Here we go. Firstly a diagram of the gear lever etc etc, taken from LLL Parts. I shall be referring to this. What we started with. Very kindly donated by @afbiker02 I started, obviously by dismantling it. First thing was to remove the bottom plate. To do this you simply gently prise up the tabs until it comes free. This was what I found inside. Next disconnect the cables. They are held on by a very small clip. Gently prise it off, don’t lose it. Then unbolt the two cable mounting plate bolts from the front of the housing. And withdraw the cables.
I found this in the housing. It turns out it is the remnants of item 47, a small plastic ball. I have order3d a kit of three bushes from the USA via Amazon which replaces this ball with a block. Whether it will be an improvement we shall see. AONED Cabin Side Solid Shifter Bushing Repair Kit for 02A Transmission for VW Golf MK3 / Jetta MK3 / Corrado/Lupo https://amzn.eu/d/g31w4N5 Then it is a case of carefully dismantling taking lots of reference pictures as you go. I have copied them here in case it helps anyone later on. The most difficult clip to remove, actually the only difficult clip to remove is the one that retains the spring on the gear lever itself. I had to put the lever in a vice, compress the spring to relieve the tension and then use two screwdrivers to push the clip off. I could have done with two pairs of hands for this. This is the aforementioned troublesome clip. Number 17 is a bit suspect but is just a damper ring for when part 1 gets pushed up and down. A suitable O ring would do the job just as well. All told there are 8 plastic parts which do come in a kit from Autodoc. However, because my middle name is lucky they are out of stock. The kit is not available anywhere else. The parts that could need replacing are, in no particular order, 14, 4, 9, 3, 17, 27, 6 and 1. In actual fact some of the parts on our lever seem ok. 6 has disintegrated and 17 is a bit suspect but the other are passable. I will compare them with the new ones when I get them.
I then took the whizzy wheel to the housing to remove any and all rust. Lovely inside Some Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 to be on the safe side. Then there followed some parts cleaning. White spirit, washing up liquid and then 20 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner has them all squeaky clean. I even cleaned the bit we are likely to replace, just in case. Put it all back together (except the troublesome clip ) for two reasons, a) refreshes my memory and b) so I don’t lose bits Next is painting the housing and waiting for the kit to come back into stock.
One thing I will mention though is that the plastic part at the bottom of the gearstick does not seem to be a replaceable part.
I’ve always loved taking things apart Only since owning cars have I got good at putting them back together.
You sure didn't waste any time. Your attention to detail is second to none and I'm glad my old parts are being put to good use
Little bit more done today. Cleaned up the cables. No picture yet as forgot while I was in the shed. Bracket cleaned and painted. Tower weight cleaned and painted. No. 1 son wanted it bare metal but it didn’t look good so next best thing was bling. Who am I to refuse
I just realised the diagram I posted in the first posted bore no resemblance to the one I was referencing so I have changed it for the actual one I’m using.
Right then, all done and swapped into the car. Lack of pictures I’m afraid but we got this set from USA via Amazon which tightens up the third gear plane spring locator and the rectangular block replaces the ball number 6. We also ordered as many of the other bushes as possible from Autodoc. Popped it all back together with lots of silicone grease. Also replaced number 49. The old one was loose as the o rings had had it and the body was actually badly cracked. Massive pain in the derrière having to remove the exhaust but it’s done. The new cables are shorter than the old ones. The result? A million times better, it actually feels like a proper gearshift now On initial inspection the old shift had number 6 disintegrated in the bottom of the box. That alone would have made the gearshift shocking. Couple with the worn and cracked number 49 there was no hope of getting a good shift. The plastic guide attached to number 48 needs replacing too so need to get one of those. We didn’t use the short shift in the end as the left to right shift is short enough as it is. Forwards backwards would better shorter.
Excellent result like I got ,first cable shift and was amazed how crappy it was ,all my other boxes were my custom rose jointed short shift fitted to 020 type ,real precise and nice to shift , was thinking why did they go to this system until I repaired mine ,much improved ,cheers.
Well, would you believe? 1st gear stopped working Yesterday I had to remove the exhaust and the entire gear shift and investigate. This was the problem. The rubber part at the bottom of the gearstick, which is not replaceable had fallen apart. It should look like this. This is the one from our original box. I swapped it over. I also noted that there is supposed to be some foam on one side of the box, like this. This was missing so I inserted some rubber. As you know the MK3 box is a different size to the MK2 so this is the plate I made to hold the box in place. All put back together and life is well again. Until the next bit breaks………….
