Pudding Stirrer?

[al_kaholik]

If my memory serves me correctly, the bug shifters have a sprung ballbearing either in the cup or on the ball to keep it straight and stop it spinning. Might be as simple as removing the grease, cleaning and regreasing it and it might work.

On the note of fitting a quickshift, mark the edges of the shifter first so that its easier to get back in place, both front, back and sides.

And with the shift bushes, get a genuine one for the rear, they are far superior. I binned my urethane one along with the red gearbox mounts. The front sleve and or clip are as far as I know ALWAYS out of stock at VWH (It reminds me to chase up where mine is...) Though not as fiddly as you'd think to fit.

Al

[evilC]

Thanks for your comments Al.

A quick update on my holidays - I sorted the shifter!:

I fitted an EMPI quick shift with a 5mm roll pin at the central axis of the ball i.e throught the shoulder of the Empi ball section. This pin projects forward through a slot I machined in the outer casing. Side to side movement causes the roll pin just to rotate in the slot and front to rear movement causes it to move up and down in the slot. With the pin at the central axis of the ball there is the minimum of movement to cope with. the small ball at the cup end only takes up the slack in the cup and doesn't (or shouldn't) sit in any groove.

I welded the stop plate up as the shoulder had started to split and then ground it smooth. Its now much more solid and shouldn't split again.

I changed the forward bush for a new one.

The rear shift bush I used the Empi urethane bushes into the VW cage, opened up the split steel pin so it was a proper interference fit in the shift rod and used a 6mm socket headed bolt through the steel pin. The original reason for using the VW cage is that the boss is much bigger than the Empi one, giving more threads for the grub screw to bite on. Secondly, and more importantly, the urethane bushes are a true (hand) press fit in the VW cage. To show the difference if you fit the VW bushes to the Empi cage then there is about 1/8" (3mm) of slack.

The gear lever stick is bent back and extended about 2" (50mm) with a snooker ball as gear shift ball!

All up this is now a sensational shifter!!!!!!!! It is SO positive it reminds me of a rose jointed racing change. Setting it up was a doddle and it falls readily to hand straight off the steering wheel without the original stretch. I can't recommend the final product more highly. All of this is initial impressions however, and once its been in use for a bit I will report back. For the overall cost of the mods I can't see why I should invest in an aftermarket shifter????

Clive.