Date:         Sat, 2 Dec 1995 00:15:21 -0600 (CST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         cheeses@arn.net (Cheese)
Subject:      Re: Smoooooooth Shifting

>Well, I finally solved about 90 percent of the problems I was having getting
>from third to neutral and third to fourth gears on my '88 GL.  Thought I'd
>seen some postings from folks with similar problems, this might help.
>
>While under the van, I had my wife shift gears (motor not running, of
>course), and it looked as if the linkage (normally covered by a boot as it
>enters the transmission) might have a little play.  Most of the boot was
>gone, but the linkage still looked clean and greasy.  There are two bolts
>that hold a bracket through which the shift rod passes.  Removing  the upper
>bolt and loosening the bottom bolt of the bracket lets the "cup" portion of
>the linkage separate from the rest, revealing a _nylon?_ ball that acts as
>the _bearing_, if you will, for the rest of the linkage.  Well, the "cup"
>that the ball sits in was about one-third ful of a compacted grease/dirt
>mixture that had become solid enough to cause the ball to raise slightly out
>of the cup, intsead of transferring the motion to the rest of the linkage.
> Solution was to soak the grease/dirt mixture for about half an hour (I used
>WD-40), the scoop the softened gunk out, re-pack with grease, put the whole
>shebang back together, and _presto_! No more resistance at all when shifting.
>(sorry, Joel, all it took was a dab of grease!)  tranny fluid is next.
>
>BTW, sorry for the lack of technical references to the linkage dohickey's; I
>still don't have my Bentley manual yet :)
>
>Cliff
>
>'88 Vanagon GL, shifting much better now, TYVM!

At the risk of sounding like an AOLer, "ME TOO!"

While rebuilding my '79 Bus, stem to stern, including engine, transmission
and drive train, I decided that it would be a good idea to redo the shift
linkage, too.

Starting from the rear, I replaced the flexible coupling that attaches to
the transmission nosecone shaft because I already had the new part and the
old rolled pin was a little bit pinched.

The main problem I could find was that the front shift nylon bushing close
to the gearshift lever had disintegrated from the from the round hole in the
frame into which it was supposed to seat.  It was in pieces underneath.
Over the years the front shift rod had wallowed the hole slightly, so I
filed down the jagged edges, and, removing the rear flexible coupling again,
and pulling the shift rod back as far as I could, I replaced the front nylon
shift bushing.

Disassembling the gearshift bracket, I discovered that, over the years, the
dirt and grease/oil had fused into a solid that filled most of the gearshift
bracket socket. Using a wire wheel brush attachment to the drill, I was able
to clean all the petrified gunk from the gearshift lever ball.  Digging with
a screwdriver, dousing it with lots of solvent and scrubbing with steel wool
finally cleared the gearshift ball socket of its accumulation of solid crud.

After everything was clean and bright I squirted multi-purpose grease into
the socket until full.  Reassembled everything and it seems to shift like
new now.

Cheese