I wanted to go as far as I could to check for any other problems.
So I removed a couple of circlips which hold in a spring...which holds in some rubber seals onto the next housing.
I managed to get the housing out. All looks good.
You have no idea how many clutch packs are inside this little lot!
Epicyclic gears...
I removed this heavy set of gears but couldn't pull the next section out and wasn't prepared to try too hard without pulling everything off the back of the gearbox (torsen housing etc) so it went back in.
I didn't find any issues with the clutch packs or gears so put it back as it was and I'll just deal with the obvious issues.
I'll be ordering parts from Chester Transmission on Tuesday.
I hope that this has given you all some idea of what's inside one of these gearboxes and just what's involved in fixing one.
I've seen two A8s on ebay over the last two days for around £500. Very tempting but I don't fancy doing this every day of the week!
MG