gearbox query - why is it harder to change from 1st to 2nd?

[Khare]

as title. Say I want to do a flying start. 1st to 2nd takes moro effort to change. If it was as fast as 3rd to 4th for example, then I reckon it could shave 0.5/1 second off the 0-60 time.

Why?

[david_fraser75]

It's because 1st to 2nd is the most used gearchange, the synchromesh gets most worn 1st to 2nd.

if you slow down the gearchange, it'll change easier.
hope this helps

[Khare]

It's because 1st to 2nd is the most used gearchange, the synchromesh gets most worn 1st to 2nd.

if you slow down the gearchange, it'll change easier.
hope this helps

Ahh right nice one. Though it was something to do with wear and tear.
So there is nothing I can do apart from a recon box to sort this? Would draining the gearbox oil completly and putting new oil in help/sort it?

[Rmachines]

Oil probably wont help with that but if you drop the oil out and put in Redline MTL your gearbox will love you forever!  Just a thought, if yuo have worn out bushes or its not adjusted properly it can make it hard to get into gears, but like you say its 1st to 2nd so probably just the general wear and tear on the syncros

[daimo]

sorry for hijacking thread but ive just bought a mk3 valver,and on the test drive everything was fine,however the next day or 2 changing to first is very hit and miss and often end up in 3rd?any ideas please

[Khare]

Oil probably wont help with that but if you drop the oil out and put in Redline MTL your gearbox will love you forever!  Just a thought, if yuo have worn out bushes or its not adjusted properly it can make it hard to get into gears, but like you say its 1st to 2nd so probably just the general wear and tear on the syncros

Most but not all of the bushes are new, had a look at the relay shaft ball bu it seems to be good, not too much play in the gears. However. The gearbox mount is hammeret and quite often selecting 3rd is dificult because the gearbox is moving about a fair bit. So mount needs changing asap.

I'l look into the redline MTL oil, might be worth a full gearbox of it.

[Khare]

just looked at redline MTL oil and its about £13 for 1l 

I think i'l pass on that!

[Rmachines]

Yea its very pricey!  Its been known to totally cure the dreaded crunch into gears on the golf boxes though so it must be good stuff,  just new oil can make a big diffrence sometimes. worth a try.  Castrol is good for every day use.

[vdubman]

dont know if this will help but i struggled to get first gear.see i washed my engine bay bout 4 times this year with a jet washer.got advice from the dealer-went to hellfords and got castrol grease and did the ball by the gear lever and all the gear links in the engine bay,now first gear comes easy,and i had the gf runnning cos i waz looking for other parts to grease up-lol

[Khare]

dont know if this will help but i struggled to get first gear.see i washed my engine bay bout 4 times this year with a jet washer.got advice from the dealer-went to hellfords and got castrol grease and did the ball by the gear lever and all the gear links in the engine bay,now first gear comes easy,and i had the gf runnning cos i waz looking for other parts to grease up-lol

nice tip man. Ive got to jet wash my engine bay. I shall look into greasing up all the linkages and the ball when i do so.