Had another look today and compared with a mate who has a pd130 - his shifter tower springs up and down on top of the box, where mine needs to be pushed and pulled up and down. Looks like the shifter tower is sticking on mine I think. Is it easy to remove and do we think a re grease as it was only after my car stood for a while that I got the problem?
Gear stick not centring The bearings are rubbish in them. I also had a similar issue on one where the relay lever bushes were too tight. A load of gunk built up in the holes. Don't take off the shift tower. Just remove the top nut and remove weighted part. Check that the lever moves freely up and down. If not, try and clean up and re grease. If the lever is ok try putting gearbox oil down shaft.
if not I will take tower out.. not that hard eh??? lol I plan to do an oil change... I'm guessing the gearbox oil lubricates the bearing and spring in the tower??
in my search for details of fixing this problem I found this... might be helpful to others http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_205.pdf
Just an update... fixed!! I took off the cables... stick still didn't centre, so I started to take a part the shifter mech where the cables attach and found one pivot point had seized. number 2 in this photo took the cir clip off.. slid out the pivot and cleaned and re greased.. all good now! - I think I need a new bushing that it slides in to, but for now its all working fine! Thanks for all your help and advice.