Shift linkage bushings

[chloeroxymax]

OK... we put in the bearing, and adjusted the shifter as per instructions in Bentley.

Still no gears. If anything, it's worse than before.

I've looked a the transmission, and there's no detent adjustment.

I can't even seem to catch third now. I'm wondering if there's something internally wrong with the transmission.

[Briano1234]

Unless you hear grinding or severe noise, I would bet that you have it still adjusted or connected wrong.

As I stated before, if you have the kit for a 4 speed, versus a 5 speed, that can be the issue... you can adjust it to beat the band and still miss not picking up a gear but that is usually 5th.

Have some one shift it and watch the levers, you can possibly see where it is binding.

I do know that if you have that one bent rod on backwards it will interfere with the gearing I just can remember which gears.

Pop, off all the linkages, then manually move the shifter rods on the tranny, can you feel all the gears? I bet you can.

It is still out of adjustment....

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

OK... we put in the bearing, and adjusted the shifter as per instructions in Bentley.

Still no gears. If anything, it's worse than before.

I've looked a the transmission, and there's no detent adjustment.

I can't even seem to catch third now. I'm wondering if there's something internally wrong with the transmission.

Let me know if you want me to check it out, I'm not a mechanic but I've done that before.

[chloeroxymax]

Fiddled a bit with this last night, and we disconnected everything. I think I can mostly catch all the gears when I twist the shaft by hand, but it seems like it goes way too far to engage the gears, both left and right.

We're gonna take it all back apart and put it together, and see if we can identify the problem. Might be mid-next week.

[chloeroxymax]

Long time, no posts on this issue...

We've worked on it off and on the last 2 weeks, and while we're eliminating possibilities, we still don't have it working.

I replaced the bearing set on the shifter, which of course required disconnecting the rod from the shifter. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I'd need a press to re-pack the bearings on the shifter...

Once we got all that back together, we've adjusted the whole setup using the instructions in the Bentley and the "cassette trick" (PO left a couple cassettes in the car of moldy oldies-perfect for just this application).

Still no gears.

As I've itemized before, the relay lever and shaft bumps into the exhaust downpipe before it goes far enough to engage a gear when I pull the gearshift toward the rear of the car to engage 2nd or 4th. I don't recall if it bumped into this before this problem with shifting started, but there isn't a visible mark on the downpipe, so I suspect it didn't.

I have wondered if I put the relay lever and shaft on backwards, but I have the lever oriented toward the front of the car, which appears correct based on the diagram and available space.

To complicate matters further, it seems that I don't catch anything when I push forward for 1st, 3rd, or 5th.

I've looked at the engine mount that was replaced by the PO, and it is definitely OK.

Could the bracket that connects the shift linkage to the transmission somehow have slipped?

Any other ideas? My wife is running out of patience with me. I've got to get this thing running soon or I might have to cut my losses and part it out...

[Briano1234]

It sounds as if you have something amiss:

look at:
from the missing linkz page



Good parts break down.

First, I would take all the shifter links off, and check to see if your tranny will manually go into gear?

If you still have the old connecting rods verify that your new ones are the same length.

I swapped a 4spd tranny for a 5spd, and even though the rods all look the same, they aren't.

It could be that you have it adjusted incorrectly, or that you have the one swivel its called the relay lever on the pic above 180 out, I made that mistake too.

If your rear or front tranny mount is dead, then your transmission is at the wrong angle, and you have to replace those before you ever have a hope in hell of getting it adjusted correctly.

[gull]

Every time I look at that image I think VW must have farmed out this design to Rube Goldberg...

[Briano1234]

Every time I look at that image I think VW must have farmed out this design to Rube Goldberg...

Well that is an improvement ont he air-cooled shifter................. but I have to agree

[gull]

Well that is an improvement ont he air-cooled shifter................. but I have to agree

I dunno. The air-cooled shifter at least had simplicity going for it.

[chloeroxymax]

I have checked the rear mount. It's fine, as it's the one the PO had replaced.

I haven't looked closely enough, but where's the front mount located? I suppose I just need to get under there and look around.

As far as the rods go, I have new ones, but I didn't put them on yet. I didn't even take the old ones off.

I did disconnect the rod from the relay shaft from the rod, and it feels like we can manually engage gears, though it seems like the selector shaft goes a long way to engage gears.

The lever (the thing with the ball on the end) appears to be identical to the part that came out, just new instead of 20 years old. To my untrained eye, it appears symmetrical top to bottom, but I can certainly flip it over if that might help.

I think the diagram from the missing linkz page is for a 4-speed, I've got a 5. The general layout in the Bentley is essentially the same, though the rods would certainly be different.

I suppose my next step is to thoroughly eliminate all the engine mounts as a possibility.

[chloeroxymax]

So, much to my chagrin, I discovered tonight that the front motor mount is completely shot. The metal ball was resting directly on the socket, and the rubber mount was almost completely gone all the way around.

Don't know if it will fix the problem entirely, but it certainly isn't helping.

We jacked the engine up about an inch just to see if we could... so once I get parts, we'll try this again.

Incidentally, the other two mounts appear OK visually, and look to be much tougher to replace.

Best sources for these mounts? I'm gonna start with germanautoparts.com.

[Briano1234]

So, much to my chagrin, I discovered tonight that the front motor mount is completely shot. The metal ball was resting directly on the socket, and the rubber mount was almost completely gone all the way around.

Don't know if it will fix the problem entirely, but it certainly isn't helping.

We jacked the engine up about an inch just to see if we could... so once I get parts, we'll try this again.

Incidentally, the other two mounts appear OK visually, and look to be much tougher to replace.

Best sources for these mounts? I'm gonna start with germanautoparts.com.

The passenger side mount is a SOB, as you have to take the lower timing cover off, that means the water pump and power steering pully have to come off...

Think of it this way....
Replace the timing belt, and the waterpump if marginal, then replace the a/c belt too... and be done with that side for a while.

They have to be pressed in and pressed out... although I have used the farmer method before on a couple of them...

24 hours before, place the new mount under dry ice in a cooler that you can seal tight.

Day of getting the mount out...
Cut the old on out.

Fire up the barbe......

Place the Bracket in the coals.

Get a 5gallon bucket of water.

once that sucker is red hot....

pull it off the fire

wearing gloves pull the mount out of the cooler

Align it.... (gotta have it aligned)

Drop the mount in the bracket and smack it home with a bfh (gotta be quick.)

Drop the whole assembly in the water to quench, leave it there a while.

The cold shrinks the mount.

The red hot bracket expands.

The cold mount will start to rapidly cool the metal so you have to be real quick...

Then quenching it remove all the heat and possible damage to the rubber......