lol! mk2 gearboxes are the bain of my life!
it is possible with i all in the car, the twist it to two oclock advice sounds about right but it seems different every time i do it.
if you end up taking the flange off you have to poke the little rubber cap out of the centre to get to the circlip (cap is normally hidden bby the cv joint) and borrow somebodys dads old sckool circlip pliers because its not the type of clip with holes in. the pliers you need look like needle nose ones but the serated face is on the outside so it grips the end of the clip while you open it. Once the clip is off make sure you get the washer off from behint it too, they arent hard to get out but they can drop into the clip groove and stop the flange coming off properly, by this point one of two things will have happened- either a) the flange hasnt budged in which case you need to bash it till its out oir b) its not stuck and the big spring that lives behind it will have fired it at you/anything expensive in your garage. the spring is a bugger to squeeze up so making a puller out of a bit of steel bar and some threaded rod helps.
chances are you will end up taking the flange off your next box to put it in so while your at it do em both and drop some new seals in (10-15quid delivered of the ebay) as they are known for leaking and make sure you remember to put the brass split washer in the right way round or you will have all sorts of wobbly rumbly problems.
see the broke vw website
http://www.brokevw.com/ for more info than you could ever need and lots of pics of these boxes in bits. hope this helps!
