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Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:50 pm

Well I finally found my oval. A 1957 hardtop. The one problem i'm having is with the shifter. If pops out of the socket below and swivels around. This makes it almost impossible to find a gear. I have taken it apart and tried adjusting it but no luck. The ball at the end has the pin that sticks out and goes into the slot. I checked the front shift rod support (no bushing on this year) and its fine and in tact. I also removed the rear coupler and inspected it and it to is fine and tight. I'm almost thinking that the car has the wrong shifter, lockout plate or the piece that the bolts go through to hold everything together. It seems like the shifter is being pushed up and out of the socket by the spring. Almost like the distance between the cup that the spring sits in and the ball on the end is not long enough. Are there different styles of shifters. It looks to be the correct one with the bent tappered shaft at the top. Maybe the other pieces are too blame. Im looking for pics of the shifter ect. Thanks for any help. Steve

Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:40 pm

btleboy wrote: Well I finally found my oval. A 1957 hardtop. The one problem i'm having is with the shifter. If pops out of the socket below and swivels around. This makes it almost impossible to find a gear. I have taken it apart and tried adjusting it but no luck. The ball at the end has the pin that sticks out and goes into the slot. I checked the front shift rod support (no bushing on this year) and its fine and in tact. I also removed the rear coupler and inspected it and it to is fine and tight. I'm almost thinking that the car has the wrong shifter, lockout plate or the piece that the bolts go through to hold everything together. It seems like the shifter is being pushed up and out of the socket by the spring. Almost like the distance between the cup that the spring sits in and the ball on the end is not long enough. Are there different styles of shifters. It looks to be the correct one with the bent tappered shaft at the top. Maybe the other pieces are too blame. Im looking for pics of the shifter ect. Thanks for any help. Steve

The bolded items mentioned above are the same thing.

Doesn't matter if you have an early lockout plate or late, either piece will work fine. Just be sure it's installed correctly. The side with the "curved" ramp goes on the Right side with the ramp facing upwards.

1956-62 shifters have a bent 10mm shaft. 1963-67 is nearly the same, but near the top it tapers to a 7mm size. Sounds like you have a 1963-67 shifter, but that shouldn't cause the problem either.

What it sounds like is you have a Type 2 (Bus) shifter housing. It's much taller versus a Beetle housing. Because of the extra height on the housing, it's allowing the spring to push up on the shifter & causing the fulcrum ball to sit above the shift rod.

Look at the photo below to see the height difference between a Type 1 (Beetle & Ghia) & Type 2 (Bus) housing.
[img][/img]

Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:01 am

Thanks for the picture. I now know that I have the correct housing. What you described is exactly what I thought was happening. If there is no difference though in shifters on the bottom end then either something is worn really bad (shifter or housing) or its back to the drawling board. The only other thing I could think of is that the transmissions tail end is sitting too high up. Maybe this is making the shift rod angle down as it heads towards the front of the car. Does anyone know the distance of how far the socket should sit below the tunnel? Also if you hang the shifter from the housing pictured above (as if the spring was pushing it up inside it) what is the distance from the base of the housing to the bottom of the ball. Thanks again for the pic RareAir!

Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:22 am

I think you said either would work but I checked anyway. The shifter does not taper at the top like I originally thought so it is an early shifter. The shift lock plate looks different than others that I have seen online. It has the ramp on the right side but it does not have the small tab that is bent up on the left side. I do not think this would cause my issues though.