[200q20v] Blown ADZ trnas update

[Neil Swanson]

Guys

First of thanks for the cards and letters of condolence.  Turns out they
aren't needed.  

Today marks the day 3 weeks ago I crunched my way back from LRP after
hurting my tranny, and the 3rd day I'm back driving the car.

Before and during the fix I had my eyes out for a used tranny, asked about
one of those new ones from the fatherland and fretted.

I pulled the trans and found one bearing had lost its cage.  It came apart
from the rear most output shaft bearing.  Some pieces came out with the
oil, most of the other pieces were still on the bearing hanging by a
thread.  All the balls were still there and the tranny noise could be
traced to the output shaft kind of floating around making the depth of the
gear engagment inconsistant=noise in 1st-3rd.

Our shop foreman who has seen plenty of VW and Audi problems said he bet I
could change just that bearing and I'd be fine. I was skeptical but in the
end decided to go with it.  Afterall here I am looking at gears that at
172k miles show barely any wear, even after puking aout bits of bearing. 
Also no metal had come out of the front oil drain.  So I gambled.

I got a new bearing and races, some other misc stuff and reassembled the
tranny.  I also changed all the oil seals on the tranny, added new OE GL4
and put the tranny back in.

Before I did though I put in a new pilot bearing, new rear main seal, new
clutch and since it was easy and leaking a new heater control valve.  I
also removed the cover on the dist. hold down bolt with an air chisel from
below.  I'm getting ready for the inevitable. I also put in a new flame
trap in the breather hose.  Odd but there was no old one to remove?!   I
also installed new e-brake cables.  One was frozen and it could never be
easier than when the exhaust and driveshaft were out to replace them.

So in it went and it worked like a charm.  The tranny is dead quiet and 
shifts better than before I went through all this.  The new clutch is very
light compared to what I had.  BTW, every part I changed, the pilot
bearing/clutch/rear main were all fine but I'm not doing this work again. 
The seal didn't leak and the clutch wasn't worn out at 172k miles.

So I dodged a bullet this time.  It took almost 3 weeks but I had limited
time to do it.  I only have an hour or so after work before we close every
night.  On weekends I'd get ready to pull the tranny but have no one around
to help, and when I had it done I nobody to help reinstall till Monday. 
But it worked out.  

Will I go back to the track?   Uh I bet I do.  Watching is no fun.

Neil