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OK, long story short. I took Bridget’s shift rod out with the bushing bracket still attached, as I could feel that the P.O./builder left a sizable “bump” where he welded the two shortened halves of the shaft together, so there was no way it could slide through the bracket.
I get the thing out and discover that not only is there no bushing in the bracket (I expected that) but that the bracket has a “twist” in it, making me doubtful that the correct bushing can be fit at all.
My question (mainly to the V-Dub members): Is my bushing bracket normal? If so, the bushing is supposed to go in twisted like that?
If not, know sources for a new bracket?
here’s the assembly. I’ve tried to pull the bracket off and it won’t budge. Figured I’d grind down those welds a bit.
This twist makes me think this bushing
(shown here taped to “quick shift” kit) won’t fit as it would on a stock Beetle.My best guess is that the builder modded the bracket to work sans bushing by oversizing the hole and then closing it down with a vice and maybe vice grips. But I know nothing.
Chime in, anyone, please, with helpful knowledge and suggestions.
Ed, I’m trying to get my foggy memory to clear up , but what I could see of my bracket did not look like your picture.I don’t think my bracket was bolted in because where it was in the tunnel, it would have been very hard if not impossible to get to the bolts. It was not shaped like yours but was at a right angle to the shifter tube.I’m pretty sure yours was modified by the builder. I hope some body can give you more help
Thanks, Larry. The BCW build instructions don’t address this, but they do treat the rod and bracket as basically one unit. I think the builder found the shift rod bracket (hanger) to be loose on the rod and put a twist in it to snug it up, not knowing about the bushing. Kind of a slick fix, really. Unfortunately, BCW instructions don’t mention anything about grease either, consequently, the shift rod is warn as hell where it contacted the metal hanger/bracket.
I’m going to try to straighten the part in a vice and then insert the bushing. I’ll post the results.
Here’s hoping I don’t end up as a “things we should never do” warning.
ed try the vdub sights,they have replacment shift rod guides as well as shift rods.Although electric conduit is about the same wall thickness and only about $6 for a 10 foot stick.And you hit it right putting a twist in the bracket eliminates the need for the bushing.Just replaced the bushing on mine and lubed it up with anti-sieze.
Ok, so what I did was I straightened the bracket:
A little work with the channel locks and the vice got her opened up enough to put the bushing on . . .
. . . and I even managed to get the snap ring on the bushing:
So the story should end happily, right?
Not when Eddie’s in charge!
So I managed to feed the whole mess back up through the tunnel, but I was smart, see? Even though I had tied a piece of wire to her tail before taking her out, I used the same long piece of flat scrap oak with more wire to put her back in. I wasn’t taking any chances with losing this thing in the tunnel. So I got her back into place and cut the wire off the tail, then I cut the wire from the head piece and pulled my wood out.
Then I pulled on the wire from the front of the car, and . . . it stuck.
Mother
!So of course I pulled on it ’till it broke, and figured, what the hell? I just made it all but certain I’ll have to fish something through the front of the tunnel some day, and just complicated that job terribly. But so what? Like, how bad can that be?
So, assembled the shifter (just the stock one for now, didn’t want to complicate things with the quickshift yet). Adjusted, got all the gears, put the seats back in, etc., started her up for a test drive, and found out I’d made a Toyota.
The gas pedal is sticky. Races on start, doesn’t feel like kicking down, then it does, then it races a little….
Anyone else think that it might just be that wire I left in there?
(Yeah, might be the carpet too, which I disturbed massively and didn’t tuck all back in yet. But what am I bid it’s the freakin’ wire? )
Meanwhile, the shifter seems little, if any, better than before. Still sloppy (not quite as much as before, maybe), still doesn’t love second gear so much.
So, thanks all for reading my rant. I’ll mess with the shifter adjustment some more during the week, maybe even try that quickshift device. Anyone have that on their car?
But I think my next project on Bridget is going to involve removing and inspecting the pedal assembly.
This is fun, right?
Update. So turns out the throttle problem was the rug. Adjusted that & squirted some WD-40 into the tube and it was good.
Installed the quick shift kit and, man, what a difference! Suddenly the shifter more or less stays where I put it, so you can actually see what gear the car is in–at least you can see the difference between 1st/3rd and 2nd-4th.
But, alas, still no going into second on the downshift, and still misses on some upshifts. Pretty sure it’s the synchro. I never expect a good synch on 1st in old cars, but second I had hopes for (3rd and 4th are good).
Looks like I have two choices:
A. Buy a rebuilt transmission for $600 or so, and enjoy the learning experience of installing that; or
B. Learn to live with it by developing better heel-toe shifting skills.
Since choice “A” means driving the car much less while choice “B” means driving her more, I’m about 95 percent decided.
Ed…changing the transaxle on an IRS VW is not a killer job. If you do end up changing it, I’d suggested using a “Freeway Flyer”…a transaxle modified with higher rear gears (ring & pinion) and higher 4th gear. It really makes these cars a joy on the highway and leaves 1st through 3rd for around town.
My VW based TD (Bill Collins former Angelica) had one. One of the best investments on that car next to the 4 wheel disc brakes.
Thanks, Mark. I’ll study up on the VW rebuilts and definitely consider the high-geared version when or if I do this job.
Meanwhile I’ll be practicing my tap-revving techniques. Used to shift the Chevy II without the clutch alla time–a handy skill given the frequency of Z-bar (clutch linkage) breaks on that model. Then again, it wasn’t really necessary, since that car could go from 0 to 100 using only 3rd gear.
Good job on the shift rod. Transmissions in the vw are pretty durable and a used one can be found cheep with a little looking. You could also put yours in the shop. That should be cheep to rebuild.
Thanks, Richard. I’m going to hold off for now. Driving her around the other day I quickly got the hang of second gear. Takes a little technique, but only a little, and I think soon enough it will become second nature. If not, I’ll probably go to a rebuilt, maybe with a taller 4th gear.
When in neutral, is the shifter exactly perpendicular to the tunnel?
If it’s not, that could cause your shifting problem too. If it’s leaning forward or backwards as you look through an open door, it will make it difficult to find gears.
Look on http://www.thesamba.com for VW related stuff and a great forum for asking VW related questions.
Thanks, Mark. It looks straight, but I’ll put a level on it when I get home.
The shifter gets all the gears easily when the car is off, or idling and not moving. The problem comes only when it’s rolling along at, say, 15 mph and heading toward the hill. I’m thinking second gear would go nice right about now, but the transmission doesn’t want to comply, even though I’m trying to push the shifter into the same place I had it a minute ago in the driveway, testing to see if I had all four gears and reverse. It’ll pop in if I give it some gas, match the RPMs to what 2nd gear wants. That’s why I think me synchros are bad.
Still, I did notice that my reverse light stopped working after the bushing fix, so it’s worth another adjustment try I guess.
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