[d-9]

At the weekend I decided to rebush the gearshift rods to try and sort out the change and adjust it so I could get first. As theres been a few threads asking I figured I'd write up how to do them. I replaced the usual suspects, which are the bushes on the end of the T rod, which lifts the shaft on the top of the box, the bush it sits in, the bushes on the relay lever and the bushes on the bottom of the lever. In this picture, numbers 47, 46 and 53, 42 and 27. Some photos shamelessly stolen from the shortshift thread, because I didnt take enough.

Remove the shift rods from the car:
1. On top of the gearbox, undo the two vertical 10mm bolts (49) that hold the A shaped bracket(50) which locates one end of the T-linkage (38) onto the gearbox, remove this bracket.

2. On top of the gearbox, undo the two 13mm bolts (54) that hold the pivot bracket (52) onto the gearbox. (ratchet spanners will help this bit).

3. Under the van, undo the 13mm nut that holds the relay lever (39) onto the T-linkage, pull the relay lever off the bottom of the T-linkage.

4. Under the van, undo the 13mm bolt that holds the forward/back selector shaft (43) onto the bottom of the gear shift lever, drop the selector shaft down and rotate the lot so that the relay lever pops off the forward selector shaft and drop it off the car.

5. Under the van, undo the 13mm bolt that holds the T-linkage onto the bottom of the gear shaft, by means of a round clamp(35). Remove the bolt and the clamp. Push the linkage forward and the bottom of the shaft backwards, so the linkage pops out of the bottom of the shift lever, then withdraw the T-linkage from under the car.

Removing the old bushes - There appear to be a couple of variants, one uses a retaining pin to hold the smaller ball onto the T-linkage, mine didnt so thats what I describe here. For the one that uses a retaining pin, press it out first.
6. Cut the old balls off the T-linkage, then pry off using a spanner:

7. Cut the old bearing bush out of the pivot bracket, then push out. Mine just fell out when poked with a 1/2" extension, no hammer needed!

8. Press the balls onto the end of the T-linkage. I used a press which was easy, but if you dont have access to a press a large vice or possibly a lump hammer would do:

9. Press the new bearing bush back into the pivot bracket - make sure you press this in the correct way around!

10. Press the T-linkage into the bearing bush. I used a spanner to support the bracket rather than pressing against the bush, however this caused the bush to pop out slightly and need pushing back in from the other side, Im not sure if it would be better to press against the bottom of the bush:

11. Pop out the bushes on the relay lever, these just pop in and out. While you've got it off, consider doing a short-shift conversion, as described here: http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48108 Totally transforms the gearshift

12. Under the van, pop out the bushes on the bottom of the shift lever, these I just hoiked out with a pen-knife and pushed the new ones in.

13. Now put it all back together Once its all in place, have an assistant hold the lever in a sensible place while adjusting the forward backward and rotation via the clamp bolt at the bottom of the shift lever - If this is adjusted wrong you'll have to push the stick down to get first.

This has made a huge difference, its gone from sloppy and not knowing which gear I'm in, to nice and precise

 

[Ems79]

Wanna do mine! You make it sound so easy! lol

 

[thevandidit]

Nice write up fellaT: I'll move it to the tech articles section if you don't mind?

 

[d-9]

Yeah no worries

 

[Abyss]

I can confirm, that this is bob on T:

Exactly how I did mine, minus the pro tools, which most wont have at home, so my advice would be fresh boiling water, dangerous i know, but were mostly men here, pop the balls (not yours), and the plastic cup in the boiling water to soften, then tap on with a rubber mallet or lump hammer (careful not to damage them with a metal lump hammer) T:

I also used a smidge of grease to aid the slipping of the balls

I also found the short shift mod was too extreme, too short, so be careful on that one T:

 

[webbe01]

My gear lever has a squeek when shifting. Its does find the gears ok though.

Do I need to change these bushes or is it a different one?

Many Thanks

Ed

 

[ScouseSteve]

Thanks D-9, good post.

