[s-cars] Tranny problems

[Jim and Sue McCarthy]

Hi Robert,
I have had about a dozen 5cy std manual tranny Audis since the late
70's and I have encountered this problem a couple of times.  Although
I haven't had occasion to fiddle with the linkage on any of the S6
cars in my immediate family, Bentley shows a diagram (Vol II page
k34-2) that has the same S6 part that was the source of the problem
you describe on my earlier cars.

It is a 5-6 inch item known as the "adjusting rod".  Each end has a
nylon type cup. One attaches to a post with a ball head on the tranny
and the other to a similar head on the linkage.  What happens is the
the nylon receiving end of this ball and socket joint gets dry and
fails with the nylon cracking and making the joint sloppy.  Put the
car in neutral and apply slight lateral pressure to the shift knob.
You should immediately feel spring resistance.  If not, i,e, if there
is any noticeably play, then the adjusting rod is your culprit,  I
seem to recall that this is about a $40 part.

Put the car on ramps, and from the underneath with hood open for
light from above you can see the shifter end of this rod on the
driver side of the tranny, and feel the other end on top of the
tranny more on the passenger side.  The old rod will probably pop or
fall right off with a little upward force, and with some lubricant
and a little more force (perhaps a small bar for additional leverage)
you can pop the new one on.  Having done this before, it would take
me 10 minutes max once under the car. Plan on a bit more first time
around as part of this maneuver requires braille.
Jim

Original message
>Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 13:31:53 -0500
>To: "Quattro list" <quattro at audifans.com>, s-car-list at audifans.com
>From: Robert Myers <robert at s-cars.org>
>Subject: [s-cars] Tranny problems?
>
>Hi Y'all,
>
>The better half and I ran a couple of errands uneventfully this morning and
>I parked the S6 in the garage.  I few minutes ago the better half started
>out on another errand and found she could not get it into gear.  OK, before
>you get all male chauvinistic about it, I tried also.  The car suddenly
>will not go into first gear.  I could get it into third and was able to
>move it a little but at the expense of the clutch.
>
>Is there a history of this sort of problem?  Any suggestions?  My prime
>suspect is likely to be the shift linkage.  The clutch pedal feels
>normal.  How does one check the linkage?
>
>
>Bob
>*****