Club 80-90 Forums

Changed my speedo cable today. I guess VW had the apprentice in the design studio that day! But, not as bad as I had expected, 2 hours. Was struggling to push the cable through the wheel hub, initially but WD40 sorted that. The sleeving over the cable at the binnacle end was too long which prevented the grommit from going up high enough, so cut a bit off. Been putting it off for ages, so thought I’d ‘just start’. Oh and wire wheeled the little bracket for the cable with the x2 10mm nuts, set at 740mm distance from end of cable ideally. Bit-o-grease on the square grease cap hole to prevent water ingress. That’s it.

SPEEDO CABLE - CLIP ON
252957803F

GREASE CAP - FRONT
251407691A

A little enthusiastic on the mph front, but only ~5mph over; quite a treat having a working speedo. Everything on the binnacle now works, a rare treat.

Off to the tip …



No idea what this ABGRIFF does, translates to ‘tap’ in English. All our Speedo’s have these in the back of them?
Forum member - AngeloEvs, “factory blanking tab if cruise control is not fitted?”

Gear linkage has been good; up to today. Typical; fix one thing, another thing goes wrong It’s reverse, 2nd & 4th I’m struggling with, i.e. the gear lever ‘forward’ (5-speed), so I’ll try tapping the gear linkage back 5mm.

is the rear bush mount plate on the side of the gearbox on the wrong side of the boss ? it should be fitted on the front, not in the little gap on the back side ?

This is my rear bush mount plate. Is this fitted correctly?



You Tuber had his this way:



Behind the knuckle, not in front - this doesn’t look right.



<< rear - front >>

Been moving the spine up and down 5-10mm, but now it just pops out the ball all the time, so now I have no gears at all - just my luck.
I'll try the Haynes 7A.3 - gearshift linkage adjustment next. It's all about setting it up in neutral I think. I may even read the Wiki

Failed. Just keeps popping out, even with no splines showing on the linkage. Doesn’t seem to have anything from stopping the motion of selecting 2nd or 4th gear from popping the nylon ball in the gearbox?

My selector box, it’s a bit greasy but is anything amiss?



With gear linkage spline disconnected:



Is it missing a cover for example, this is exactly how I found it.

has the ball bracket moved on the gearbox selector shaft? maybe worn spines or nut loose?

The 13mm which holds the ball to the gearbox, I’ll check it. Splines are good, been taking this gear linkage spline on and off so I know it’s right. Might even be this maybe? I’m trying to think what is enabling the gearshift to throw the gearbox ball so far, to the rear? You put it in 2nd, but you’ll never get it out again because the ball has popped.

Possibly at cross purposes, i meant the splines on the shaft coming out of the gearbox where the ball bracket attaches? Not the splines where the long rods connect under the van which is i’m guessing what you’ve been moving?
I dont think the ball/socket on the gearstick would cause the issue as it’s a rotating motion, unless it’s more or less fallen apart!

Ah yes, I’m with you now. It does have a tab so it can only go on one way, but good shout I’ll remove it and check the splines and 13mm nut.

The following 3 pictures are from the interweb, info. only.







Pretty confident you’ve cracked it Muttleypup, good shout. Find out tomorrow…251711221F



Nope … get it into reverse and it kicks the ball out, then your stuck.

I’m struggling to understand page 34.13 in the Bentley manual.



I’m wondering if I’m just better off setting it up in reverse gear, at the gear shifter and the lever on the gearbox.

- No, it is isn’t.

List of things to do is short at the moment…

1, Fog light (lamp holder issue)

2, NSF hub (thread stripped on one wheel bolt)

ok please remind me what engine is in this ?
because that looks to me like a diesel gearbox mount and a petrol rear linkage

I appreciate your input on this Aidan. Those recent pictures above are from the interweb, not mine.

It was a 1.9DG from factory. It’s now a 2.1MV. Um, it did have a diesel bell housing on it when I bought it, the previous owner was half way into converting it into a TDi from what I can make out, before giving up.
It has a 5-speed gearbox mount, it’s the original one I think. I’ll get some more pictures up …





I’m just driving around without a reverse gear at the moment. I dare not put it in reverse in public as it will pop out the gearbox lever ball.

okay the picture in the post directly above this is petrol but the one in the middle of the post from the 15th showing a yellow polybush mount is diesel hence my question.
The picture of the rear bush plate on the 14th is correct and shows the petrol mount so that's all good.

When you fit the cup and ball together you should mate them with the rear bush plate slightly loose, pull the skirt of the boot on the ball down over the cup and push the whole linkage up and lock off the two bolts holding the bush plate to the gearbox so the cup and ball are as tightly conjoined as possible. Check the cup isn't full of crud, hard poly grease etc and the plastic bung isn't loose inside and add a finger of clean grease before mating so there is some lube
If it is still popping out then either your centre UJ has lots of play or the middle bush is worn out or the gearstick pivot ball is foobarred or the spring collar on the gearstick is in the wrong place
Check also the two bushes that hold the bolt that joins linkage to gearstick are not worn as well as play there will make setting it up well difficult. 
Setting up the linkage isn't hard I've posted numerous methods which I think have been wikified, bottom line is in 2nd 3rd neutral at the box, ie ball pushed into box till it reaches spring pressure, the gearstick forks should be centred relative to the two alloy guides in both planes at the front. You should need to push the gearstick down once over to the left to get under the lockout to engage reverse 

DoubleOSeven I just wanted to say I have been reading through all of this thread and its great, well done with all your hard work