ScouseSteve

 

[odannyboy]

try some lubrication first Ed, i say.

 

[d-9]

Try spraying a bit of white grease into the bottom of the lever (from underneath the van). You'll see the two planes it moves through, give them both a squirt.

 

[Billy-Bob]

I have just replaced my gearbox bush tonight ( the one on top of the gearbox), made a simple tool for pressing the bush on the shaft. All installed in 20 mins. PM me and I will mail you the photos of it.

 

[Billy-Bob]

Hi there I have made a tool for easy installation of the ball bush on top of the gearbox (bush 47), without removal of any linkage parts. 20 minutes to fit the bush, and job done, PM me if you want some photos of the tool and sizes etc. Cheers.

 

[Monza]

Thank you dude been trying to get this all back together in situ on the van, been driving me mental. The last picture is the one! T:

 

[Buster9765]

Hi Guys can someone help me please ??? Every so often my T4 sticks in 5th gear and I really have to pull on the gear stick to get it out of 5th and then other times its fine ? could someone help me out on this ?

 

[keithrturner]

Thanks to this post I've managed to tackle this on my van. I thought the gears felt sloppy and on inspection the linkage was held in place with cable ties! Turned out this was because the cup section was completely missing.

Managed to get it all together, have to say pushing the cup into the bracket was a real pain, even with it dismantled using a vice, it just kept on bending - but perserverance and persuasion did the trick. The other problem I found was pushing the ball into the cup, again pressed it in using a vice whislt assembled to the T piece and found that the metal just pushed through the bush. In the end I found it easier to push the bush into the cup loose, then push the T piece in, this seemed to work much better. Once all assembled back on the bus (fidly to reach the bracket bolts!) the difference is amazing, properly crisp changes and no more slotting into third instead of first!

 

[mr.underwood]

Billy-Bob,do you still have the photos you took of tool you made for replacing the gearbox bush?If so could you PLEASE let me have a copy before I go mad
Thanks if you can,mr.underwood.

 

[danjah]

excllent report d.9 i'm a new member lookin at the same op but mine has got the pin thro no.38 as per your helpful point 6! if any one still with me-surely if i press the bush onto that pin it will rip it to bits? can't see that i could put the pin in after?:* help i give up fiddlin with vans since i bort her years ago. bulletproof

 

[Andreus]

Nuts...now doing mine after getting the bits and was gonna do the shortshift mod too...got those stupid ball joints on my linkage so gonna try removing the whole linkage bars without taking ball joints apart!! Will post my sucess later...hopefully!

 

[jes*b]

hi, this is a really great 'how to' I have changed front 3 bushes and reassembled - the parts (at clamp) went back exactly as per as they were clearly marked by dirt /grease outlines. however as quoted i now have to press down to get first . to save time can anyone advise as to whether i have to rotate at the clamp or slide forward and back to resolve this? i am assuming i have to adjust from original as the 3 bushes at the front and all new ? cheers jes

 

[Stuvwt4]

Hi all

I've just completed this this evening and it went well and no loss of gears from what i keep reading. I think the loss of gears would be from completely disconnecting the main rod! I managed to complete with it all intact except the bracket on the gear box.

To get that big bush in on the bracket I simply soaked it in boiled water and put a hair dryer against it, I then pushed the open end of the bush in from the back of the bracket and pushed it through with a flat end screw driver and then hammered the bush fully in. For the 2 balls and the "T" end of the road I simply cut old ones of and pushed the new ones with a big pair of pliers.

Coupling the "T" end to the bracket on the gearbox wasn't to bad either, i got the hair dryer back on the rubber bush packed it with grease and pushed with the big set pliers onto the ball and then bolted back to gearbox.

Simple tools done the job for me!

Stuart

 

[Thom.milburn]

does anyone have a photo of how this should look at the selector once connected/refitted?

mine currently looks like this after the garage did it:

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQDI0pTUPlpVqxVEaGrjKn8h0gROo58DgF-QzE1X9-e8poRi6C4OA

is this correct or wrong as i suspect?