Date:         Thu, 7 Apr 2005 16:21:03 -0700
Reply-To:     "phlogiston@ispwest.com" <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "phlogiston@ispwest.com" <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Subject:      help needed defining shift linkage adjustment procedure
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

i just finished replacing the two platic bushings and the "socket" portion of the shifter arm by the tranny on the shift linkage of my '86 westy, and i have a few questions.

1)how did you guys determine which bushing goes where and in what orientation?  the guys at volkscafe (where i ordered the parts) said that there should be a "d" on the front bushing and a "e" on the rear, but both of mine had a "C" even though they looked different.  my old ones were almost in too poor shape to make a judgement, but the front one looked a litter bigger so i put the larger of the 2 new ones in the front, with the side that was longer relative to the center groove facing the rear.

2) how is the adjustment procedure from bently supposed to work?  the natural position that the arm coming from the tranny wants to return to is between 3rd and 4th, in neutral, which has the end of the shift rod extended far out of the tranny and causes the "socket" portion of the shifting arm to be bent away from the tranny, *not* vertical.  i measured all my sockets and found that my deep 1/2" drive 17mm socket is a nice 23.4mm spacer so i have a good measuring tool, but i'm not sure how to get the linkage into the right state for the measurement to be meaningful.  do you guys measure the gap at the front with the transmission in it's natural resting neutral state, or do you get a 2nd person to hold the shifting arm vertical while you measure the gap?

3) does the splined end of front portion of the shift linkage go ALL THE WAY into the female section on the front of the rear portion?  i tried this and found that in 2nd or 4th gear, the bottom of the gearshift lever (the front one, that i shift with) is behind the stop that limits the side to side play of the shifter while in gear.  i tried to fix this by pulling the splined part out of the socket a little but that seemed to mess up everthing else.


4) i wanted to replace all the plastic parts that the shifter goes through, but it appears the only way to get the "lower ball half" off the shifter is to cut off the nice color-matched rubber sleve over the shifter...  is there a way to do this repair and still have my shifter look nice?

thanks in advance for any help!

Ben.