S8 six speed manual
 

my gearbox is playing up a bit now so thought i,d look into my options,
I've had a few quotes from TPS, huddersfield Audi, both around 4k plus vat for a exchange gearbox like Niels. and quote from chester and a good local firm tameside transmissions, spoke to ZF the idiot who answered tried to send me to euro car parts when i was after a full gearbox rebuild kit or the price of a new box. I've yet to speak to mackies.
but what about the manual conversion that nobody ever seems to finish in RHD there are plenty of 01E gearbox's about now at reasonable money. I'm a bit stuck on the flywheel and clutch do i need a s8 manual one or will a s4 one work OEM or TTV Racing? gearbox mounts are they available? part numbers?
can i Gather the required parts easily. the clutch pedal arrangement that Goran worked so hard on looks like the best bet. propshaft would probably be custom as OEM over priced.
what are your thoughts fellow owners?
cheers Dave

My thoughts would be that there are very good reasons why no-one has ever managed to create a RHD manual D2.

Equally, having read so many tales of woe over the years I've come to the conclusion that most gearbox issues are not necessarily as bad as you may fear and that even if they are they are fixable.

When you say "playing up a bit", what are the symptoms? Apologies if there's already a thread discussing them that I've overlooked or forgotten about.

Mackies was less than £4k (about £3k, including VAT, from memory) when I had mine rebuilt - and uprated - by them a few years ago. They also gave a far better warranty (100k and 3 years) than Chester - or, indeed Audi.

For those reasons, I went with them, and the 'box has been fine since then - just needs a 2 year service from them for <£200.

I would touch converting it to a manual, personally, unless you've got deep pockets and lots of time.

I think the B6 S4 box bolts straight in and the loom splices but it's a fiddly job with the pedal box etc, a guy on the S2 forum did one but don't know if it was a RHD or LHD

There are no more OE S8 flywheels. Nollywood and I bought them all I'm afraid, however for a 40V the V6 parts bolt straight on, and the B5 S4 / RS4 flywheel and clutch should easily be up to the job. There are plenty of clutch options for the S4 too.

Gearbox mounts are tricky - they are £300 each and I've never seen any second hand. They occasionally turn up on proper D2 01Es in Germany but they are extremely expensive - £1000-odd.

The gearbox itself would either need to be a proper DGW 01E, or one from a C5 A6 if you're going to use the proper mounts (FTL is the good TDI one). The B6 gearbox doesn't have the mounting bosses on it for the D2 mounts.

Driveshafts and propshaft turn up on ebay.de occasionally. Apparently the D2 LWB propshaft fits if you flip it 180*.

Shifter mechanism is a big challenge as its closer to the original V8 or C4 S6 than anything modern. Also unobtanium.

Nollywood has discovered that the auto ecu does not behave well with a manual, even though it can be coded accordingly. He resorted to buying a brand new manual ecu from TPS for £600-odd.

And finally... the clutch pedal. Goran's mock-up looks feasible. I've been looking at an alternative solution too using B5 A4 bits, but there is still no simple option, and no actual working example yet for good reason.

The only way this will be cost-effective (ie cheaper than fixing the 5HP24A) is if you can do the work yourself and can afford to have the car in bits for a long time while you wait for all the parts to turn up on ebay.de and fabricate the clutch mechanism.
If you can't do this work yourself and have to pay someone to solve all the little niggly problems along the way you're going to spend more on garage labour alone than an auto rebuild will cost. That's not even counting the cost of the parts which, if you do it properly is at least a couple of thousand.

What exactly is wrong with the auto? Some of the problems can be caught and fixed relatively cheaply before a full rebuild becomes necessary.

Hi it seems to be loosing pressure and slipping intermittently possibly the same o ring as syncros8 it's the same FBG code and the Milage is 176k I know it can't last forever. And I have always been prepared for a rebuild. The MAF a new genuine one, the f125 is recent I've had a 17114 (gear ratio monitoring incorrect) code I can drive it take it easy and take my time, no heavy or fast throttle. I'll get it on the ramp and check the oil level, I think I've checked everything else. I'm not opposed to the service exchange box for piece of mind. But I have 5 cars & 2 motorbikes that have to share my measly income. So have to try and get good value for money. If ZF will sell me the parts I can remove it myself and strip and rebuild it. I might not like doing it but I have access to facilities and a great group of friends. And if I can't do something then normally I know somebody who can. Thanks for your input on the manual conversion very usefull thanks, to see what I can buy and what needs making.
Cheers Dave

My new Service / Exchange Box listed at over £4k but the actual discounted price with garage discount was £2600+vat if that helps!!

I would put money on that being the o-ring & bearing. They're easy to change and the parts are <£100. I did it as a precaution while my drivetrain was out for the new engine. I would suggest parking it up until you can get it apart to have a look since it sounds like it might be recoverable now, but if the clutch packs start slipping they will burn out very quickly and then its full rebuild time. Get a sample of the oil - if it's grey/brown and a bit fishy it's rescueable. If its dark brown and smells burnt then its too late.

That's a very good start +++ Getting the gearbox out of & back in the car is the hardest part. The rest is easy once it's on the bench.

If you do decide to give it a go, for the gearbox mounts you could go over to Mike's and measure the factory castings, then just CNC aluminium mounts yourself, should be much cheaper than factory mounts.
Front half shafts may still be available from Audi and the rest of the shifter assembly too, worth giving them a ring to ask.
Definitely go for a A6 TDI gearbox especially the one with the .56 6th gear :)
I will post up codes of A6 transmissions and gear ratios later.

The pedal box mod I designed needs one small alteration to the shape of the clutch pedal, I will modify the CAD drawing soon. We tried it in a shell of a D2 at the A8 parts open day, the clutch pedal cleared all the footwell obstacles. Even the transmission bump does not need removing. Also worth asking Mike, his machinist friend may already have made the clutch pedal for him and the rest of the pedal box mod.

:rofl: +++