Alaskan 85 Weekender, 1.8T (AWM), 5 speed conversion

[xoo00oox]

[akmush]

Thanks tristessa and Andrew. I'm having lots of fun with the McMaster-Carr catalog which I never knew existed until Andrew referenced it. In terms of different fittings they have it all...

I think I'm good on what to order at this point. The final aspect of this step that I want to research is - cost of custom made shifter cables vs making extensions (like Andrew did) vs. incorporating marine teleflex cables (like tristessa did) with the Boxster shifter.

[xoo00oox]

[tristessa]

Here's the cables I used, pick yer own length:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/seastar-solutions--...84_002_014

They're 10-32 so if you use metric ball studs and sockets like Andrew did, you'll have to adapt the thread, which McMaster-Carr conveniently also carries: https://www.mcmaster.com/thread-adapter-standoffs/inch-to-metric-male-female-hex-thread-adapters/

[akmush]

My buddy brought his welder over and we began fabricating. Once again Andrew has applied his skills and come up with a "reversed" version of the Porsche linkage since the tranny will have the opposite orientation than it does in the Boxster. Without his pics as a guide this would have been a whole lot more difficult!
This is what we started with-

[akmush]

First we welded the 14 mm tubing to the flat bar and then added the tab in the middle. I Left the tubing long and plan to drill for the pointed bolt that grips the shifter shaft as the very last step.

Then I cut the piece for the vertical arm that will control the fore and aft movement of the shifter rod and drilled it for the fasteners.

[akmush]

To get the length of the allthread correct I am measuring the shifter shaft when it is fully extended and then am planning for that much space when it pivots to move the shaft in. Been learning about deburring and chamfering and think I need to get a special bit to clean up the threads after I cut the all thread.

[akmush]

Next step is to build the arm that will control the rotational movement of the shifter shaft. This is one area I'm still a little unsure about.

Two questions for you Andrew. In the pics it looks like you have a piece extending back from the adaptor that connects the Passat tranny to the frame that serves as the pivot point for this part of the linkage. Do I have that correct?

Also, in the pic of the shifter in the van you show the white and grey cables swapped. Is this on purpose?

[xoo00oox]

Looks like you are on the right track. You don’t need anything special to clean up the threads, a file will do just fine, you just need to file a small chamfer on the end.
You are correct about the other pivoting piece, you just need to build something to support it. Being that the transmission mount it right there, I usually attach the pivot to it.
Don’t go crazy making everything look fancy just yet, you’ll probably find things needs a little shortening or lengthening once it’s in the van and you start using it. Just make it quick and functional for now, you’ll probably find it needs some fine tuning to get the shifter to feel nice.
I do swap the cables from side to side, good eye. I do this because one is slightly longer than the other. One cable needs to reach further from the shifter than the other, by swapping them, it out the longer one on the right side so you end up lengthening them both about the same amount.

[tristessa]

This has me thinking I should look at my setup and see if it's possible to rebuild the kinkage to use shorter cables with the shifter I have at the forward end. I mean, it works and all, but there's some sweeping 180+degree curves in the cables which is .. probably less than ideal. Have to look at cable routing options &etc.

[akmush]

Thanks for the feedback Andrew. I'm starting to do a mockup in the garage so that I can confirm the basic operation is correct. I already see some parts of my linkage that could be improved. I am seeing the black connection (left side in pic) at the shifter causing the fore and aft movement of the shifter rod and the blue connector (right side) handling the rotational movement. Is this correct?

[akmush]

tristessa, when you think of it take a pic of your set up. I'm curious to see a different approach.

[xoo00oox]

Yes, you’ve got it right. The side to side movement of the shifter should rotate the transmission shift shaft and the forward/ backward movement should move the shaft forward/backwards.
Good idea fixing it to that board so you can watch it and make adjustments before putting it in the van.

[tristessa]

Will do on the pics soon as I can. Bus is parked in a bit of a mud hole right now, and we've been without power since Sunday in an all-electric house. Running an extension cord off the neighbors generator for some charging and the fridge, using the Chinese diesel heater from the garage to heat the main part of the house.

[e-stop]

Doing Flint CCW conversion too on AWM engine. Appreciate all the detailed info on this thread. Maybe can add a little. At toner ring part now. Have access to CNC so figured I could easily locate the center of the ring and then locate the center of a bolt hole which would give me a location on the bolt hole's circle. Can use CAD/CAM software to then tell me exactly where 176 degrees CW is on that circle from the current bolt hole position and drill a new hole at that location.

This approach got me thinking about why 176 degrees. Here's what I came up with:
- There are 60 slot and bar combinations on the ring.
- Each combined slot and bar therefore represents 6 degrees.
- The width of a bar is ~.135" which is ~2.5 degrees.
- The width of a slot is ~.190" which is ~3.5 degrees.
- A line from the half-circle cut-out through the inner-most bolt hole lands at what would be the leading edge of the middle slot of where the two toner ring bars are missing (perhaps need the width of a missing bar for the speed sensor/ECU to positively determine the bar isn't there).
- With the toner ring turning CW (when the other end of the motor now spins CCW) it seems like one would want to line up with the other side of that middle slot.
- The other side of the middle slot is ~3.5 degrees over hence I think the actual toner rotation amount you want is 176.5 degrees.
Obviously 176 degrees works. Was trying to figure out why. Came up with 176.5 degrees in the process.

[e-stop]

[akmush]

Hey e-stop, welcome! Great to hear that you are attempting the same conversion! I must say the toner ring explanation is over my head. I just followed directioins

[akmush]

This came in the mail recently, thank you Andrew! What a simple functional design...

[akmush]

And more progress on the shifter linkage-

The Boxster cable ends look like this-

I knew they would need to be lengthened and wanted to come up with a system that would be easy to adjust. So I cut them off-

and came up with this solution, with the idea that I could shorten or lengthen the all-thread quite easily-

Here they are all welded and ready to install. They are not pretty and clearly not straight but will be out of site under the van and with the connectors I am using it should not matter. Now I can bench test my linkage and then adjust once I do the final install in the van.

[martijnc1]

Hi,

Ive made it similar with my 1.8t flipped passat box conversion.

I used the porsche boxster linkage, and the column is hand made, with a ali express shifterboot and Fiat linkage. Ball swivels fit the fiat guts perfect. Cables are from Marine application, CCW teleflex.

I made the setup similar as you are doing now, it shifts butter smooth, like a modern car. Setup can take alot of time, due to slack, and such...

If you want more info send a message.