The gearbox is off and on the deck, it was an easy removal for once, sometimes it takes a bit of wrestling to get it away from the engine.
Using my home made gearbox jacking plate it came out smoothly.
I have also removed the clutch cover and release bearing and found the reason it is very squealy. The edges of the bearing has cut into the clutch cover enough for the the cover fingers to go under the face of the bearing, thus chewing up the inside of the bearing somewhat and cutting the end off a couple of fingers.
The twisted metal fell out of the bellhousing when I split the gearbox from the engine.
I'm glad I took the car off the road when I did as it was due at any time to push the whole bearing through the clutch cover fingers.
This bearing was a replacement that was supposed to be an Audi bearing but the same part but slightly cheaper than the Porsche part. I have since realised it is not the same part and the face of the bearing is smaller, beware of this bearing when looking to replace.
You can see the new Porsche bearing (left) against the Audi bearing (middle) and my previous Porsche bearing (right). The old Porsche bearing was removed due to it being a little noisy last year.
New clutch kit has been ordered.
Whilst in there I have checked all other components, the DMF seems fine still and I also checked the clutch arm as it is prudent to change this too, I found I must have already fitting the 997 part at some point.
Checking the thickness of the metal of the arm to be 3.8mm, I then measured the dimple in the arm where the slave cylinder plunger sits and this is 3mm, I am happy that this is thick enough to last a good few more years yet, all these parts will get refitted. This will also have a new slave cylinder fitted with a plastic end which will stop any further wear for a while.