TheSamba.com Forums
 
  View original topic: Stiff shifting in and out of 1st and third.
DavidWymore Wed Dec 17, 2014 9:41 am

I messed with it all night last night. :x One piece case swing axle trans.

I'm 99% sure the stiffness is in the trans and not the shifter itself. R, 2, and 4 are fine, the gears where the shift rod is pulled out of the trans, but 1 and 3 are stiff going in and coming out of gear.

Shifter is a SCAT, I removed all the extraneous nonfunctioning reverse lockout junk and the rotted cover so I can see what's going on, disassembled, cleaned, oiled, ball and socket are not sloppy. Tried adjusting shifter fore and aft, base bolt holes are slightly slotted. Maybe minor improvement with base moved to rear.


Made a bronze bushing to take up the slop 'tween the shift tube stick and shifter box, which got rid of the side slop and made it so I can reliably find 3rd and 4th now.

Replaced the nose cone bushing, no improvement, maybe worse.

Replaced the stock style coupler, turned out to be cheap Chinese junk, was 1/8" shorter than the old coupler, so it wouldn't go into 1 and 3 at all. :x Hammer tightened the old one and reinstalled. After working on it all night, it's marginally better than it was, but still not good enough that I enjoy shifting or can let my wife or sister in law who's coming to visit drive it.

I started looking at the possibility of dropping engine and trans and some person welded the removable rear bars of the buggy in, so I'll have to cut them out...grrrr.

Help much appreciated.




Before pics





DavidWymore Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:09 pm

Some slotting and adjusting to the shifter base mounting holes is making some improvement. I think the thing has been been goofed with so many times and set up improperly, it's going to take some work to get it correct. I'm 1/4" further back now and it still drops right into R, 2, and 4, 1 and 3 are better, but still a bit stiff. Needs some lateral adjustment to get right over in into 3 and 4 easily but it goes. I think the shifter needs to go back more and or the coupler needs to be longer. There are multiple set screw holes in the trans shifter shaft, one is about 90 degrees off, I'd guess from someone not knowing what they were doing...

ORANGECRUSHer Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:50 pm

Perhaps welding in one of those threaded adjusters to change the length of the shift rod would do the trick. Sounds like your too short...?

DavidWymore Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:10 pm

ORANGECRUSHer wrote: Perhaps welding in one of those threaded adjusters to change the length of the shift rod would do the trick. Sounds like your too short...?

I think it is too short, and yes I thought about a length adjuster.

I read on aircooled that the SCAT drag shifter I have is short throw and PICKY about everything being perfect, and nothing is perfect on this thing. Not what I want, I hate it, I'm used to rowing Jeeps and full size trucks with 24" long shifters.

I think I need to get a new shifter, maybe a new box as it may be welded on in the wrong place, and destructions ;-) on how to set it up right from scratch.

Is there supposed to be some sort of clip or something that holds the hockey stick up on the ball of the shifter? Or does is just rest in the hole in the shifter box.

Thanks!

Dale M. Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:22 pm

DavidWymore wrote:

Is there supposed to be some sort of clip or something that holds the hockey stick up on the ball of the shifter? Or does is just rest in the hole in the shifter box.

Thanks!

Hockey stick is on end of shaft in transaxle housing...

Picture is for 091 transaxle but you can get idea (inner shift lever)...



Normally a standed pan/tunnel has something like this to keep rod inplace so ball and socket are kept together...



But in your case it should be on plate of box facing toward transaxle.... May or may not have bushing...

Dale

DWP Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:28 pm

Hard to tell from the photo, but is that the correct mount on the front of the trans? If that is a solid, home made type mount that would of moved the trans forward.
D

DavidWymore Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:44 pm

DWP wrote: Hard to tell from the photo, but is that the correct mount on the front of the trans? If that is a solid, home made type mount that would of moved the trans forward.
D

I will investigate/take picture, thanks. I'm handicapped by my lack of knowledge and experience with VWs. Dealing with not stock messed-with stuff when you don't know what it's supposed to look like and can't go by a manual makes it frustrating sometimes.

A VW experienced friend came by, trans was a finger joint low on oil, with it filled up and the shifter base adjusted, it's tolerable now. I think the rods still need to be longer or the shifter more rearward. Still goes into the rearward gears easily and the forward ones not as easily.

Discovered a shot tie rod end and plugs missing out of the steering box.



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group