Hi,

I've been trying to get the filler cap out of the transaxle on my '84 NA for a few days now - trying pretty much everything up to and including heat/dry ice to try and get it unstuck... No good.

Long story short I figured I might have just been too gentle with it - and I could just go with a little more force... and now the cap is well and truly fornicated.

In hindsight dropping the exhaust and using an impact driver might have been a better idea.

However, I'm still left with the original task which was to replace the transaxle oil.

I've noticed that there is a small triangular cover on the opposite side to the fill/drain - would this work as a fill port? What does it cover?

Does anyone have a transaxle diagram?

Also - any other ideas? I've ruled out drilling it as I don't want swarf in the gears. Although it is tempting.

Anyone been through this before?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

When mine was fk'd, I went to my local muffler shop and had them weld in a 17mm bolt. Someone on here might have a more elegant solution.

 

Thanks - I had actually been playing around with that idea - only welding a stack of nuts together and then into the plug... Was hoping to work around for now, seeing as I can't readily source another plug and if it breaks completely I'm not going to be a happy man.

 

Lots of PB Blaster, muffler off and a three foot breaker bar should do it.

 

Yeah, but the hex indent of the cap has actually deformed (mooshed!) - so I've given up on removing that.

The three foot breaker bar caused the problem in question, and I had soaked that sucker in every chemical known to man, as well as some that only monkeys had previously used... plus heat gun on the lot, followed by dry ice on the cap. Nada.

Anyhow - question is - is there another way I can fill the transaxle!?

 

Flip the car on its side and fill it through the drain.

More realistically, you can just get a bushing that fits the drain plug and get a hose on it. Hook the other end up to a hand pump. I don't know how you're going to know how much to put in there, unless you drain it first. When you're done, it's going to be messy, but it will keep most of it in there if you're fast and have someone to get their hand over the hole as soon as you remove the fill hose.

I've had the unfortunate experience of doing this on my old POS '74 F250s transfer case.

 

or just pull the tranny and put it sideways...

you could try one of those craftsman bolt-out type things..

 

I once removed a botched tranny drain plug by JB welding a hex key in there. Since then, mig welders have become very affordable.

 

Ouch, didn't catch that in the original post.
No advice here, good luck.

 

If you have the single piece molded VW transmission plug wrench tool, lift the car up - just a little - by placing the jack under the end of the wrench (which should be at about a 30 degree angle to the ground). Then stand or push down on the back bumper.

 

Your best bet is to still get the plug out of there. Unfortunately it may be necessary to remove the transmission to get the right access at the plug.

Sure you can get a new one. The plug is the same as the fill/drain plug in pretty much every manual VW gearbox. Every VW shop and most generic parts suppliers will be able to get you one if you just don't use the word "porsche"

These plugs can be frustrating as hell. Welding or JB-welding a nut/bolt into it is your best bet. Remove everything necessary to get a straight shot at it, smack the plug with a hammer a couple times to break it free then use a good impact gun to pop it out. Be like a ninja. If the plug doesn't see you coming it won't have a chance to grab hold. Hammering the plug confuses it and it lets go out of instinct. Crazy little critters they are.

 

Thanks so much for all the replies guys - finally got that plug out by the following method;

1. Hammer flat the mooshed plug / use a punch to get it back mostly in shape.
2. Set the hex socket bit in there in a little epoxy.
3. Place a ring spanner on the hex bit.
4. Make a neat pile of wood under the spanner, taking up the slack.
5. Slowly let the jackstand down a bit...
6. Victory dance.

Hammering may have helped break the contact between plug and transmission, but to be safe I cleaned up the threads of both plugs and greased them before putting them back in.

Incidentally, the 2.6 litres of fluid indicated at Clarks Garage is pretty much exactly spot on.

Also - with a euro rear bumper it's pretty easy to remove the bumper to help with the hose for easy filling - no bend.

Thanks for all of the helpful tips - I'm glad I didn't have to drop the transmission for this one (or tip the car on it's side!)

 

youre welcome.

you can ship that euro front bumper to 92064 out of gratitude.

 

Good to hear its free. That can be one of the simplest, or most frustrating jobs on the whole car. Just remember, put a brand new plug in, you don't want to deal with this plug again.

 

Hah! I would start shipping the euro bumpers / mounts to the states if you covered the postage and the purchase price. I should be able to get a few around here...

But I think you should check out the freight cost from NZ before getting too excited... Ballpark would probably be $300 US.

I'd swap for a turbo-look front end made to fit the early nose.

I've put the tricky plug back in at the moment - in the fill position so I can switch it out. I ran it up and down the thread a couple of times first, and it comes out cleanly. My epoxyplug (tm) seems to be holding up ok - but I'll go to a veedub parts place this afternoon...

Shifting is greatly improved with fresh oil - the old stuff was black as ink.