please need help and advice badly, tranny work

[cambell]

hello all, heres my story. i have a 02 volkswagen gti. i was pulling in my driveway the other night and while i was slightly rolling (2mph) i put it in first gear. after that i now no longer have first or second gear. reverse,3rd,4th,5th,and 6th all work fine. i am pretty sure that i have the problem figured out but i have never pulled a tranny from a car let alone cracked into one. see in my tranny there is a selector rod with a shift fork attached to it. the shift fork is a big brass c with a small steel fork rivited to it and in my mind the rivits broke loose. this seems to be a known issue with the tranny in my car but i have 97k miles on it and the warrenty is over. i do not wrench for a living but i did go to school for mechanics many years ago and im thinking about doing the job myself. my reasons: im broke, i mean broke. i can muster up probably $500. i can borrow money from people but i probably cant pay it back anytime soon so im trying not to do that. most mechanics that i talk to dont want to rebuild the tranny they just want to swap in a used or rebuilt but i have a rare tranny and this is money. not to mention i will have the same problem again in the future because its a design issue. i thought about buying a $500 car so i can get to work and over the next month or so fixing my tranny by myself, maybe $300 in parts. i do not have to press out any of the gears or anything i just have to crack it open and swap out the 1st-2nd gear selection rod. i am limited to my driveway and a good set of hand tools. im not sure what to do, any of you experts out there have any advice? anyone know a good tranny shop on long island ny that would be willing to crack into mine instead of just swapping it out. thnx guys for any advice you may have.
also sorry if this in the wrong forum.

[Danglerb]

I wouldn't drive it until its fixed, a loose chunk can do all sorts of additional damage. Chances of this being fixed quickly given your money are slim, so find some transportation to get over the hump, and allow more time to figure how you want to do the repair. I wouldn't suggest a cheap car, more like hunt down somebody to ride with, buy a bus pass, get a bike, etc.

Find some late model GTi group on the net and ask specific questions, and see if local help is available. Once you know fairly certainly what the repair involves you can decide if you want to do it, or scrounge for money to pay for it being done.

No sane shop wants a tranny apart taking up space and a car on a lift while parts issues etc. get sorted out. What might work for you though is to buy a cheap used tranny, make sure this part is fixed correctly, swap it in or have a shop do it, then fix your tranny and sell it.

[eschoendorff]

Find some late model GTi group on the net and ask specific questions, and see if local help is available. Once you know fairly certainly what the repair involves you can decide if you want to do it, or scrounge for money to pay for it being done.



This is absolutely golden advice! :beer: :beer: :beer:

[MAD]

The older VWs into the late 90s had external selector rods that the plastic socket side of the ball and socket joint would split. These selector rods go for around $2.00 - $20.00 and take a few seconds to replace. I have no idea what the later ones are like.

If you want some good free advice over the phone give these guys a call (not on the toll free #).

http://www.partsplaceinc.com/

They are very helpful and are knowledgeable about all VWs. They are not always the cheapest but they have everything and are very DIY friendly.

[cambell]

thnx guys for your suggestions. i figured no matter what it was driving the car at all would not be a good thing so all i did was put it and third and pull in my driveway. i am a member on vwvortex and i wrote a post on there but for some reason it was deleted, the site is volkswagen owned. heres a pic of the tranny.<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o263/v8282w/RMImageAction.png" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a> unfortunatly im kind of a looser and i dont have friends that could drive me. my girlfriend lives in another state and this is already putting a damper on our relationship. i just seem to be screwed all around. thnx guys

[cambell]

here is a pic of what seems to be happening with my tranny. this is not my actual tranny this is just a pic from one of the many other people that have had the same problem.<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o263/v8282w/IMG_0056.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

[Danglerb]

Well the good news is the tranny appears in one piece and the guy has the part loose in his hand.

You don't want to put the part before the horsing around, first find out for sure what is wrong with your specific car.

Vertex is a parts seller, not owned by anybody as far as I know, but many forum mods delete or move posts if they go in the wrong forum, or break any one of a forums little rules.

Read this book, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People

[cambell]

no its www.vwvortex.com and they put the post back up. i think they were just updating the website. i went to a few tranny places today and it looks like its gonna cost me between 1-2k to have someone else do it. well i gotta go sell everything i own on ebay, unless anyone on here is from long island and wants to hire me i can wrench a good bit and im moderately inteligent, though my grammer sux. i work from 3-9pm right now but im free aside from that. ill work all night or all morning.:)