Sloppy gear changes and gear lever movement

[gurpz94]

I struggled to get into 5th and reverse, as well as having a really notchy gear lever more so after fitting my short shifter.

I've done the gear linkage adjustment but this hasn't helped things, if anything it made 5 & R worse, but the rest are a bit better.

After watching a bunch of Dieselgeek videos I think some of my bushings may have gone, I have a lot of play in the gearstick especially when in gear. Does anyone in the UK offer a kit similar to the ones below? I'm mainly after the ones changeable from the cabin side, if none of those work then I can move to the engine bay.

https://www.vwheritage.com/191798000-gear-linkage-rebuild-kit-vw-spare

 

[ash_89]

Im pretty sure i had this problem on the first attempt fitting my short shifter , it took 3 try's resetting/very minor adjusting the cables in the end
Have you checked for movement on any shifter bushings like the first gear getter ? also get someone to watch the gear shifter as you go from 4-5th see if its catching anywhere or needs help to slot into place .

 

[gurpz94]

Im pretty sure i had this problem on the first attempt fitting my short shifter , it took 3 try's resetting/very minor adjusting the cables in the end
Have you checked for movement on any shifter bushings like the first gear getter ? also get someone to watch the gear shifter as you go from 4-5th see if its catching anywhere or needs help to slot into place .

What other adjustments can you do to the cable? I thought you can only compress & twist the spring side in the engine bay and release it? Do you pull or feed more cable into this piece?

I'll be checking the bushings tomorrow, the car's at the garage at the moment.

 

[ash_89]

What other adjustments can you do to the cable? I thought you can only compress & twist the spring side in the engine bay and release it? Do you pull or feed more cable into this piece?

I'll be checking the bushings tomorrow, the car's at the garage at the moment.

the main adjustment i had to play around with was the 'side to side' shifter (the one attached to the plastic shifter relay)
this caused the gear accuracy to be all over the place .

 

[ash_89]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/158705908@N03/,

In the end i took the short shifter off , reset the linkage to were it was from the start and its been fine ever since , i wonder if the cables might have been damaged or bent whilst the clutch was done ?

 

[gurpz94]

How do you manually fine adjust it? Do you pull/push on the cable away from the shifter?

 

[ash_89]

I had a work colleague in the workshop move the gear stick once i made the adjustment and took the pin out , its a bit of a pain tbh mate to get right but i can remember reverse being on another planet first try haha .

 

[gurpz94]

I had a work colleague in the workshop move the gear stick once i made the adjustment and took the pin out , its a bit of a pain tbh mate to get right but i can remember reverse being on another planet first try haha .

Haha I know it's a pain, I've reseated the shifter a few times but didn't help.

The process I followed was lock the springs, lock the gearbox side, then locking pin in the cabin, release springs, unlock gearbox pin and remove cabin side.

Did you keep the transmission side locked or the springs unlocked when you were moving the gear stick? I tried to do a few things yesterday to make fine adjustments but nothing was changing?

 

[ash_89]

Haha I know it's a pain, I've reseated the shifter a few times but didn't help.

The process I followed was lock the springs, lock the gearbox side, then locking pin in the cabin, release springs, unlock gearbox pin and remove cabin side.

Did you keep the transmission side locked or the springs unlocked when you were moving the gear stick? I tried to do a few things yesterday to make fine adjustments but nothing was changing?

The process i do is
lock the shifter tower (gearbox end)
lock the shifter cable knurled rings back
lock the 5mm pin gearknob side
carefully pull slack out of the cables (gearbox end ) paying attention to side to side shifter relay adjustment then lock/snap back into place
unlock gearbox end shifter tower
pull 5mm pin out gearknob side

check all gears

if its still bad id be looking at the shifter bushes thoroughly also for signs of cable damage/wear from changing clutch

 

[gurpz94]

The process i do is
lock the shifter tower (gearbox end)
lock the shifter cable knurled rings back
lock the 5mm pin gearknob side
carefully pull slack out of the cables (gearbox end ) paying attention to side to side shifter relay adjustment then lock/snap back into place
unlock gearbox end shifter tower
pull 5mm pin out gearknob side

check all gears

if its still bad id be looking at the shifter bushes thoroughly also for signs of cable damage/wear from changing clutch

Nice one thanks mate, I just wanted to make sure I'm doing it right. 1 last question that may be silly... when pulling out the slack, do I pull it towards the shifter or towards the cabin? I pulled towards the shifter before and that may have thrown it out more?

I just picked up my car from the garage and there's barely any play, maybe 1mm max when the gearstick is in neutral but in gear there's tonnes of side to side play. Before there was left and right play when in gear, now there's only right, so I probably did the adjustment wrong.

I'll try again tomorrow with a slightly bigger locking pin too.

 

[ash_89]

The slack needs to be drawn towards the bulk head keeping the kurled ring/spring clip very still only the slightest though don’t go mad on it the slack should be minor (mine was tiny) then let it snap back.
The minor adjustments make big differences to the shift so you have to be very Patient with it
Get a 5mm pin if you can from b&q they fit well , you will never get it bang on due to our pin slots being plastic crap not like the previous metal older style .

 

[gurpz94]

The slack needs to be drawn towards the bulk head keeping the kurled ring/spring clip very still only the slightest though don’t go mad on it the slack should be minor (mine was tiny) then let it snap back.
The minor adjustments make big differences to the shift so you have to be very Patient with it
Get a 5mm pin if you can from b&q they fit well , you will never get it bang on due to our pin slots being plastic crap not like the previous metal older style .

Thanks Ash much appreciated. I was pulling quite hard as I saw them seemingly do that on a previous video so I probably went too far. I'll give it a try.

I had a bit of slack in the pin so I'll grab the correct 5mm one.

 

[ash_89]

Thanks Ash much appreciated. I was pulling quite hard as I saw them seemingly do that on a previous video so I probably went too far. I'll give it a try.

I had a bit of slack in the pin so I'll grab the correct 5mm one.

Did you get this sorted mate ? i will soon be stripping a lot of the gear stick side down so see where the movement comes from especially in 2nd . something has to be worn

 

[gurpz94]

Did you get this sorted mate ? i will soon be stripping a lot of the gear stick side down so see where the movement comes from especially in 2nd . something has to be worn

Hey Ash I haven't got it sorted yet, I fell really ill this week so will hopefully be able to give it a go early next week.

 

[ash_89]

Hey Ash I haven't got it sorted yet, I fell really ill this week so will hopefully be able to give it a go early next week.

Ahh that sucks mate , hope you get well soon