Is there a special technique needed to separate the sections of a standard syncro box (i.e. to access the gears)? The end came off ok but the bigger bit is proving tricker and knowing these ali boxes can be quite fragile I figured I’d ask before applying brute force + ignorance 
I’ve undone all the bolts I could see which ran round the edge and some gentle taps with a rubber mallet have shown signs of movement but it’s not really budging.
Any ideas or back to the mallet?
You have removed the left hand driveshaft flange and the 5th gear c/w its synchonising hub and the idler gear and then the 4 countersunk bolts from under the 5th gear p/n N 906 984 01 havn’t you?
You also need to remove a bolt on the underside about 1/2 way between the 2 flanges, it holds the reverse idler shaft in place, so you can check its p/n is N 900 422 01
Have you removed the gear selector shaft? this is accessed though the very big nut on the front of the box p/n 020 301 232E you will also have to remove the gear linkage lever holding nut and lever on the other end of the selector shaft and the selector locking bolts from the top of the gearbox casing over the selector shaft p/n N 900 930 01 and 171 941 550
only then will the selector shaft slide out of the front aperture, if you have any problems you can always contact me directly, or have a look here http://www.brokevw.com/teardown.html []
