New shift rod bushing, 1st hard to find, reverse easy to grind

I never had trouble getting into any gear before I put the new rod in. However, it wasn't a confidence building shift feel either... I bought a vintage speed shifter for the throw and look. I have an EMPI trigger shifter in it now. No matter how I slid it around or adjusted the shifter base on either the Empi or the VS, with the new bushing, its tough. No matter what I have done to the shifter base, etc, I can still grind reverse even with the "lockout" on either shifter. I did get the shift coupler back together with grease, etc. The 3-4 shift nice, etc. Anything in the 1-2 area is either very hard to get, or grind reverse if you don't get it perfect headed for second. There is some slop in the coupler, but not too bad. I tightened that screw the best I could to bring the coupler bushings together and not bind it up, but there's still slack. Has anybody else had this problem? It's getting really old, fast.

Keith, I have never had that problem, so I can only speculate.

In my car, the neutral position is the key to making it shift correctly. Since the cup on my shift rod lives forward of where it would have before the tunnel and rod were cut, it has a pronounced rearward lean in neutral.
Best I can suggest is to take the old shifter and the new one, lay them side by side and see what angles they live at in relation to each other.
Adjust fire according to what that angle difference tells you when installing in neutral, and then tighten the mounting bolts most of the way. Fine-tuning adjustments can be made by bumping the plate gently with a hammer and wood wedge (so you don't score the plate or the tunnel).

Again, just a guess. Good luck.

Well, the one frustrating thing is, That silly trigger thing AND the pull up detent on the VS shifter don't mean a thing... You can just grind reverse until your little pissed off heart is content. So, It has ALWAYS ground reverse en route to 2nd. I am literally shifting with 2 fingers and a thumb to keep it from going where it shouldn't. Any ideas, I am all ears folks. Thanks.

You said you used the "new" shift rod. By rod, you DO mean the rod connecting the shifter to the coupler behind you, yes?

And the old rod worked?

Perhaps the cup was welded in at a slightly canted angle from where it should be, like just off from the orientation where it needs to be to function correctly.
My shift rod has a weld about a foot from the coupler, full-round, where the rod was modified from its stock length to the shortened length.

In the same way as mine is just a touch too long, it's possible that yours might be just a touch out of vertical orientation. The socket would still accept the shifter, but the throw would be off just enough on the right to screw up the down-and-over of reverse and the slot-back to second.

I'm reaching, but it seems logical.

Sorry, no the rod is the same. I see my typo, it should read new rod bushing! The only thing I changed was the bushing. I didn't even change the coupler bushing. I'm wondering if the clutch is dragging keeping it from first, and the reverse is the plate out of adjustment....

Where should the "cup" on the shift rod be in neutral? Should it be centered in the tunnel hole? Mines pretty far back, though I'm pretty sure its not hitting the through hole in the tunnel. I'm baffled at this point...

Keith, give me a call.
Four four three nine nine five zero five seven six.

Keith,
I have a list of VW shifter adjustments - ways to make your shifter work - that I down loaded from somewhere years ago and it helped me get mine sorted a week ago.
I can scan and email to you if you want - it should help you out
Send me you email if you want a copy.
Dale

Please do. I had a nice conversation with Corey trying to get me sorted. I think we agreed that now that it has a bushing, the shift rod is too short, and "misclocked" . Meaning that the cup is not 90* from the coupler...

follow up- I put in a new urethane shift coupler today. I also kept messing with the reverse lock out. I have officially made the reverse lock out work perfectly. It shifts up and down great. I can't believe a little 1/8" slop in the rear coupler was causing a ton of problems... but I think it was. Now, the only weird thing, it seems like 1st gear is closer to 3rd than it should, but I think I have worked out 90% of my troubles. Thanks Cory and all who encouraged me!

I was catching reverse on quick downshifts from 3rd to 2nd on my newly acquired 2006 vintage on the recent Pumpkin Run. I cut the carpet away from under the gate plate and this made it worse and couldn't get 1st.

I solved this problem by shimming up the gate plate-five thickness of tar paper gaskets and alot of grease. The speedster now shifts easily and the stock reverse lockout works correctly. I may make an aluminum spacer.

I hope this helps anyone with this problem.

Joel

I've heard people scream about the carpet not being under the plate, I've heard others say it doesn't make a difference, etc. I think what makes a difference is there that shifter, and plate sit over the shift rod cup. My car still struggles to find first, though it's not hard to get it in 1st if I'm aligned. Im convinced the rest is in the transmission! You can't just pull the shifter over toward your leg and push it forward into gear. You pull it over toward your leg , then move it over about an inch towards 3rd and your in...

I have always gone back to first by way of second.
It always works.

Not in this car... 1st by way of star alignment and harvest moon ..

Don't make me come down there. I might have to bring wrenches. :)

Seriously? You can't go back to first after engaging second?

