Re: shift bushings and gear selector alignment

["Wm. Josiah Erikson" <josiah@gsinet.net>]

Owen wrote:

>         Hey all, i just put in my ABD short shift kit, and weighted rod, and the
> kit came with new shift bushings.  But i could only figure out where the
> larger clear rubber and white plastic ones went.  the other bushings i have
> are black, i think there are 3-4 small soft black discs (with a hole in the
> middle), and 3-4 hard black plastic cylinder type bushings.  Can anyone
> tell me where these go?
>

Yes... you know those little rods with white plastic ends that are in your original
shift linkage? They snap onto little metal balls... those metal balls are supposed
to have those little disks under them. That's why there's a hole in the middle- so
you can slide them down over the balls.

>         second, was i supposed to lube the bushings or linkage with anything
> before i installed them, it feels kinds hard to move now, or is that just
> an affect of the shorter throw (i went with 45% reduction).
>

If you tighten stuff up, that happens. It happened to me when I first tightened my
linkage up, and then it got easier as time goes on. Of course, YMMV.

> now my third question, since i installed it, it's a lot harder to get it
> into gear, is it easy to adjust the shift linkage to get nice smooth
> shifts? ( i've misplaced my bently, oops)
>

Yes indeed. Two people helps a lot, though. Do this: Put the car in first gear. Get
under your car and find the end of the primary shift rod, right around where it
enters the engine compartment.... there's a little clamp on it with a 13mm nut. It
should be apparent how it works. If you look back down the tunnel to where your
shift lever comes through the floor (you may have to remove a little black plastic
cover thingy to see it. It came off on my car, whatever...), then you can see how
the reverse blockout works. So know that you're in first gear, so you should be
right up against the blockout. Loosen the 13mm nut and rotate the shift rod so that
you are right up against the reverse blockout. Then tighten it again, and see if
your linkage feels right.CAUTION: assuming that your forward/reverse throws were
fine (it would go all the way into some gear forwards and some gear backwards),
don't screw with the in/out of the shift rod. Only rotate it. It is very rare, in my
experience, to need a forward/reverse adjustment of the shift rod.
Good luck!

>                         TIA
>
>
> Owen
> 87 16v
> http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/1571    just updated
> --

HTH!
    -Josiah
'86 Scirocco 8v
'84 Rabbit GTi
http://www.gsinet.net/~josiah/  (Now you can see my stupid custom mods on my VW
Rabbit page!)

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