16V gear selection - not sorted

[saxchappy]

Hi!

Would anybody be able to help me with this issue. I was able to select reverse gear without pushing down the gear lever on my 1990 16V Golf (which I have owned for about two months) so, following the excellent 'THE MK2 gear shift repair guide' on this site, I changed the gearstick housing (eventually!). Now, however, I have to press down and to the left on the gear stick to get first, move towards me and slightly right to get second and push down and further left to get reverse. Have I misaligned something on dissembly or reassembly - I followed the instructions and didn't undo anything I wasn't asked to - or might I need to replace the gear shift bushes referred to elsewhere in the Gearshift guide?

Any help would be gratefully received 

Kevin

[Steve_B]

Maybe you need to align the gearstick again. Look at the guide for how to do it, sounds like it's too far to the left atm (I did the same thing  :embarassed: ). You need to loosen where the bolt holding the gearstick shaft where it comes into the engine bay, then align the gearstick as in the guide, you can use a CD case instead of the alignment tool between reverse gate and lever, and tape it upright.
Tighten it all up when finished and should be problem free 

[oakgreengolf]

I put a cassette tape against the left hand side of the gearstick. Get someone to hold the gear stick central or tape it in place, then re tighten the nut. Its a bit trial and error, take it for a quick spin and make sure your happy. Make sure you tighten the nut up well!! 

[Ben Lessani]

It becomes trial and error if the metal reverse gate has ever been bent.



Give it a few goes and you'll get it right in the end.

[saxchappy]

Thanks for that - I'll try it out in the morning 

Kevin

[saxchappy]

Hmmm - just had a look at the gear selection guide. In the picture below I loosened the nut shown roughly centre and 3/4 of the way up the pic., fitted the alignment tool and tried to retighten. However, the nut couldn't be tightened really tight and there seemed to be a lot of play before I started doing anything with it. Still much the same as before in terms of gear selection.  Am I playng with the correct adjusting nut? Any thoughts? Thanks again, in anticipation 

Kevin

[Ben Lessani]

Thats the one. Like I said, if the reverse gate has ever been bent, the alignment tool won't do its job properly.

After tightening that nut, there shouldn't be any play between the shaft and mech itself.

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=49436.msg497188#msg497188

[saxchappy]

Thanks for the advice so far! And thanks for the laballed pic, Ben. Thing is, when I loosen the clampo bolt and fit the alignment tool to the gearstick  mechanism, I surely don't just retighten the clamp, do I? Do I push the clamp up to a butt stop or something before tightening? Tried just tightening today and made the situation different but no better 

Cheers

Kevin

[Ben Lessani]

Nope, its as straightforward as you think.

Ensure the box is in neutral, loosen off the clamp holding the main selector rod, fit your alignment tool, then tighten the bolt.

It should only take about 15 minutes. If your still having bother selecting gears, then make sure all the other linkages are ok. What parts did you replace:

The relay shaft ball?
The plastic linkages?
The plastic bushes?
The cup and ball?

[rubjonny]

when you loosen the clamp and fit the tool you need to wiggle the engine bay linkage to ensure its centralised, then tighten the pinch bolt.  Also check for play in any of the bushes in the bay, and look at your relay shaft bush closely.  any play here and it will make aligning the gears especially hard.

if the tool fails you, the way i do it is to loosen the clamp bolt till it can be moved with a little force. then select 3rd in the car, and wiggle the stick left & right till its just about in the middle.  Then try 1st, 5th and reverse.  If its not right put it back into 3rd, tweak it and retry.  Once happy that all gears can be selected, tighten the pinch bolt.