Now that it's fixed up and running better my wife is driving the Audi a bit.

She went to take it out of the garage yesterday evening and could not get it into reverse, after trying for 5-10 minutes, she gets 4th gear every time.

I usually don't have a problem but I notice she does things much slower than I do, I sort of go from 1st to neutral to reverse while pushing down with the crease of my palm, all in one fast karate like move.

My wife on the other hand is very slow and deliberate, as she does not drive a manual often. When I try it by going slower, as she does, I can wind up in 4th quite a bit too.

Linkage seems to be OK, and looks OK. There is a white plastic tab by reverse that looks like it guides the gear selector into reverse, but it can go into 4th too.

Linkage out of adjustment?? or is that normal? any advice?

There's an adjuster rod (item 48) that can have worn ends or be out of adjustment, as well as a ball socket (20) that can wear. There also are a pair of bushings (22) that can become sloppy.

All but 22 are on top of the front of the tranny, barely visible/accessible just behind the bellhousing.

<img src="http://www.vagcat.com/p/B089/061000.png">

Thank You.

try adjusting it or just replace stuff?

Just from your description it doesn't sound like a great job, I guess I'll do it while i am working on the E-Brake cable and have the car up high on 4 stands.

I replaced ball socket 20, which solved some of the problems. What I also found on mine was that rod 34 was rotated, so the yoke of the end of the rod was not square with the shifter. This forced the shifter too far to the right in the tunnel, making 1st and second gear almost impossible to find. I imagine had it been rotated the other way, it would have been impossible to find 5th/reverse.

If you replace the ball socket, you can remove the heat shielding behind the transmission to gain some room for your hands to access clamp bolt 55. Adjuster 48 is pushed straight up to remove it. Removing bolt 12 allows ball stud 11 to be removed from the shifter shaft. Ball stud 11 is a slip fit on the shifter shaft, but mine was corroded on to the point where I had to pull it using a pitman arm puller. Rod 6/6a has to be completely removed, as the ball socket is crimped into a metal housing, and the metal housing has to be bent back to pull the old socket, and then recrimped.

Where can I order the parts from?

So give your local dealer a shot. Take a copy of the picture that Kneale provided with you so you get the right part.

I don't know what your timeframe is or where you are at. If you have a bit of lead time, you might give Sunset Audi in Portland, Oregon a call. They have a 20 percent over dealer cost program, and I get a lot of small parts from them. If they are small and inexpensive to ship, a person can save a bit of money.

I use a crowsfoot, 11mm if I recall correctly, on a long extension to get to 55. Same size socket with an extension to undo the other end of the assembly. So I stabilize with the Crowsfoot and undo/redo with the socket.

Tough job lying on your back under the car, Zip.

Usually you don't need to adjust the adjustable link. But sometimes it's so worn you need to replace it. Use the old one to gauge where a new one should be set if you have to replace it.

I've only owned my '91 20vtq 8 days. It's great, about the only place where there's an obvious gap between how the car ran when new and right now is at the shift linkage.

It nearly binds up between gears sometimes. Makes me wonder if there's dried up grease, and just needs some decent lube.

The transmission oil was changed, and refilled with Audi OEM stuff, within the last year.

Ideas?

BTW, the car has 104K miles on it - easy miles it seems. No abuse, it's a creampuff. I doubt very much that the shifter has seen hard use/abuse.



Mike

There is no place in the exterior linkage to grease per se. The linkages in the drawing in my earlier posting in the thread are all external and on top of the transmission, where you often will find lots of grit thrown up there by splashing through mudpuddles, etc. The grit wears the fittings in the linkage more than shifting practices.

it's got white lithium grease on it, which likes to turn into glue after 20 years.

3 minute job anyways, if it doesn't help.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll have a look at it this weekend and see if I can see anything that needs replacing.

I'll grease the ball too, see if it helps.