[Vwdiesel] shift linkage

[Roger Brown]

Pam & Doug Boes wrote:
> I was having trouble getting the Caddy into 1st and Reverse. I changed all
> the bushings and the shifting worked fine for a few days. Now, I'm having
> trouble with getting it in 1st and reverse again.
> 
> Can the linkage rods wear? How about the relay lever (the piece with two
> bushings and two ball connections)? What other linkage problems lead to
> problems with 1st & reverse? It acts like the shift just doesn't move the
> linkage far enough forward to engage the 1st  & reverse properly. It sounds
> like the ends of the gears are just touching but not engaged.

See below for some troubleshooting tips:
http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/ForSale/ShiftLinkageInstall.shtml#DiagnosingProblems

Likely the selector lever needs to be pushed to the driver's side one notch on the splined 
shaft in order to get a little more "push" on the relay lever and selector shaft in order 
to reach 1st and reverse.  Easy enough to see if that is the case by pushing the linkage 
by hand into 1st gear after it has been pushed as far as the shifter will go.  IF that 
works, you just need to adjust the linkage to make it go like it did when you worked it by 
hand under the hood,.

-- 

   Roger