Renewing gear selector fork bushes - advice requested!

[Pootle]

I've started to have occasional trouble getting 1st gear so I bought the Brickwerks selector fork repair kit but I need a bit of advice. I'm doing it on my own, I don't have access to a pit or anything - I've got some axle stands.

I dropped the spare wheel and felt around inside the tin box around the shift mechanism. It is thick with dirty grease. I could feel the nylon bushes, they felt OK to be honest but I couldn't see them to be sure. A few questions:

1. Do I need to remove the tin box?

2. Do I need to remove the gear stick? I can feel that the nylon bushes are actually on the selector shaft that runs underneath the van (it's a 4-speed box).

3. How do I remove that selector shaft? I've had a good look in the Wiki/Haynes/Bentleys but can't find a description.

many thanks

[lhd]

yes no and a third back from the front there is a clamp.
Make sure you scribe it up properly or you will have trouble settin it back up again (this is important)....

[KarlT]

Just fitted new fork guides on mine. Don't think you could tell by feel. Easy to whip off, 4x 10mm nuts. You ali guide blocks will probably be worn too.

[Aidan]

no ali blocks on a four speed, remove the box as described 4 x 10mm nuts
mark up the slip joint in the middle of the linkage and loosen pinch bolt , remove the bolt holding the gearstick to the front linkage shaft be aware of nylon bushes in the bottom of the gearstick, well worth renewing 85p each from VW, then you can rotate the shaft so you can work on the nylon bushes in the kit, no need to actually pull it out
the instructions in the kit should suffice

[Pootle]

OK following the advice above I've got the selector shaft out and changed the selector tips! There's a full set of photos here: http://photobucket.com/T25GSFR" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I've got a few questions in BOLD below. Please click on the thumbnails!

1. Here's the selector shaft before the repair.



2. The offside selector fork tip was cracked and slightly wobbly.



3. The selector forks look a bit bent, not "lined up" with each other. Does it matter? The gearchange has always been smooth except for the recent occasional trouble with first.



4. New tips fitted. Pressing the rivet into the offside tip with a hobby vice squashed the plastic a bit, you can see it in the photo. But nothing is standing proud and it feels solid.



5. I also cleaned up the shift mechanism "tin box" housing. There was hard compacted grease on the stop plates in here, which wouldn't have helped the gear change.



6. There's some wear on the left stop plate. I would have bought a new one but I couldn't find one anywhere. Does it matter?



7. Getting the splined selector shaft OFF the centre UJ was a nightmare involving much twisting and cursing. Any hints how to get it back IN? And have I knackered the splines?


More pics tomorrow after I've refitted it all to the van.

many thanks

[Aidan]

3. as long as the two sides that enclose the cross bolt are parallel should be fine
6. wear is to be expected, should be fine, you can keep an eye out for a replacement used one if you like
7. did you remove the pinch bolt, if not that will be the problem, splines are only a gripper surface not a male and female type

[Pootle]

Today I refitted the repaired front selector shaft to the van.

I widened the centre "socket" on the UJ undeneath the van by pushing a screwdriver into the slots in the side (easy). I fed the repaired front selector shaft from the back to the front over the fuel tank, then from the front to the back through the bush in the bulkhead and into the UJ (it's an awkward fit, bonks the front valance). I had scratched lines on the selector shaft and the UJ so I was able to reassemble it *exactly* the same as it came out.

I greased up both sides of the stop plates in the shift mechanism "tin box" housing. I took the gearstick out and greased up the ball housing. I removed the two bearing bushes that Aidan suggest I replace, they looked spotless and round (and I couldn't get to a VW dealer anyway) so I reused them, greasing up the bush. I used Silkolene Lithium EP grease. I reassembled everything.
I gingerly tried the gears ...and it was MUCH WORSE.... ... [see next post]

[Pootle]

...I couldn't get 1st gear AT ALL. 2nd was difficult. 3rd, 4th and reverse were fine. It felt as if the stick needed to go further left to get 1st. If that was true, it made sense that the new selector tips would make things worse because they are "fatter" than the old worn tips.

By now I was quite au fait with how everything worked. So I tied a towrope to the gearstick in neutral, chucked it out the passenger window and crawled under the van. Tugging on the rope moved the gearstick towards 1st/2nd and I could see that the selector shaft rotated clockwise (looking towards the rear). OK, how about I twist the front selector shaft ONE spline anticlockwise in the UJ so the rear shaft rotates slightly further clockwise when I engage first?

...it worked.

Now all the gears engage easily and I have a crisp easy shift at the gearstick. Rotating the selector shaft one spline has probably taken out some play that has developed in the various bushes and linkages. I could have done it without the expense of the new selector fork tips, but if I hadn't fitted those I wouldn't have learnt how the gearstick, shafts and UJ work together to select the gears, so I'm a happy bunny.

This can be done as a DIY job, but if you've never done it before it won't be quick. Many thanks to Aidan and lhd for advice.

[xpress]

well done for doing this. could you point me to how you rotated the spline, I would like to see if this cures my intermittent but on the whole, bad brick wall changes.

[Pootle]

could you point me to how you rotated the spline

In my case it felt as if the gearstick wasn't going far enough over to the left to get 1st gear. By twisting the front half of the selector shaft, the back half of the shaft is able to turn one spline more than it did before when the gearstick moves to the left. That improved the selection of 1st gear. Here's what I did.

Halfway along the van there is a clamp which holds the front and back halves of the selector shaft together. It looks like this (click on the pic for bigger view):


1. Mark up the join like I have in the photo by scratching a line on the front and back halves of the selector shaft.

2. Loosen off the clampbolt.

3. Take two pairs of molegrips (or similar) and grip both halves of the selector shaft.

4. Looking towards the rear of the van, twist the front selector shaft anti-clockwise by ONE spline.

5. Tighten up the clampbolt.

6. Try it out.

Hope this helps!

[xpress]

thanks for your description pootle. does it not damage the splines this way, can you take the front part of the shaft out, (or would you have to take the gearstick out) or is this the accepted way to adjust? many thanks for you very good explanation and pictures.

[Pootle]

does it not damage the splines this way

Not really, but anyway it doesn't matter. They don't fit into matching slots or anything, they just give a bit of grip. See here, some of the splines on my selector are flattened, but it makes no difference.

can you take the front part of the shaft out, (or would you have to take the gearstick out)

You can do, but it's quite fiddly. To take the front part out, you don't need to take the gearstick out but you have to remove the metal box at the front and undo the bolt holding the bottom of the gear stick to the selector shaft.

is this the accepted way to adjust?

Yes, I found a reference to it somewhere else on this forum or maybe Brick-yard.

[xpress]

Brilliant! Will give it a go. I guess you will feel the click as the spline adjusts to the next one. Hopefully I will have good changes soon!

[Pootle]

Brilliant! Will give it a go. I guess you will feel the click as the spline adjusts to the next one. Hopefully I will have good changes soon!

Good luck!

[norsenoddy]

pootle you're a life save ( well the life of my van anyway ) after trying most things the trouble I had getting 1st gear was getting really wearing and putting me off taking the thing out but finally tried the turning shaft trick and low and behold 1st gear is there many thanks the van will stay.