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Date:         Thu, 18 May 2017 22:26:36 -0700
Reply-To:     Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      Tranny end shift lever issue and fix
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi,

Over the last couple of months I've noticed my van (86 syncro, 430,000 km) getting harder and harder to shift into 2nd gear, both up and down shifts. It felt like it was hitting a gate, an obstruction , not the same feeling as baulky synchro. It would go into gear if I kept the shifter firmly towards the left, (my knee).

It felt more like a linkage problem than a transmission internal problem.

So yesterday i decided to track it down, starting at the rear and the ball and cup lever from the transmission. You know how the fit of the ball into the cup can get sloppy, requiring replacements. I was thinking that might be my problem. Getting those parts off the van I got reminded that some previous owner had them bolted the cup part of the linkage to the horizontal shift rod. The stock set up relies on a roll pin only, coming up from the bottom. This bolt, m6, was horizontal thru the rod and lever. Actually the lever had threads cut in one side so the bolt actually threaded into the lever and also nutted.

Took things apart and cleaned. The fit of the ball in the cup wasn't that bad. I think the diameter of the cup when new is around 30mm, and the ball diameter about 29.5mm.

So I put it all beck together, before I tightened the added thru bolt I noted that the roll pin didn't do much at all to fix the lever cup on the shift rod. Wasn't very secure, could wobble around in the shift rod. But when I tightened up the thru bolt, the assembly became solid.

Test drive and shifting back to normal. So I think the thru bolt had loosened a little, and my reassembly had fixed that.

Oh and btw, the ball part which affixes to the splined shaft coming out of the tranny was a good fit on the splines.

I'm happy for now with this unexpected easy fix but I think I'll make a new cup part. I know you can by replacement stock units, or a nice aftermarket one, but it looks like such an easy lathe project that it would be more fun to make one. Maybe use a different material than aluminum and maybe make the design better at holding the rubber boot.

Alistair


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