Shifting Problems

Gene-C · Post by **Gene-C** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:52 pm

I just finished the Manx Club Run in Lone Pine and participated in the "Thrill Seekers" ride, which was quite a hill climb in a couple of spots and while doing this, I had to do some shifting in extreme conditions. Anyway it is now hard ot shift into the lower gears and when in neutral, the shifter is tending to lean towards the 3rd gear position. To get it into 1st gear I have go from 4th to 3rd, to 2nd, then into 1st. Is this an adjustment problem or is my tranny wearing out??? I do have to remove it to fix an oil leak and don't want to do this more than once.

Any suggestions or ideas will help. Jimbo

fubar · Post by **fubar** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:52 pm

is the clutch getting wet?????(oil leak) Sounds like it is not disengaging 100%.

joemama · Post by **joemama** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:58 pm

If you are using a stock vw shifter, there is a shift plate that guides your shifter as you shift gears, it also provides for the reverse lockout. This plate is held in place by the same 2 bolts that hold down your shifter to the pan tunnel. The plate is adjustable by loosening the two bolts, move the shifter to what you think feels right, tighten the bolts and try that. Might have to try a few adjustments until you get it right. See if you can see marks where the shifter base plate might have moved, and try to set to that position. This can be a frustrating adjustment, but if it worked before, you can adjust it to work again. I think in your vigorous shifting, you slid the shift plate out of adjustment. Good luck.

Don Giovanoni · Post by **Don Giovanoni** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:14 am

If adjusting doesn't help, check the front transmission mount and transmission snout. If one or both is broken, finding gears gets tricky. Hopefully just adjustment...

UncleBob · Post by **UncleBob** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:46 am

If you can VISUALLY tell your shifters in a different spot, I wouldn't suspect tranny. Maybe you knocked your shifter out of adjustment, your coupler is shot, or your shiftrod is cracking at the spot it was shortened. I just fixed the latter in mine.

5150bossman · Post by **5150bossman** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:56 pm

I have noticed with mine that when ever we go off road, it get's hard to downshift from 3rd to 2nd. A few days after we get back, and after some running on the street, it loosens back up again (back to normal), and I can downshift without a problem. I was thinking that there was some dirt or dust getting in somewhere preventing easy movement, but don't know for sure. It has happened each and every time we go off-road and back to street. Jimbo, try running it on the street for a day or two and see if that helps. Maybe it just needs a good cleaning.

manxter26 · Post by **manxter26** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:27 am

Jimbo, After watching you go up that first hill, I would lean toward a clutch issue. It sounds like you're not disengaging all the way and after the abuse your clutch took trying to get up that thing, I'm not surprised. I can't believe Kathleen wouldn't get out and push. My clutch on the other hand, held up perfectly. It was the issue with my spider gears, axle, ring and pinion or whatever it was that went BANG and let all of the tranny fluid run out of the bottom. Try adjusting it up a little and see if it goes in gear any easier. Good luck, whatever it is, it has to be cheaper than my fix.

Gene-C · Post by **Gene-C** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:47 pm

Thanks for all the imput, Guys!! My clutch is a stage I Kennedy and it does disengage to a full free position, though I really used it HARD!!! I feel it might be just an adjustment issue, but the Idiot's Book says the tranny is going, when this happens. Just being cautious. I now will start trying some adjustments, before thinking about removal. Thanks, Again!! Jimbo

Gene-C · Post by **Gene-C** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:02 pm

After receiving all the suggestions, I went out and started going through the system, first checking the shifter, it is an Empi, with the trigger set up and it had not moved, but the rubber boot has rotted away, then to the coupler, in appears to be locked down in it's original position, so nothing there, I then pulled the rear tire and checked the clutch cable and was able to turn the wing nut by hand, not good, checked the free play in the pedal, an inch more that before, so I kept tightening the wing nut on the cable till it was firm and AH,HA, solved my shifting problem. It appears the car will run in neutral even if the clutch is out of adjustment. I must have burned off more on the disc, than I thought. No more shifting problem. Thanks again for all of the suggestions. Jimbo

CairoManx · Post by **CairoManx** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:45 pm

Your clutch cable shouldn't become loose when your clutch friction disc wears. If your clutch has worn, it should actually disengage with less pedal travel. You may have something else going on there. The simplest cause for the problem would be the wingnut has backed off on the end of the clutch cable. However, if you have one of the wing nuts with a square base and the hole in the throw-out lever is also square, then its unlikely it backed off. What may have happened is your clutch tube has broken free of where it is welded to the frame where it exits the tunnel at the rear of the pan. When that happens your clutch cable flexible preload tube loses its pre-load curve and that makes your clutch cable very loose. The other place its common for clutch tube welds to break is inside the tunnel right behind the pedal cluster. Either one is a ***** to repair. One way to tell if that is what happened is if there is the sound of your clutch tube moving and rubbing inside the tunnel when you push the pedal.

Manx Club

Shifting Problems

Shifting Problems

Check Front Trans Mount

Solved