Hi I recently changed the box on my bay window for a 2nd hand freeway flyer 002 box which was brought from VW heritage about 1.5 years ago by the original purchaser. The box has been awful shifting. Getting into 1st and 2nd was not nice and downshifting from 3rd to 2nd was very poor. No amount of adjustment fixed it. Getting into reverse and 3rd and 4th was always good. There are no bushing issues or selector problem as previous box was fine. The gearbox made a lot of noise whilst driving in all gears. The only time the noise stopped was if I depressed the clutch to the floor. I have included pictures. It looks like the support bar for the pin is bent which probably adds to why the gears do not slide easily whilst in neutral.
As far as the noise is concerned, drop the oil, see if any bits fall out and it its silvery coloured or not.
Oil was good and clean., but the drain plug was full of fine swarf. No large chunks in box though when I swapped bell housing.
Clutch cable was fine. It fully engaged with correct free play and disengaged nicely. Never slipped either.
Suspect noise could be clutch release bearing, right @davidoft ? You need to ensure the clutch isn't still partially engaged, even if just a baw hair, to eliminate this as a possible source of the noise.