[Vwdiesel] cable shift on A4 etc..

[James Hansen]

Interesting thing I discovered tonight. Posting this to both lists as I
don't recall if the original discussion on cable shift linkages came from
Diesel or Audi-VW diesel...

Wife was complaining of poor shifting and an exhaust smell last night, so
got the 97 Passat into the shop tonight.  So it was really hard to get into
reverse as shown by a test drive, I even blew a shift, and yeah, it stunk.

So I jacked it up, did the safety stand thing, and before the packed salty
snow and ice started melting and raining under the car, I rolled underneath,
to find a good inch sized hole in the exhaust pipe just before the rear
muffler pointing straight at the driver's side door.  Hmm, great.  Got mig
out, sizzed at it until stuck shut, make a mental note to order a new one.
I love welding thin rusty exhaust pipe (paper?) overhead while getting
rained on by saltwater. May as well have been tin foil, or maybe foil is
thicker, dunno, never measured it.  Most of the snow and ice that was under
the car was melted away by the time I finished. I know, I mopped up most of
it with my coveralls and hair.

So, changed clothes, and had a gander at the shifter. pulled shifter boot,
had look, grease a little stiff for winter, so I thinned it a  tad with
wd40, and some moly spray to make it slipperier.  Still didn't shift better,
you just couldn't find the forward gates well, so had a look at the other
end. So it turns out to be the adjustment retaining nut on the upper cable
had loosened off, and the cable is out of adjustment at the tranny end.
Fiddled a bit, got it nice again. tightened, check oil, clean windows, and
it's back here to tell you all about it.

Soo, the moral of the story is, if your cable shift suddenly gets poor,
check the top cable adjustment retaining nut.

Going to shower the salty mud and burned hair off now.  Did I mention I just
love overhead welding?  :-)  It's great, everything looks much better after,
kinda like how your hand feels so much better after you quit slamming it in
the car door...
-James


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