020 Pinion Shaft

[JimLill]

why are these different on small end?

http://www.trackpedia.com/photogarage/data/500/medium/DSC_0972_Medium_.JPG

[dave parker]

Jim
I believe that the shorter pinion shaft is for a four speed box. The longer one for a five speed box.
But it is Saturday morning and I am not fully awake.
cheers
dave parker

[JimLill]

and the asnwer is..............



Gary Peloquin wrote
V.W. no longer uses the needle bearing so no need to have the longer shaft.

[Lael Cleland]

I would use the long shaft, it has an extra bearing, so it must be better......
requiers the correct tail housing....

[markw]

Both are correct. The early 5 speeds did not have the pinion support bearing in the rear cover. Later VW added the extra support needle bearing. In a jam you could run the shorter pinion, but 5th gear is weak enough as it is. There are two different end covers as well. Early and Late. There are also two different fifth gear slider hubs/shiftrod lock. Hope that is of some help.

[JimLill]

The short part is a new one from VW......... and Gary says short is new....... so now I am back to confused.......

[Sandro]

since they did away with that top bearing, I would assume the shorter is the new one.

[GTIspirit]

And you can't get the replacement bearing that goes on the end of the longer shaft. I had my parts contact check with the techs, the official VW manual says that the bearing is no longer used. It kind of makes sense to me, how can you support a shaft at three points? It seems to me that one would always be a little off from the other two, just like two points define a line and three points define a plane.