MK9 Assy Ques.

[LolaT440]

I was putting my gears back in and using the Hewland manual.

The diagram for the pinion shows a washer between the reverse slider gear and the bearing. I don't have that washer, and it is not even listed on the parts list.
The explosion picture shows it, but the list does not identify it for a part number. I is this needed for a 4spd?

Then on 4th Pinion gear there is a washer listed in the manual as "Thrust Washer for 5th Gear". I don't have this washer either, as named, I assume it is only for 5 speeds.

[Steve Demeter]

Do you mean the reverse gear on the shaft or the reverse idler gear that is bolted to the case??

[Brian]

At the pinion end of the stack, there is an optional shim that is used to set the fifth gear (four speed Hewland is really 2 through 5) float. My early Mk 5 box needed about .095" there, my Mk 9 doesn't have a shim. The point is to get the fifth gear float right, or you won't be able to engage high gear.

At the other end of the pinion stack, the thrust washer is kind of inbedded on top of the bearing, it may not have come out when you removed your gears. But it's there, if the transmission worked before you took it apart

Setting the float is kind of hard if you don't have a jig, since it depends totally on the distance between the bearing in the bearing carrier and the pinion bearing. What I do when I assemble a box for the first time and I am just checking things out is assemble the pinion gear stack without the layshaft gears and stick it in the box and tighten everything up (not torqued, obviously. but hand tight and the nuts on a few of the studs tight to snug up the bearing carrier to the box). Then you can stick your finger up through the layshaft bearing and kind of wiggle the top gear back and forth. In a true Zen Master fashion, you then decide if the amount of wiggle feels like .006 - .008" or so. Flopping back and forth is bad, not moving at all is really bad.

I learned all this because when my Mk5 came back after having a new ring and pinion installed, the shim had been left out and no one had checked fifth gear float. With .095" missing the fifth gear float was tremendous. With the bearing carrier in a jig on the bench, fifth gear engaged just fine. With the box in the car, the dog rings could barely reach the gear dogs and about three shifts removed the bits that did reach - no fifth gear anymore! Moving the shift fork got me through the weekend, new dog ring, new fifth gear, and shimming the stack fixed the box properly. Replacing a brand new Mk5 gear that had zero time on it prior to that weekend taught me to check things when they come back from the pro shops.
Brian

[Roland V. Johnson]

The answer is that there may, or may not be a spacer required. If the transmission was operating fine without it, I wouldn't worry about it.