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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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!
![Image]()
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:
![Image]()
9. Press the new bearing bush back into the pivot bracket - make sure you press this in the correct way around!
![Image]()
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:
![Image]()
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
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
