Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 17:54:46 -0800
Reply-To: Tom Young <tomyoung1@HOME.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Young <tomyoung1@HOME.COM>
Subject: Shift Linkage Adjustment Problem SOLVED!!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I thought I'd post this just to give some other poor soul a chance to
find it in the archives.
I'd written earlier that after removing and replacing the transaxle I
couldn't get the shift linkage adjusted properly. I was experiencing
what seems to be a common problem: real trouble getting into 1st and
2nd (fighting the reverse lockout all the way), getting into reverse
was just about impossible, and, if I managed to hit 1st or 2nd, the
top of the shift lever was so far left it was knocking against my leg.
This was frustrating the heck out of me because the car was shifting
fine before the R&R, I knew that all the shift linkage components were
OK and I'd performed this adjustment in the past with success. Why
wasn't it working this time?
Daryl at AA Transaxle set me on the right path. Although I didn't
perform the adjustment in just the way he suggested, what he made
clear to me is that not only do the center and rear shift rods slide
over one another along their length, they also rotate with respect to
one another, and that it was probably a rotational adjustment that was
needed.
Suddenly the light bulb went off; one of the first things I'd done
before removing the trans was to unclamp the two shift rods and then
shove the rear shiftrod forward to get it out of the way. It would
only be by luck that, when I pulled the rear shift rod back into
position, it would be oriented properly. Apparently the end of the
center shift rod is splined or knurled and this, along with 20 years
accumulation of crud, was preventing the two rods from rotating into
their proper positions.
One more time I dove under the car, undid the clamp, and sprayed the
junction of the two rods liberally with penetrating oil. Using my
19mm spacer I positioned the front shift rod/gearshift lever properly
in the shift mechanism housing, retightened the clamp and...
Success!!! All's well with the shifting action.
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Tom Young tomyoung1@home.com
Lafayette, CA 94549 '81 Vanagon
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