Shifter and Gears

Yesterday I started having really bad issues getting the bus into gear. At the end of the day, I couldn't get it into 1st, it ground when it went into 2nd and it got stuck in reverse a couple times.

At first I thought it was the transmission and I was cursing the mechanics again.

Here's what I did:

Tightened the square head retaining bolt in the front shift rod coupler. Also replaced the lock wire.


Did the same thing to the rear Shift Coupler:


Finally, I tightened the Clutch cable at the Transmission. I didn't take a picture of this. For those that have looked at the transmission before, it's on the driver's side of the transmission. There's a lever with a loop in it. The clutch cable terminates in a screw that passes through a loop in the lever. A large wing nut is on the end. In order to really tighten this thing I found it easiest to use a pair of vice grips to hold the screw and turn the wing nut with my hand.

Took it out for a test drive. The car had it's gears back and was zippier. Not sure why zippier but very happy that my gears were back. The clutch was way too tight so the engage/friction point was very far out. I climbed under the bus later and pulled it about 2 revolutions out. Hopefully that helps.

Well, all that worked. The clutch is tighter now, I can shift into all the gears and I feel better about the state of my transmission.

Only problem left is that the first gear pops out unless you hold it in place.

Here are some threads I found on adjusting the shifter:
Shifter Issues On The Samba
Reverse Lock-Out Plate Adjustment on VW-Resource

And ...

Bentley Ch. 6 Pg. 10-11 it has some good detailed pics as well.

I'll probably give the adjustment thing a try tomorrow.

Casey