Scirocco Mk 1 Gearbox Stuck in Fourth Gear

[Trimotor]

Looking for some help please. Just bought a 1976 Mk 1 Scirocco with only 22K miles in Austin, TX. Understood the risk but drove it to Houston. After 20 trouble free miles gearbox got stuck in fourth gear. Clutch is good. AAA tow to a workshop and believe something internal like selector fork is the problem. Bushings do not appear to be a reason for sticking in gear. U-Haul trailer home but now need to know what best course of action should be. Straight to a transmission shop who probably know very little about these or something I can do myself in my garage at home ? Anybody know anybody in North Houston that can help ? Have several Bug verts so my first sortie into Scirocco's although I had two when living in the UK.

[TDCTDI]

Welcome to The Samba!

That is SUH-WEEET.


Set the parking brake, open the hood & locate the shifter arm just to the left of & behind the battery. pull the hairpin out of the shift rod & see if you can move the arm. Left to right movement would be like the forward/back movement at the shifter & forward/back movement at the transmission would be like moving the shifter side to side. See if the lever can be moved, if so, the problem is in the linkage, if not, the problem is in the transmission.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Trimotor]

Thanks very much for the reply and hope you missed the flooding and are safe. Will take a quick look tonight but sounds like a plan. As you thought she was SUH-WEET here are some more photos. I think Scirocco's are pretty rare in the US ?

[EverettB]

I can't help with the shifting issue but DAMN, that car is awesome.
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[skills@eurocarsplus]

if you get in a bind I *may* have a 4 speed....I would have to look.

that said, if you find it to be toast, I would ship it to Matt Steedle Transmissions.

that thing is friggen sweet. too bad the watercooleds have zero value these days....

I may also have a spare grille and headlight buckets for one of those. they were rare 20-25 years ago....parts are about impossible for them
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[TDCTDI]

I don’t know which I like better, the metallic lime green (viper green maybe?) exterior or the the tennis ball green plaid insets, great find!
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[EverettB]

I wanted to look up the color.

Lime Green it is:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/76scirocco.php

_________________
How to Post Photos
Everett Barnes - [email protected] | My wanted ads
"Water is the only drink for a wise man" | "Communication prevents complaints"
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[racer23]

If the problem is not external it is usually the dogs on the gear drum have popped out and locked the gear. Four speeds are very easy it repair. Carefully layout the parts during teardown, snap a few pics and you will be fine.

[Butcher]

http://www.brokevw.com/

This site should give you lots of ideas to see if you can do it yourself or not. I would agree that the dogs have popped out. I'm not an expert at all on the 020 but I have disassembled a few in my life. Obviously checking the external linkage is the first step.

The hardest part may be removing it. The second hardest part is splitting the case. If you think transmissions are easy to remove, then splitting the case is easy. As noted, slow, take pictures, and keeping things clean will go a long way.

I certainly would install a 5 speed in it. I never really liked the 4sp.

[rabfan]

Very Nice! I have almost the identical car except my interior is the base model no plaid

[ach60]

Early Water Cooled VW are pretty rare here in the US because they were not that great,
exchange rate made them more expensive than US or Japanese cars of that vintage,
and a lot of them had issues that really disappointed their owners who were coming from Air Cooled VWs.
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Good Luck
Al