homemade side to side short shifter upgrade

[steveo29 0]

i decided to try and improve over the plastic linkage in the shift tower , at the same time moving the pivot to reduce the side to side play , much like the part gruven sells for $90

 

costs a couple of quid in nuts n bolts , plus the cable attacment from a earlier car i had laying around

 

heres a few pics incase anyone fancies making themselves one

 

materials req...thats 4mm x20mm bar but anything close will do, m12 bolt with a 50mm shank (slim head if possible) 1x m8 bolt , 2x m12 nuts , 4x m8 nuts

 

 

first job drill a 12mm and 8mm hole that match up with the plastic part , chop off some m8 bolt and weld it on one side and grind flat

 

 

next weld on some m8 nuts , i chose to have a short shift position (-30%) and a standard one , weld on 2 nuts on top of each other , then grind back so theyre the right height , roughly 1.5 nuts high lol

 

 

 

offer up a straight edge to confirm theyre the right height compared to the vag plastic part

 

 

12mm drill the bracket and tack a m12 nut to the vw bracket

 

 

i found the bolt head was fairly close so ive grinded the top down a nadge , might try a regular hex head for better clearance..but here it is all done , much stronger and less play than the plastic part

 

 

 

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

that is a thing of beauty :thumb right:

[fla 9]

looks impressive. Fancy making me one???? Seriously though, i'm sure several on the forum would be interested in these. IN fact, we could combine the service of several - Tribetype for his 3d images, you for the parts and welding, and maybe Dave16v for QC. I can supply any seals and extrusions for other items. Anyone fancy starting a company called Corradospares? :wave:

[steveo29 0]

sorry i dont have the time to be making these ...

[davidwort 0]

looks great,

what size bolt is the long one, the main pivot?

[steveo29 0]

its a m12 x90mm ...the end was trimmed to tidy it , the important bit is that the shank is 50mm long and that its a accurate 12mm dia

 

got mine from www.stagonset.co.uk

 

id prob use 2x half nuts on its end if i re did mine

[StormchargedVR6 0]

Or you could just buy this , its what i use

 

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[steveo29 0]

yeah bit dearer than £2 though isnt it

[davidwort 0]

couple of things, looking at doing this myself and I'd quite like to make up some kind of adjustable gearcable connector so I could set the throw reduction on a slider to any value (if you see what I mean) I guess a slot that the connector could slide in and the a nut and thread on the back could clamp it in the desired position

other thing is what on earth is the OEM plastic thing all about? apart from being crap and breaking, what is the twin seal business that goes through the top of the tower, it seems pointless as the thing is clamped in place anyway? :scratch:

[Toad 0]

yeah bit dearer than £2 though isnt it

 

Quite.

 

I like doing stuff myself.

 

Only thing I do wonder about is if the steel shaft poking through the gearbox might start to wear the gearbox a little and cause play eventually? I wonder if you machined a slot into each ond of the shaft and put an O-ring in the slots if this would prevent metal to metal contact and any chance of wear.

[davidwort 0]

ah, so the OEM plastic connector serves two purposes, the actual clamp for the cable and a pivot piece for the top of the tower, come to think of it the pre 92 tower doesn't use that type of pivot, it has a solid metal pin IIRC like steves/gruvenparts mod.

[steveo29 0]

i guess it will wear after a long time ...gruven obviously think its okay , and the earlier towers have metal to metal , i figure if its greased up well it should last a good long time

 

the o rings on the orig part ...dunno what thats about really , its a pretty sloppy fit so maybe the plastic is made undersize and the o rings are there to make it snug ? ...the hole in the tower is plain with no grooves for the rings to sit in

 

david..i cant really see how you make an ajustable slot , you could weld on another bit of plate instead of the nuts and have several holes really close to each other ? or just make up a rough one similar to mine and just grind off the nut and reweld another on until its to your liking

[steveo29 0]

test drove it today , very much an improvement over the plastic item , 30% seems about bang on for the reduction , slightly noticable that its closer but nothing like a race car and no chance that you will chose the wrong gear

 

with the solid bushes and this , its close to how i want it shift quality wise

[Jim 2]

Nice work mate :) Maybe someone like Dave, or the chaps at DG Autotech could get into manufacturing these...?

[steveo29 0]

have a go yourself...im sure someone local can put a few small welds on for a beer if you cant weld

 

the rest is easy stuff

[Gareth_16V 0]

Any plans to modify the forward/back throw? I find mine ('95 2.0 16V) is like throwing the lever on a set of railway signal points!

[davidwort 0]

yep, by modifying the relay plate of a passat at the bottom of the gearlever, 25-30% less throw will be had, a couple of people on here at some time or other have done it and I've got the part to mod, just lazy in getting round to it, I will post up all the pics and info when I eventually do it though :lol:

[steveo29 0]

yeah ive done the forward and back years ago , theres several threads detailing how its done

 

http://www.corrado-club.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5988

 

it also shows another way to reduce the side to side , although that wont remove the excess play in the pivot area which mine suffered with , for the sake of another hours work you may as well lose the plastic item altogether

[davidwort 0]

The advantage of using a passat plate is you only need to raise the position of the bottom ball connector (for the shift cable) i.e. less complex welding needed.

Also, you can keep your original corrado plate in case you don't like the result :)

[steveo29 0]

hmm not sure what my golf has compared to rado /passat ?

[davidwort 0]

it appears that the Golf G60 uses passat/mk3 golf parts (357 prefix) the corrado uses a corrado specific housing, I guess because of the lower seating position and higher relative position of the gearlever

[mort1414 0]

does anyone have the measurements between the 8mm threaded bar and the 12mm hole and the 12mm hole to the 2 8mm nuts and also the height the 8mm nuts need to be at?

 

cheers mort

[steveo29 0]

best i can measure here...and id sooner you check your own plastic bit before welding things up

 

center of 12mm shaft to bolt 38mm

 

12mm shaft to nut center 38mm for approx 35% reduction....or 55mm to the non reduced position , or anywhere between to taste

 

nut height ...approx 1.5 nuts high

[mort1414 0]

cheers for that started making 2 2day will let everyone no how i get on

[steveo29 0]

nice one :)