Bill Turner wrote this:

"Finally got the shift rod guide and bushing replaced. Most likely, you will never have to replace the guide itself, only the bushing. But if you do, you should know it is spot welded on with six spot welds. To get it out, I finally cut an "inspection" hole in the side of the tunnel just large enough to get a chisel in and remove the old one. What a job!

The bolts which hold the shift lever down are actually fastened to the guide, not to the tunnel as it might first appear. So when you install the new guide, you can temporarily bolt it in place without the shift lever and then spot weld a couple of places to hold it.

The part number for the guide is 111 701 255B and is available from Rocky Mountain Motor Works. They even have a online picture of it.

Here's hoping you never need one... :-)

BT"

I found that writeup here:
http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqshft.htm

... Which I'd never seen before today. Maybe that's the next thing to check. There really aren't all that many moving parts, and I think you've touched all the other ones by now!

Sounds to me like you might have found an expert. Keep that guy happy, and learn from him before he gets too old!

There is a big field of 60's and newer bugs pretty close to me. I went there today to Che k it out again but also to stop. That guy was really nice. I told him what I had and what I've replaced. He actually interrupted me when I was talking about shifting. He said you still have " a hard time getting it into 1st gear, it's closer to 3rd than it should be". I was kinda shocked. He said over 40 years of bug "workin on"... That he's seen a lot of bent shift forks and hockey sticks because people either "power shift" them or get pissed that it won't go into gear and they force them. I drove the car to him, he drove it 10 feet and said theirs something bent internally. We popped the gear shift out, and panel . He inspected my work, and was shocked I used the circlip, LOL. Anyway, he really likes the feel of the Vintage Speed shifter, but said something's bent inside. We put a stock VW shifter in , which sloppified' the works, but was equally tough to get in first..... Sigh...

He's got more bug stuff in one place than I've ever seen. It's a real dump, yet he's had cars in HOT VW as award winning early 50's bugs... He won't sell a thing, but what I really want is his knowledge!

If you want to make your shifter setup bullit proof install a shift rod adjuster and buggy box with bolt in bushing into your car. Here is a picture of the adjuster,

http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/buggy/shift/buggyshift2.htm
adjuster is 6.95, box is 7.95 and bushing is 2.95
When installed there is no slop and shifting is very precise. I relocated the box in my speedster rearward and shortened the ebrake lever so I didn't have to reach under the dash to shift it. Everyone who drove it really liked how it felt. Mike McCarthy

I had problems similar to what you wrote, I replaced the bushing cuppler with a new one and had similar problems, the old one was twisted, but when I put the old one back in everything worked perfect, conclusion the twist was intentional ? maybe when the rod was welded after being shorten it was off.

Cabanaboy - lurkin

So I pulled my EMPI shofter today. It lifted right out after the 2 bolts were removed which surprised me. It the little plastic ball supposed to just sit in the "carrier" with no hard connection? It is supposedly a 2007 VS BTW. I did this to grind down the carpet which it was sitting on. I heard some thought that was a cause of shifter issues. I had to Dremel it as it was glued down pretty well. Once I got to clean original metal I put it back on. Based on the first drive the Reverse and 1st problem seemed a little better, but now 3rd is hard to engage. Ugh, I'm sure I need to replace some worn parts, and the chilton guide leaves little to be desired. Guess I'll search the parts companies to find what I need, and here for the easiest ways to do it. I thought I'd just access everything from below, but it is sandwiched between the pan and tunnel which makes me a little nervous.

BTW the problem seems worse at the end of a long drive. Any chance the rod is heating up, thus becoming a hair longer than idea? There is a big bolt on the rear that looks like it may be for adjusting the rod length.

BTW the problem seems worse at the end of a long drive. Any chance the rod is heating up, thus becoming a hair longer than idea? There is a big bolt on the rear that looks like it may be for adjusting the rod length.

Steve, I'm neither a genius nor a mechanic.

I don't use EMPI parts if I can avoid it, and I've discovered through Keith and others like him that every one of these cars seems to have a different shifter rod length, a different point at which they were shortened and a different repair solution.

I'd suggest buying John Muir's VW repair guide and getting familiar with the pages regarding the shifter assembly.

Once you've seen the diagrams and read the very practical descriptions on how they ought to work, diagnosis might be easier.

The ball and cup are supposed to fit easily, yes, but re-assembly requires a knowledge of where the gears 'are' when the arrangement is working properly. Don't just tighten the bolts the first time you think you've got it, and tighten both bolts at even intervals instead of one and then the other.

If everything else is in good shape, that should get you close.

Keith,

I had exactly the same problem. I got a perfect shift by tweaking a genuine VW coupler so the thread for the screw was rotated slightly. Therefore the parts were no longer at 90 degrees to each other, as suggested earlier.

If you disconnect the coupler from the shifter, you should be able to use it to manually put the gearbox in all of the gears. This will show you the angle the coupler needs to end up in to get all of the gears. Then reconnect the shifter and try moving between the gears, by watching the coupler you should find which way the coupler is rotating too far.

I hope this makes some kind of sense. If not let me know.