Club 80-90 Forums

New gearstick lower ball replaced with new one from Brickwerks
Now fitted has helped, nice feel now and easier to get in to reverse but will need to work back through the other parts as still hitting knuckles on dash.
So the question is where next? have the 2 small nylon parts ordered for the gear lever fork. Have had a look on wiki very detailed info


old one out


new one in

Now do the rest....

Covkid had hoped i would have got away with just this part, but it looks like a back crawling session to do all the other bits.

Always is I'm afraid. Chances are the rest is original. Just do a bit at a time and ideally in warmer weather. Rear kits generally cheaper on ebay I found.

if you are hitting the dash then the rods are too long shorten at the middle join, generally 8mm or so of splines showing

Thanks Aidan will give that a try,my wife wants a recess in the dash with a sponge strip stuck on it,but your advise sounds better.

I have found information on this subject very hard to come by, but here is my own story. Obviously it is entirely up to an individuals own risk as to whether they do this or not, I am certainly not recommending it.

I have owned my T3 Camper for about 10 years. I had the gearbox fully rebuilt by a specialist in Henley on Thames approx 8 years ago, as it was jumping out of gear. Re-assembled along with a new clutch by my local VW dealer in Morpeth Northumberland (Now closed).

The gear stick was always close to the dash, and after about a year of ownership the fault became much worse, with it hitting the radio in 3rd. Probably the most annoying fault I have ever come across. I fitted a high spec Alpine system and every time I went for 3rd it switched it off!

I finally spoke to an expert who had worked on VW's for years and knew T25's inside out. Both of us spent an age on it in the workshop, there was no evidence of excessive wear on the linkages front to rear, bearing in mind as I say, this was before and after a gearbox specialist rebuild and a dealer re-fit along with a genuine VW clutch! Settings were altered front to back with no luck.

At the end of the day it was thought the only way left was to try bending the gearstick at my own risk. Obviously heat would be required. I agreed, but then basically lived with the fault for years. I did have a brief go at bending the lever with a gas blow torch, but couldn't generate enough heat.

Anyway, years later I discussed the problem with a family friend, an engineer who used to build autocross cars. Having really had enough of the problem I asked if we could give it a good going over. Again it was checked, and we agreed there was no serious wear in the linkages, ball socket, basically anywhere front to back.

We concluded my VW colleague a few years ago was right and decided to risk bending the gearstick.

We took off the gear knob and base rubber, the base was wrapped around with a cloth soaked in water, and a hand pump water spray was directed on the (cloth) around the bottom of the stick.

We heated the bottom bend with an oxyocetylene burner until red hot, and bent it, basically back and over towards the drivers seat. I.E, in the direction of the handbrake button, (it's RHD)

We may well have been very lucky, however after years of putting up with it, the fault has finally gone. We now have in van entertainment when driving - bliss.

In closing, I cannot recommend this method as it is entirely up to the individuals own risk, but for us it worked a treat, problem solved.

Or buy a short shift kit!

Elsaetka wrote: The gear stick was always close to the dash....

We concluded my VW colleague a few years ago was right and decided to risk bending the gearstick.

Is pretty much what a friend with welding gear did for mine. It worked fine for me too.

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Aside = Actually mine broke and when my friend welded it back together, he set it so it was a bit further back, and a bit further to the right. Much better position now, though it took me a while to get used to it, as before it was well over to the left / front from where it should be.