After road testing, the cleaning and relubing has made a big difference. It's hard to believe that it would make such a difference in how the gears engage, but it did. The polyurethane (I think that's the material, it is slightly soft) bushings are NLA, but Terry Kay sells delrin replacements that do not have the spaces/grooves inside that hold grease (and dirt). I bet Terry's bushings work well. Finding, or making, rubber boots that cover the rear bushing would be great. They are shown In ekta (diagram I posted on my blog entry). I wonder if they were an option on the "bad road package" or on the 16" syncro. That and the shift rod protection tube would go a long way in keeping the linkage clean. I have noticed slush collecting and freezing on the shift linkage making shifting really hard. Oh, one more thing, the ball and cup linkage (right at the trans.) was in good shape on my van. The boot there was intact and the grease in the cup was almost pristine. I have worked on a van where that boot was missing and the cup was filled with grit and dried grease. The assembly was worn out and the owner bought a new set from Van Cafe.
And one more "one more thing", pull off the box above the spare tire (4 10mm nuts) and check the condition of the plastic tabs on the ears of the fork at front of linkage. The plastic tabs can be worn out or broken. There is a thread on the samba right now about fixing that. good luck alistait
On 25-May-11, at 8:06 AM, Roland wrote: > Thank Alistair for the timely report. This is on my list of things > to do, > shifting feels just a bit crunchy sometimes as if some dirt got into > the > various places. This will really help when I get around to it. > > Roland |
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