i started early yesterday morning and so far i have the hard parts out of the way. i.e. bellhousing and trani are dropped and the new clutch is in place... i stripped out the head of one of the axle bolts and i was wonderin if anybody knows if i can leave just that one out upon re-assembly. also, why the hell was it so hard to seperate the bell housing from the motor?

 

You need to use new bolts on both axles. I stress that this is very important. My friend had me put a new axle on his Jetta and I told him we needed new bolts, he said go ahead and do it. Two weeks later the axle flew of the differential and busted a hole in the trans.
I don't know why the trans is so hard to get off. It may be the dowels.

 

it was a beeotch to get tha trani down but it wasnt even heavy at all to lift by hand when i got it down... where is a good place to get the axle bolts like 2morrow? im thinkin dealer**** is the only place that might have them on hand...

 

ecstuning.com has them I know but, it would probably be pretty expensive to get them shipped that quick. I hope your dealer has more parts in stock than mine does. I've been there or called them probably around 20 times and they've had the part twice.

 

i reused the old ones to get it back to my house and it seems fine and all but im still going back in to replace them... also there is some sort of popping sound that is coming from the drivers side when i pull out and when i brake. other than that it rides smooth.