What tires will you be running? How much will the car weigh?

 

5-600 with decent reliability.... as with anything it is predicated by abuse levels. more abuse, more rebuild/replace. there are stuff being made that help to strengthen the case, which seems to flex some under really big power.

02M are the 6 speed and said to be much stronger, with shift fork issues being the weak point.

 

As with all things it depends on how you're using it... but I would strongly, strongly suggest finding a non OEM diff (or welding the factory one) and bolting the ring gear on.

Mind you, I was breaking gears at 150ft-lb (Mazda) with a transmission that Internet Knowledge says is good to almost twice that. "Was", because I'm making more torque now... oi!

 

02M are the 6 speed and said to be much stronger, with shift fork issues being the weak point.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Echoes of the 01E...

Pete, as far as I know, the only riveted diff was in the 020, which should NEVER be considered for a performance application.

The next project rolling around in my head is this super clean Yugo I just agreed to buy from a coworker. The only bad thing about the Yugo is...every single moving part, so I will be ditching the Fiat junk and replacing it with something totally tubular.

 

The trans shop across the street let me play with an exploded 02A. The ring gear was riveted on. The rivets are also what held the spider gear shaft in place. Rivet walks out, shaft walks out, trans goes boom. No abuse required.

 

ran a 11.52 @ 127 mph running on 24.5 by 8 inch slicks @ 7psi 02j / 02a trans was swaped into a mk2 jetta 16v turbo with a gt35/83r with a 1.87 60 ft @ 32 PSI

 

02A's for certain have rivets.

 

02J's have rivets too. Upgrading the diff seems to be the first step (albeit a very expensive first step) in making 02A/02J transmissions last. But everyone will tell you something different, and I think it just depends on what the car will be used for.

If you plan on launching the car from a stop, many will swear by pre-loading the transmission first to help reduce the shock load. There are a handful of 02A-equipped turbo VR6 cars used for drag racing that seem to keep the transmissions alive this way. Most of the failures of the actual gears are from power-shifting at high rpm. For a race car that needs every tenth of a second, shifting slower is usually not an option but for the average street car that is easy insurance. Other failure points like someone else mentioned is that the case/pinion shaft will actually flex enough to pull the gears out of mesh and snap the tips of the gears off, or flex the shaft enough to push the pinion shaft outward through the case itself.

USRT and others make a pinion shaft brace that seems to be a pretty simple and elegant solution to help keep transverse VW transmissions alive: http://www.usrallyteam.com/index.php?ma ... ts_id=1049

I have also heard of "someone" that modifies 02A/02J shift forks and reinforces them somehow, but that information seems to be guarded, as most of the threads in the transmission section of the vortex that mention this get blackholed.

I have been reading up on this quite a bit since I hope to have a very high torque TDI in my Scirocco and keeping the tranny alive seems to be a concern.

Brendan

 

I have blown up more 020 than I care to mention.... I think 17 was the number for the rocco. That was with a quaife.... I went to the 02A with a peloquin and have yet to blow it up, but on another note, that is how I got here, got tires of blowing up transmission. So I found an audi with the 5cyl version of my 16v motor and it has been downhill ever since.....

 

The 02a/o2j is astronomically stronger than an 020. An upgraded diff + 02a/02j should hold very well in upwards of 400whp+.

Don't forget that there are a few longitudinal transmissions that may be able to fit your bill as well.

 

when i drag raced my Rabbit with 02A, it was ~6k rpm clutch DROP launches, no preloading whatsoever. never had an issue, with >550 whp (dont know true reading as at 550ish it just spun the tires on the rollers)

 

Definitely no longitudinal options will work for me. I am scouting my options for a Yugo project.

 

02M are the 6 speed and said to be much stronger, with shift fork issues being the weak point.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Echoes of the 01E...

Nope 01E had syncro issues which were more related to the design of the later shifter assemblies as well as the people shifting.

Pete, as far as I know, the only riveted diff was in the 020, which should NEVER be considered for a performance application.

Just about all Transverse transmissions had riveted ring gears when new.

As others have said it's all how you use it, I've seen first gear shed teeth with 250 horsepower and some people are running the Texas miles with 800hp on a stock 02J. Lubrication to the 5th gear is an issue as well if the fluid is any bit low the 5th gear gets starved for oil.

 

at about 350ftlbs tq i started stripping gears on a 02a, i did 2nd twice and third twice

 

Same here. After 2 third gears in my 02a 16vt, I gave up on fwd and power.

 

From weak to strong it is 020-02A/02J-02M..That being said, every 02A is not created equal. For example, I blew up the 02A in my scirocco with a chipped VR6 about a week after I did the swap. I installed another 02A and it has been in there for over 12 years now. We also built a 500ft/lb torque VRt MK2 with a mostly stock 02A, had a Peloquin diff in it..That trans lasted under hard abuse for a few years, and I ended up with it after the guy parted his car. Stock 02M's are quite resistant to breaking as long as you are not doing abusive launches..
Like someone mentioned, it depends on the use/abuse you are going to put it through..

 

0A6 is the absolute gearbox to have for power.
02M/02Q will break beyond 700hp...at least the angle drive will split into 2.
020 - forget it
02A - depends what gear kit you have in there. Stock? You are pushing you luck with 500hp.
Ive broken my fair share of 02J's and even 02M's.
Now for everything I am going to start using 0A6's.

 

The nice thing about the 02J (I think...) is that it's found in every manual transmission 4-cylinder Golf/Jetta IV and New Beetle. So, they should be easy to find compared to scaring up an 02A. (Plus, these cars are hitting the yards because they're rusted apart, not because they're mechanically thrashed, so better chance of finding a good one)

And, if I'm recalling correctly, the common-as-dirt 2-liter had the best ratios for performance. Just be kind on the 1-2 shift so you don't fold the shift hub's splines over, which seems to be the Common Failure Mode.

 

I don't shift terribly hard, preferring to ease into each gear before applying power.

I would like to make 500 crank. Where is the 0A6 found?

Does the VR6 have its own bell housing pattern? I'm leaning toward a 12V VR6.

 

yeah where is the 0a6 found?

 

yeah the VR6 has its own bellhousing compared to a 4banger

 

You can swap out internals from 4 banger and 6 banger transmissions though.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

 

:google:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.p ... S3-Edition

 

I ran 400 wheel through my 1.8T beetle and when I dragged it I lost third gear with it. My second Trans I lost second gear.