Shifter rod damaged on Golf?

I was teaching my son how to drive my '95 Golf which has a manual
transmission, and somehow, I think he "disconnected" the shifter rod,
so the car is stuck in 1st gear. When I move the shifter, it moves
around too loosely, so there is something definitely wrong. I can't
even get the car into reverse because it wants to go forward.

Is it a costly replair to have the shifter rod fixed by a mechanic?

> I was teaching my son how to drive my '95 Golf which has a manual
> transmission, and somehow, I think he "disconnected" the shifter rod,
> so the car is stuck in 1st gear. When I move the shifter, it moves
> around too loosely, so there is something definitely wrong. I can't
> even get the car into reverse because it wants to go forward.
>
> Is it a costly replair to have the shifter rod fixed by a mechanic?

It's about $50 in parts to rebuild a shifter. If you're drops down and
doesn't spring back up when you move like you're going into reverse then
you've busted the part on the shifter shaft itself. If you've got the
up/down springiness then you've got a link broken elsewhere. Potentially
you could have a broken part in the transmissions but it's pretty unlikely.
What'd the kid do that precipitated this problem? Yank the hell outta the
shifter or something?

I can't figure it out how it could of happened either... I just know
that when he let out the clutch after shifting into 1st gear, he
didn't give enough gas, and the engine stalled and the car jerked.
Ever since that stall, the shifter became all out of whack.

And I do have the up/down springiness. It's just that when I put the
car into the reverse gear, the car wants to go forward because I
assume it is stuck in first gear. I had someone look to see if I had
back up lights when I put the car in reverse, and the person said no
back up lights come on.


"wkearney99" > wrote in message >...
> It's about $50 in parts to rebuild a shifter. If you're drops down and
> doesn't spring back up when you move like you're going into reverse then
> you've busted the part on the shifter shaft itself. If you've got the
> up/down springiness then you've got a link broken elsewhere. Potentially
> you could have a broken part in the transmissions but it's pretty unlikely.
> What'd the kid do that precipitated this problem? Yank the hell outta the
> shifter or something?

I would get under the car (car turned off), and have someone shift for
me. You should be able to see it moving around (in the the center of the
car towards the back of the engine) then just have a look around for
something thats hanging loose. Then you'll know what your up against.

You can take a look at the diagram he

http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/ForSa...l#Introduction

if you need to figure out what something is called

Will

Keith Murphy wrote:
> I can't figure it out how it could of happened either... I just know
> that when he let out the clutch after shifting into 1st gear, he
> didn't give enough gas, and the engine stalled and the car jerked.
> Ever since that stall, the shifter became all out of whack.
>
> And I do have the up/down springiness. It's just that when I put the
> car into the reverse gear, the car wants to go forward because I
> assume it is stuck in first gear. I had someone look to see if I had
> back up lights when I put the car in reverse, and the person said no
> back up lights come on.
>
>
> "wkearney99" > wrote in message >...
>
>>It's about $50 in parts to rebuild a shifter. If you're drops down and
>>doesn't spring back up when you move like you're going into reverse then
>>you've busted the part on the shifter shaft itself. If you've got the
>>up/down springiness then you've got a link broken elsewhere. Potentially
>>you could have a broken part in the transmissions but it's pretty unlikely.
>>What'd the kid do that precipitated this problem? Yank the hell outta the
>>shifter or something?

