hi all,
spoke to my mate who works for vw, he showed me the various points of adjustment for the mk3 GTI 16v with the 02a cable shift gear box.
there isn't much adjustment, so the problem is either the cables have stretched or something else. BUT, there is minor adjustment on two of the 13mm bolts that connect the cables to the mechanism, I know I need pics, apologies. Anyhow, the most obvious bolt, sits inside a long slot, and should be aligned dead centre, mine was off by 1-2mm, so we re-centred it.
Found a pic:

Did it solve the problem: ish!
But I was told that the problem was made worse at start up due to the idle sitting about 1000rpm, shifting into 2nd then 1st or 1st into reverse would match the speeds between the engine and gears and stopped any crunching. Basically double de-clutching.
There is something else to check, but we didn't go into detail to do that. Just me 2 pence worth of info.
Garfay.