gearbox rebuild and upgrade

we all know that the Brazilian gearbox internal parts are not as strong as German made, they do however have very good and  strong aluminium case and heavy duty steel side plates, big cv joints (and the German beetle gearbox that some of you have used in your brazibays is made out of magnesium much lighter but also much weaker material - not really suitable for heavy van) so it make sense to rebuild them and replace all the weak components - the gears, bearings shift forks etc with best quality German ones.  

So this is what I have done with this one,  it arrived bit worse for wear:



dismantling the donor the get all the gears and then reassembling the pinion shaft:
 
 
 
 

dismantling the mainshaft
 
 

mainshaft bearing spacer the top one is brazilian - already badly worn out
 
mainshaft bearing brazi on the left:
 
pressing the bearing in:
 
 
 
German steel forks vs brazi brass ones, guess which ones are stronger and more durable:
 
Shift fork adjustment - thats a critical step without it it will not hold in the gear:
 
 
 
 
 

here you can see aqua electronic speedo drive:
 

Top job

Looks good - how much does it improve the gear change?

gordonmac wrote:

Looks good - how much does it improve the gear change?

what sort of problem with gear change you have?
gear change can be affected by several things such as wear in the gearbox - mostly the brass forks bend, crack or brake, gear engagement teeth and sliders wear off as well as synchronisers, bearings wear of allowing the shafts to move back and forth, but also linkage bushing are responsible for vague gear change.
so if you can be more specific please.
Also there seem to be much more damage to gearboxes on hire vehicles - I guess the reason is loads of drivers who have no experience and sympathy for old (design) vehicles.

Issue with mine is its sticky and stiff to change gears - first is particularly difficult to get into. Sometimes have to be v delicate and other times a bit more forceful. The castrol does help a bit.

I couldn't et anyone else drive it cos of the gears (and don't rent out either). Mine is air-cooled too BTW.

gordonmac wrote:

Issue with mine is its sticky and stiff to change gears - first is particularly difficult to get into. Sometimes have to be v delicate and other times a bit more forceful. The castrol does help a bit.

I couldn't et anyone else drive it cos of the gears (and don't rent out either). Mine is air-cooled too BTW.

form what ive seen first gear always have badly rounded teeth also damaged fork could make things worse. but its always a guess until you open it.

Great work @brabay!