2003 aircooled gearbox issues

Hi my 2003 1.6 air cooled t2 has a droning noise that comes from the gearbox…..the sound oscillates it is quite audible and gets louder as the speed increases. The shift is a bit stiff as well. There is also some slight bearing whine. Quite a bit of metal filings where on the magnetic drain plug when the oil was changed. Has anyone else had the same problem? If it needs a rebuild who is the best person to take it to? I live in Bristol Rgds David

Hi all, I've just been told that my 2007 watercooled Bays gearbox needs replacing or restoring. At the moment I'm looking to source a replacement gearbox. Any help would be much appreciated. Chris

greeny wrote:

Hi all, I've just been told that my 2007 watercooled Bays gearbox needs replacing or restoring. At the moment I'm looking to source a replacement gearbox. Any help would be much appreciated.  Chris

There are plenty of threads about this on the forum if you do a search, including my thread on replacing a watercooled gearbox with a reconditioned German Beetle gearbox. You will find that a new Brazilian watercooled gearbox is very expensive and practically impossible to find. Your options are to rebuild your existing gearbox, or use a Beetle gearbox like I did. A Beetle gearbox will slot straight in to an aircooled, but will need some modification which I have described in my thread.

Many thanks Voyager. I'll check out your thread, Chris

greeny wrote:

Many thanks Voyager. I'll check out your thread, Chris

I don't know where you are on the south coast, but I know that Paul Brand Autos in Hampshire have repaired the gearboxes of other members.

Thanks Voyager,
I'm in Sussex.
Have sourced a box through Bob at Volkshaus. Probably going to take a month to get Arnie back on the road. His original box is with H2 Engineering....in bits!
Thanks again for your help, Chris

greeny wrote:

Thanks Voyager,
I'm in Sussex.
Have sourced a box through Bob at Volkshaus. Probably going to take a month to get Arnie back on the road. His original box is with H2 Engineering....in bits!
Thanks again for your help, Chris

Obviously you need to decide what to do with the original box, repair or sell as is. I sold ours to somebody who rents out a Brazilian van and needed to have a spare available. Just the gearbox case is worth money. They are sold as Rhino cases to people who race VW-based vehicles.

Thanks for that info Voyager. I was told I would probably have to pay them for stripping the box down