shifting questions and tranny gear lube

[girl Mark]

Hello,

I'm currently waiting for the manual for my 84 Rabbit, and have some questions in the meantime.
I'm having hard shifting into first gear- I have to slam on the stick a few times before it slips into gear. It isn't helped by double-clutching (ie letting pedal out a bit and then trying again). It definitely seems to be worse after the vehicle has warmed up a bit.

Im assuming two things but don't know how to check them-

a. either there's a hydraulic assist to the clutch and it's gone bad (I don't see one unless it's somehow tied to the brake fluid reservoir)

or
b. I'm low on trans gear oil .  Where is the filler nut on these vehicles?

I suppose C. worn clutch is possible but it doens't act like ones I've seen.

thanks,

Mark

[lord_verminaard]

Hi Mark, my 84 Scirocco has issues with 1st gear when it's cold but it usually goes away when it's warmed up a bit.  I know before I replaced all of my shifter bushings, it was a real chore to find ANY gear, much less first.  A couple things to check:

Checking the fluid level is quick and easy- on the drivers side of the tranny, there is a green "end cap"- you can see it pretty easily just by sticking your head behind the front tire.  To the right of that is a I believe a 17mm hex plug- that's your fill nut.  There is an identical plug on the bottom of the tranny near the differential area for draining.  If you open the fill hole, the fluid level should be right there.  Actually the proper amount of fluid is just a tad more than the top of that hole on level ground.  Have you had any problems with 5th gear popping out?  That's a sure sign that it is low on fluid.  (and that you may need a new 5th gear!)

There is no hydraulic assist for the clutch, it's a cable operated clutch.  It also may be a manually adjustable cable (which do feel better and last longer than the auto adjusting ones) but they do sometimes need a little adjustment.    You'll see the cable going through a bracket on the front (front of the car) side of the transmission, there should be a plastic collar around the cable at this bracket.  At the top of the collar there is a nut that you loosen first, then turn the collar clockwise to adjust the cable up more, counterclockwise for down.  If there is more than about an inch of upward play in the "arm" that the cable attaches to, it needs to be adjusted up a little.

Is there any slop in the shifter?  My guess is that if so, this is probably your main problem.  There are lots of bushings around all of the various bits of the shifter linkage- the Bentley manual has some nice diagrams on how it all goes together.  You can purchase bushing kits for something like $12-20 that will replace all of them.  

If the bushings dont fix it, the Bentley will show a few ways to adjust the main shifter rod that runs underneath the car, that can fix 1st and reverse problems.  There is also a way to adjust the shift rod inside the transmission but it rarely needs adjustment and should only be a last resort attempt.  

Good luck!

If it makes you feel any better, my 20 year old Scirocco after replacing all the bushings and adding a Techtonics short shift kit, shifts better than my 2000 Camaro does with a B&M and 1/4 as many miles.  

Brendan
84 Scirocco 8v
00 Camaro L36 M49

[mortskeg]

Girl mark-
Hey lord_verminaard's pretty much got you covered.  Like he said I was also going to suggest tightening up the clutch adjustment on top of the tranny and replacing your shifter bushings if you don't know how old they are (they can often seem pretty good but when you put new ones in it make a huge difference).

The biggest reason I've run into the hard 1st shift though is main shift rod misalignment.  It is kinda a trick to get it dialed in just right but I found something that works for me- I'll repost it here from a post on the caddy board where a guy was having a hard time finding 5th-

"I've found my favorite way to align the shift linkage is to 1. loosen the shift rod clamp on the selector lever as described by Iowa- just loose enough to be able to rotate the shift rod in the clamp, 2. manually place the transmission in 1st or 2nd gear (this takes some mental thinking on which way to move the transmission selector shaft--if you are standing bent over the left fender, for 2nd gear grab the selector and slide it toward the front of the car, and then rotate it away from you; towards the car's right) 3. give the gearshift lever a couple good side to side jiggles and then put it where it should be (put it where 2nd should be in this case) 4. tighten up the shift rod clamp and you're done."

Anyway it takes a bit of jumping around between the engine compartment, the floor and the inside of the car (at least with just one person) but usually it's easier to get to the proper result than the majic marker method.

http://vwcaddyforum.com/showthread.php?t=2815

Good luck!

[girl Mark]

thank you thank you thank you guys.

I've got the Bentley on order (getting it used for $7 plus shipping!) and was typing before really looking at what the clutch mechanism was.


Mark

[girl Mark]

turned out the problem was bent shifter levers.

I didn't actually do the work (currently suffering a bad hand injury and can't turn a wrench), but the guy who worked on it says it looked like someone had raised the engine (or tranny, can t remember which) during a clutch replacement or motor mount replacement, and had bent both shift levers badly. He re-bent them and welded on some reinforcement rods and now all is well. Weird problem!

Mark

[mortskeg]

Glad to hear that you've figured it out.  I think that one of the shift levers is supposed to be bent, but any of them being bent wrong would really throw it off.  Those plastic socket joints on the end of the linkages like to fail too so that something to keep an eye on as well.  Hope your hand is feeling better.