[s-cars] Shifter woes after clutch replacement

[Calvin & Diana Craig]

I had a similar problem after my clutch was replaced, although not nearly as
bad.  My mechanic offered to adjust it when I picked it up but I said I
would bring it back as I needed the car.  My problem is just with 1st gear.
I guess if the guy is that defensive of his work and doesn't want to take
any responsibility for the mistake I would dump him as a mechanic.  Next
time it may be something worse, like a timing belt one tooth off, that he
doesn't want to take the blame for.
--Calvin

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com]On Behalf Of
henryb at aciworldwide.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 12:10 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Shifter woes after clutch replacement


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I just recently had my clutch replaced by a local-wrench who was referred
to me by other Audi owners (and reported to be very good).  The clutch job
took a long time to complete - about 2 weeks... which was OK, I was
willing to wait for someone who was going to do a good job (for less money
then the dealer).

However, when I got my car back, I immediately noticed that the shifter
was not quite right.  It seemed more difficult to put into reverse and it
would no longer go into 1st without going into 2nd before 1st (it never
did this before).  I also noticed that there seemed to be a vibrating
sound coming from under the shifter boot and by holding the shifter in
gear would enhance this sound (as if one of the shifter rods was rubbing
on the tranny or something like that?).  The other strange thing was that
in the neutral position... the shifter would not spring back to the middle
position (between 3rd & 4th) after I moved it to between 1st & 2nd.  It
seems like it has to go over a hump to move it from between3rd&4th  to
between1st&2nd.  However, it would spring back to that middle position
after I moved it to beneath 5th (as it used to).

I called the mechanic and he was somewhat defensive about it and would not
take any responsibility and indicated that these conditions are normal? He
also indicated that he did not remove the shifter only detached the
linkage rods and then reattached them when the tranny was back in!

So, I took my car into another (very well respected S-car mechanic -
although it was a 200km round trip drive)...  he took a look at the
shifter and agreed that it was not shifting correctly and he also noticed
that from the drivers seat the position of the shifter was off-center a
bit (which I had not noticed).  So he played around with the adjustment
for over an hour (for no charge).  Eventually, he was able to get the car
to shift into every gear correctly, but it still was not right... it still
had this problem with it not returning to the middle position in neutral
between 3rd & 4th.  He said that he suspects that one of the linkage rods
was probably bent slightly during the removal of the tranny during the
clutch job and it will never be quite the same again.

Although, it shifts good now, but the shift from 2nd into 3rd is now a
forced movement - I have to mindfully move it over toward the 3rd/4th lane
to get it into 3rd... otherwise it will stay in the 1st/2nd lane and go
back into 1st (which I have not done yet - thankfully).

It doesn't appear that the mechanic is willing to contribute to this issue
and I'm not sure how hard I should press to get him to fess-up?  He is a
local guy that specializes in Audi's and for a good hourly rate...  I
really don't want to piss him off, so he won't do any work for me in the
future!  So, it appears that I may end up having to replace the shifter on
my own, if I want to get it back to how it used to work?  Has anyone done
this job and have some details on the procedure?  And does anyone have a
shifter that they want to sell?

Brent
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