Will wrote:
>
> I would get under the car (car turned off), and have someone shift for
> me. You should be able to see it moving around (in the the center of the
> car towards the back of the engine) then just have a look around for
> something thats hanging loose. Then you'll know what your up against.
>
> You can take a look at the diagram he
>
> http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/ForSa...l#Introduction
>
> if you need to figure out what something is called
>
> Will
>
> Keith Murphy wrote:
> > I can't figure it out how it could of happened either... I just know
> > that when he let out the clutch after shifting into 1st gear, he
> > didn't give enough gas, and the engine stalled and the car jerked.
> > Ever since that stall, the shifter became all out of whack.
> >
> > And I do have the up/down springiness. It's just that when I put the
> > car into the reverse gear, the car wants to go forward because I
> > assume it is stuck in first gear. I had someone look to see if I had
> > back up lights when I put the car in reverse, and the person said no
> > back up lights come on.
> >
> >
> > "wkearney99" > wrote in message >...
> >
> >>It's about $50 in parts to rebuild a shifter. If you're drops down and
> >>doesn't spring back up when you move like you're going into reverse then
> >>you've busted the part on the shifter shaft itself. If you've got the
> >>up/down springiness then you've got a link broken elsewhere. Potentially
> >>you could have a broken part in the transmissions but it's pretty unlikely.
> >>What'd the kid do that precipitated this problem? Yank the hell outta the
> >>shifter or something?

Could be the "golf ball" in the center of the relay shaft popped out of
the cage on the selector lever. As noted, have someone operate the
shifter whuile you watch from under the hood and see what is going on
(or not going on) as the case may be:

http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/ForSa...nosingProblems

--
Roger

There's a short plastic selector rod which has a habit of breaking. It's
about 3 inches long and is located on the linkage on the trans. It's a under
$10 item. So check them closely.

"Keith Murphy" > wrote in message
om...
>I can't figure it out how it could of happened either... I just know
> that when he let out the clutch after shifting into 1st gear, he
> didn't give enough gas, and the engine stalled and the car jerked.
> Ever since that stall, the shifter became all out of whack.
>
> And I do have the up/down springiness. It's just that when I put the
> car into the reverse gear, the car wants to go forward because I
> assume it is stuck in first gear. I had someone look to see if I had
> back up lights when I put the car in reverse, and the person said no
> back up lights come on.
>
>
> "wkearney99" > wrote in message
> >...
>> It's about $50 in parts to rebuild a shifter. If you're drops down and
>> doesn't spring back up when you move like you're going into reverse then
>> you've busted the part on the shifter shaft itself. If you've got the
>> up/down springiness then you've got a link broken elsewhere. Potentially
>> you could have a broken part in the transmissions but it's pretty
>> unlikely.
>> What'd the kid do that precipitated this problem? Yank the hell outta
>> the
>> shifter or something?

"Keith Murphy" > wrote in message
om...
>I can't figure it out how it could of happened either... I just know
> that when he let out the clutch after shifting into 1st gear, he
> didn't give enough gas, and the engine stalled and the car jerked.
> Ever since that stall, the shifter became all out of whack.

Sounds like the engine moved too much on its mounts and broke something.
Shift linkage parts external to the transmission are fairly
inexpensive...it's just a matter of finding the broken one and replacing it.
Might need to adjust the shifter afterwards too.

> I can't figure it out how it could of happened either... I just know
> that when he let out the clutch after shifting into 1st gear, he
> didn't give enough gas, and the engine stalled and the car jerked.
> Ever since that stall, the shifter became all out of whack.

Hmm, probably yanked on the shifter but at an odd angle and broke the
linkage. Tough to do but not impossible. Given a novice driver it's not
too much of a surprise.

> And I do have the up/down springiness. It's just that when I put the
> car into the reverse gear, the car wants to go forward because I
> assume it is stuck in first gear. I had someone look to see if I had
> back up lights when I put the car in reverse, and the person said no
> back up lights come on.

Yeah, it sounds like there's a linkage problem and not something more
serious. This is something the average DIYer can handle. How many miles on
the Golf? If it's a lot then it wouldn't hurt to rebuild it entirely. But
if it's less than 60k or so then you could get by with just fixing the one
or two links that are broken. They *could* have just popped loose but it's
more likely at least one of them broke.

The parts are cheap and if you have a mechanic fix it you'll incur more
labor than anything else.

-Bill Kearney