Trouble selecting gears!

[ju]

Hi, I have a 2l Aircooled, which has decided to develop a problem with the gears. This has steadily been getting worse. I am struggling to find the gears when driving. 1st and 2nd seem to right over to the left where reverse should be. It has got so bad that I find myself in reverse instead of 1st ( great when setting off from traffic lights, can usually tell beforehand by the look of panic on the drivers face behind me when he sees the reverse lights come on). 3rd and 4th seem to be where they should be and I can sellect these relatively easy. The other thing is that i don't seem to need to push down on the gear lever anymore to get to reverse gear. Is this a linkage problem or something more disturbing? Any help would be greatly appreciated as i don't know where to start looking, and don't really want to pay garage prices if its just a case of replacing a spring or something like that.

Cheers, Ju

[jason k]

its most likely the plastic hemispheres on the gear lever (seen inside the van) and the top hat bushes on the bottom of the lever (under the van above the spare wheel with a metal box covering em

easy to change, bad news is if you still have the original gear lever then there are no early hemispheres left.
you will have to change all the bits to a "late" van inc the lever.

[ju]

cheers Jason, the van is a 1983 and as far as i am aware has original linkage. Is this an early or late type? I can check with the previous owner if he ever changed it.

Ju

[dugcati]

at 82 I'd say it's deffinatley early - changeover was end of 83/early 84 as far as I am aware...
I'm pretty sure Simon Baxter will be along soon with a link to the parts and a price for you

[AngeloEvs]

I had exactly the same problem and traced it to a loose bolt that secures the linkage to gearstick in the above mentioned housing.