cheap tricks to tighten up your shifter

[slash2@mindspring.com (Scott Rose)]

Or you could buy my linkage for $150 and get rid of all the slop.






At 02:35 AM 8/16/02 -0700, you wrote:
>Warning: if you are not a cheap bastard, stop reading this right now! you
>will laugh at how cheap and stupid I am.
>
>...
>
>After spending an alarming amount of cash on all new shift bushings,
>linkage rods, bearings, ball assemblies and levers, I still had an
>annoying amount of side-to-side and front-to-back play in my shifter -
>something like 3/4" in every direction. With a little inspection I
>discovered this was because the metal parts in my shift linkage were worn
>out and the circular holes in the linkage had become oval-shaped.
>
>Now, being the cheapass that I am .. I don't want to go order a bunch of
>new $87 metal lever arms and relay bars and whatnot from the stealer. So
>instead, I rigged up the following solutions:
>
>TIP #1 - This tip is the easiest and has to do with the relay arm that is
>shaped like an upside down L and has the rubber-drumstick-ball attached to
>the bottom of it. On my car, I could grab this arm and shake it even with
>brand new bushings and it would jostle around. I even tried the solid
>plastic bushings from the A3 linkage but they didn't help I took the relay
>arm out and pinched the bottom bushing with my fingers and shook it. It was
>moving around in the hole. So I took it out, wrapped electrical tape
>around the outside 4 times and pushed it back in place. It took a bit of
>effort to get it to snap in because it was such a tight fit... but the
>electrical tape isn't at a wear point so it will last for some time. Now,
>when I grab the arm and shake it, the whole car moves and the arm doesn't!
>
>TIP #2 - This tip is what many would describe as "ghetto", but it worked
>perfectly for me. The rubber-drumstick-ball that I was referring to had
>worn away at the "cage" surrounding it, introducing play to the system of
>levers. So my options were to either enlarge the ball, shrink the cage, or
>shim the cage somehow. I chose the last one because it was the easiest. I
>cut the top and bottom off of a pop can with some tin snips, made one cut
>from top to bottom then folded the remaining rectangle of aluminum in half
>several times to make a ~2mm thick pad (I rolled the sharp edges under,
>too). I made the width a little over twice that of the cage. Then I
>slipped this nasty contraption between the ball and the cage, centered
>the excess and folded the sides around the back of the cage, creasing the
>metal. Then I 'hooked' the two ends together so the pad won't come off.
>Yes, it used to be a pop can and now it's part of my shift linkage.. but
>now a lot of my front-to-back play is gone. I don't know if the aluminum
>will wear through but I'm hoping it won't since I greased the ball up real
>nice.
>
>TIP #3 - The L-shaped pivot thingy for the plastic ended relay rods. A
>major source of side-to-side play and a major pain in the neck, this piece
>was the #1 trouble spot in my linkage. I had already clamped the whole
>contraption in a vice while it was on the car to try and bend the bracket
>that holds it to hold it more snugly. That helped a little, but the real
>problem was the bottom hole in the bracket which was out of round. Now, I
>had lots of options here: I could drill it out and use a larger bolt..
>(more difficult than it sounds - the bolt is special), I could drill it
>out and use a sleeve bushing, I could weld the hole shut, grind the
>weld flat and drill it again. Instead, I chose to file the out of round
>spot a little, and wrap stainless steel tie wire through the hole several
>times to effectively shrink the hole. I had to use a dremel tool to make
>'channels' for the wire to sit in so that the bracket would still be flush
>with the pivoting arm, but the wire wrapping worked very good. I was able
>to shim the hole down to just the right size for the bolt. Now, of the
>tips here.. this one will cause the most wear (on the bolt). But the other
>options for this trouble spot were more work, and I'm not only cheap.. I'm
>lazy.
>
>TIP #4 - I bought a brand new shift lever and bearing assembly (the lever
>that you actually hold on to in the car) with the hope that it would fix
>the play that the old one had. Nope, even though it was brand new the play
>was still there. So what did I do about it? I took the shift boot off so
>I could see the outer piece of the bearing, the inner round piece of the
>bearing and the splined sleeve in the very middle. Then I went and got
>a selection of small finishing nails and sat there placing them in the
>crack between the inner bearing and the splined sleeve until I found the
>perfect two nails (one for front to back and one for side-to-side) that
>eliminated the play. I was actually just fooling around at the time.. I
>didn't intend to leave the nails in. But the improvement was so good I
>said "screw it" and left them in. They haven't fallen out yet, but in a
>year or two I might have to switch to bigger nails if they wear a groove
>in the plastic (I don't think they will, though.. there's no movement
>where they are.. just force/pressure)
>
>TIP #5 - Make your own weighted shift rod. You should have done this a
>long time ago if you haven't already. Just buy a bunch of lead fishing
>weights, make a mold out of a couple 2x4s nailed together and notched for
>the rod, melt the lead with a propane torch and pour it in to the mold.
>Easy as changing your oil and it helps a lot. In case you couldn't tell I
>didn't come up with this one.
>
>I have about 1/4" of side-to-side play and 1/8" of front-to-back play
>now while out of gear. And I know where that little bit is coming from
>(the junction between the in-the-car shift lever and the long relay rod)
>and I intend to fix it in the next few days. Nobody cares, though.. so
>unless somebody asks I won't bother describing how I end up fixing it.
>
>So, if you're still with me, you're probably thinking "this guy is an
>idiot". And you're right.. but at least my car shifts 500% better than it
>did a few days ago. It's almost like having the tranny right under the
>gear shift (i.e. no linkage at all).
>
>I think I'm the only one who'd be crazy enough to do this kind of stuff to
>their car. Anyone want to disagree?
>
>-Toby
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Scirocco-l mailing list
>Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
>http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>
Scott Rose
88 red 16v
90 yellow g60(not too much left now)
Import R  "solid shift" linkages for VW A1 chassis