New 1988 90q owner

[Joel A. Frahm]

Hi all,
I recently bought an '88 90q and have a few questions.  I have been
searching the archives but not getting the results I would like.  I plan
to get a service manual soon, which will help, but I would like to get
going on a few issues in the meantime.

My questions:
My shifter is very loose, and I read that my linkage may be about to fall
apart.  I can lift the shift knob up a few cm and drop it, it falls
freely.  I can find all the gears but second is hard to get to without
some forethought.  Is this something I can easily get a look at from
underneath?

How does one remove the shifter boot and knob?

I also want to check my timing belt, is there a writeup on this procedure?
I have the 2.3l engine.

One more thing:  My temperature gauge does not work, it's always pegged on
cold.  The car does warm up.  I found what appeared to be a temperature
sender with a 2-wire connector (liek a fuel injector) on the water neck.
I measured resistance across the sensor, there was some.  I also opened
and shorted the wires to the sensor but got no response from the gauge.
Is this the only temp sensor?  The appropriate one for the gauge?  I'm
worried the CIS will think the engine is forever dead cold and run rich.

Thanks for any responses,

-Joel.

P.S.  I drove into work this AM, and stopped behind a chevy pickup
spinning on the ice trying to pull out into traffic.  He was on a very
gentle slope (less than an average driveway) and could not get traction.
I just drove around him, gotta love that AWD.  With me out of the way he
could back up and make a run at it, so I wasn't leaving him for dead.  It
was still pretty funny though.  It was the first time I'd driven the Q in
snow/ice and I was impressed with the Quattro and the ABS, and this car is
15 years old!

--
Joel Frahm <frahm at jila.colorado.edu>
University of Colorado, JILA