valeo is as good as any ,if clutch cover fingers arent worn were release brg runs just get plate and a new release brg if it is get stc8358g

I did'nt take a picture but there is shiny wear...so I'll stick a new one in to be sure. I take it these £55 Britpart jobbies are to be avoided then?

http://www.paddockspares.com/da5551...earing-all-4cyl-diesel-except-130-300tdi.html

Lastly, if you were putting everything back in, would you join the two boxes and install as one, or fit the mainbox onto the bellhousing first, then put the tfr box on afterwards?

ive used them many times but would prefer valeo
i sit t/box on handbrake drum chocked level the slot g/box down on to it fit a few bolts then lay down connect everything between the 2 boxes and lift both in together

Nice one, thanks again!

no problem mr

Update time...
Been on hols last week so before I went I dropped the box off at Ashcroft, thinking it was knackered and just to save the surcharge and carriage on the exchange box. David then rang me when I was away to say there wasn't anything terribly wrong with it, and they could rebuild it for a lot less than the cost of a full re-con box, so I've gone down that route. Some of the baulk rings and synchros and a few other bits were very tired, and at some point someone has rebuilt it with two fat reverse gears rather than the correct one fat/one thin (I think I have that right...). But there was no "smoking gun" for that awful noise. He wondered if the issue was with the clutch (which he said looked like it had got hot) or most probably the transfer box. Anyway, it was all rebuilt and shipped back to me looking all clean and shiny in a couple of days, so fair play to Ashcroft for that. TBH I was expecting a few blokes in a shed but it's a very impressive operation indeed.

So today, without actually totally dismantling the transfer box I took all of the other covers off (I'd already taken off the big one) and found the rest of that snapped selector piece up near the diff lock!!! ANd a lot of metal shavings in some gummed up corner of a cover too. Something the size of my thumb flying round in there can't have been good. However it doesn't explain the timing of the noise coinciding with the main box ATF change, the swarf, or the fact that I'd not done the tfr box oil? However, I'm thinking this may be the explanation...

The main box was obviously well overdue an ATF change and some attention. I put the fresh ATF in, and on the test drive I heard the noise. And thinking back, it was exactly at the point I drove over a hump-backed canal bridge. It's just possible that this was the steepest angle of pitch the vehicle had been in for some time, and that piece of selector somehow moved and ended up hitting the internals of the tfr box, which then would "pick it up" in a high torque scenario. Me changing the tfr box oil to fresher, thinner stuff after the problems start makes it worse, however in the meantime the fresh ATF in the main box does it's detergent thing over the next 20 miles, so when I drop that ATF, it's flushed out all the crap and bits and makes me think the main box is about to die which was clearly not the case.

Anyway, both boxes are now back in, tomorrow evening I will connect the minimum for a road test (gear linkages, rear prop) and whizz it up the road in diff lock. If the noise is still there then clearly the tfr box must be knackered and out it comes again for a full recon, if it's gone then floors/front prop/X-member can go back in and I will have earned a beer...

the wider reverse idler solved the jumping out of reverse as the narrower gear teeth wore off due to partial engagement on earlier boxes

Bear in mind that on your test run(if you run with no transmission tunnel) the racket sounds terminal!
I swore my crank was trying to exit the block until it was all back together and relative peace restored.