim Shreve <type3tim at cox.net> wrote:
> 
> I'm thinking that the "reverse gear" you speak of is splined on the inside
> and those splines connect the input shaft to the main shaft; and that is
> what transfers/carries the load. I.E. the short stud doesn't carry the load.

Yeah, exactly.  The two shafts are splined and the reverse gear (one of the two reverse gears, anyway) joins the two.  As you say, the reverse gear takes the load, not the stud inside.  The stud's only job is to keep those two splines pulled together.

> What happened to your circlip(snap ring) that holds the "reverse gear" in
> its proper place?

The circlip was still securely in place.  When I discovered that I had a detached input shaft and yanked it out through the seal, the clip was right there where it's supposed to be.  That clip only prevents the reverse gear from sliding rearward on the input shaft.  But if the stud connecting the input shaft to the main shaft gets turned all the way forward (i.e., into the front main shaft) allowing the input shaft to move rearward, the reverse gear can slide rearward too (just not past the clip, of course).  I suspect (though I didn't try) that a good forward shove of the input shaft would have moved the reverse gear back into place and it would've engaged properly.  Useless long-term, of course, because the input shaft would just work its way rearward again.

For anyone else who's curious about this problem, here's an annotated picture of all the parts in question: http://blef.org/vw/transmissionmainshafts.jpg

Soren