Shift linkage refurbishment

[Phil Rose]

At 10:59 PM -0400 9/19/02, Audi Sport wrote:
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>In my opinion (from experience) the shifter would feel loose from worn out
>bushings but if it seems like it's harder to go into gears you might want to
>check your slave cylinder or maybe even the clutch. The only bushings in there
>are on both sides between the upper shift linkage and the shift lever. If
>those wear out than the shifter will feel loose. There is also a rubber piece
>more towards the bottom in front of the emergency brake for the lower shift
>linkage but that doesn't really wear out. I don't know if the dealer would
>just sell the bushings alone but you don't need to get under the car for
>those.

Ah, "refurbishment" is such a nice word. What's that saying?  "If it
ain't broke, it probably needs refurbishment."

Shifter issues have been on my mind, too. For the past 2 yrs, my
older car (Lago, 135K miles) has had a very slight (but annoying)
grinding noise from "down below"-- driveline, gear, bearing(?) The
noise occurs in any gear and is heard _only_ when coasting
off-throttle with the clutch out. However I've discovered that this
noise vanishes if the shifter is pulled gently upward with a slight,
negligible movement--perhaps 1/16". Altogether, the shifter on this
car can be pulled upward by as much as 1/8-3/16", whereas my "newer"
car (38K miles) has almost no perceptible up/down "play" in its
shifter (and no driveline noise, either).

So I'm wondering if the driveline noise is somehow induced by a
misaligned shift mechanism that requires, um,  refurbishment. Any
thoughts?  Despite study of Bentley/ETKA diagrams I don't have a
clear idea as to how the shift-linkage works. Oh, BTW, gear-shifting
is certainly not any better than it was 40K ago, but it doesn't seem
a lot worse, either.

Phil
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Phil Rose				Rochester, NY USA
'91 200q	(135 Kmiles, Lago blue)
'91 200q   (58 Kmiles, Tornado red)
	mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net