5-speed shifter centering mechanism...

[Shad Laws]

Hello-

You know how lots of new cars with 5-speed trannies have some sort of centering/springing mechanism? They control how the shifter works when in neutral. With no force, the shifter is kept in the 3rd/4th position. You have to lightly push it to go to the 1st/2nd or the 5th/Reverse position.

Anyway, anyone ever bothered to make one for a 5-speed adaption into a VW? I think it'd be a nice addition...

I'm currently working on putting a 923 box (915 box with 901 bellhousing, from '76 912E) into a late T3. Unfortunately, the way that the rear subframe bolts to the body makes the typical bug-like shifter adaptation just about impossible. Okay, maybe possible, but not worth the pain. Rather, I'm making up a rather unique shifter mechanism that should be more rigid than normal conversions, and fit my application, and have a centering setup on it...

Take care,

[darren]

Shad

is this the kind of thing your looking for ?

http://www.germanlook.com/Forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=912&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

darren

[Ron Roberts]

I wish someone would make a spring loaded 4 speed shifter!

Ron

[ricola]

Try this (http://www.seinesystems.com/GateShift-1.htm)
also Wevo (http://wevo.com/) do a complete sprung shifter

Rich

[Shad Laws]

Hello-

The links you guys gave are for nifty shifters!

But, they attack the problem at the opposite end from what I need. On my car, I have a problem getting the tranny to meet up with the shift rod. So, I'm building a mechanism to correct the problem. It also corrects a lot of other little kwirks in the process. The convenient thing is that by the time I'm done, I'll have a perfect location to put two springs to keep the shifter centered in 3rd/4th. Plus, they'll be located by the transmission, not by the shifter, so they'll be more immune to chassis flex, aging, etc.

Depending on how well it goes, I *might* consider reproducing it for other people. We'll see.

Take care,

[Wally]

Hello Shad,
From what you write, I assume you use the original Fasty shifter and adapt that. Why didn't you use the 915 porsche shifter: nice alu housing, spring centered and all? Fits the 911 shift rod also...
Walter

[ricola]

The 915 shifter is only sprung out of 5-R, 1-4 is still loose, there are aftermarket kits that convert the 1-2 gate to be sprung too.
Shad, be careful with your spring mechanism as you don't want to load the rod once it is in gear, if you look at the stock mechanism there is a tab that stops the spring force being transmitted back through the shift rod to the gears once it the gearlever is pushed forwards/backwards. I believe you get excessive wear if you don't incluce such a mechanism

Rich