Late Bay Front Shifter Bushing Replacement & Adjustment

[DurocShark]

(I hope this is the right forum. I didn't see anything for controls.)

http://www.donimages.com/guac/shifter1.html

Oh, the joys of finding things wrong.

Who's taken their front shifter apart? Did you have the spring in the shift ball? Did you even know it was there?

[Amskeptic]

(I hope this is the right forum. I didn't see anything for controls.)

http://www.donimages.com/guac/shifter1.html

Oh, the joys of finding things wrong.

Who's taken their front shifter apart? Did you have the spring in the shift ball? Did you even know it was there?

Year ago minus 5 days theSamba Gear Shifter Rattle

Oh it gets better still At the bottom of the gear shifter stick, inside its ball end (that fits into the front shift rod socket that Jason was mentioning to lubricate), there is a pin that sticks forward into a slot in the front shift rod to prevent the shifter from rotating in a wobbly arc. This pin is spring-loaded. Most of us don't know that, because the pin is so commonly stuck fast in the shifter. If you give that pin a good tap, it will spoink out. Clean it and reinstall. The spring load against the pin is what prevents the shifter stick from rattling. To distinguish between shift rod rattling and shifter stick rattling, I can only say that the shifter stick rattle is more of a light buzzing, and the shift rod rattle is a rattle that seems to involve the floor.
Colin

[DurocShark]

Here's what I wrote about that wonderful spring:

Here's how it's supposed to work:

* The shift ball is hollow, not solid steel.
* Inside the shift ball is a spring.
* The pin head is designed to fit all the way inside the ball, with the spring holding it against the side of the shift rod.
* The pin end fits in the notch in the shift rod.

It would have been pretty straightforward if the spring hadn't popped out of the ball. And it wouldn't go all the way back in.

I wrestled with this for 2 hours, not realizing the spring was supposed to go all the way in. I decided to test assemble everything without any of the springs to see how it's supposed to go. That's when I discovered the hole in the ball is just big enough for the pin head to fit inside. Ah ha! That explains why the ball wouldn't go all the way into the shift rod!

It took some doing to bend the spring just enough to resist popping back out of the ball, but not enough so I couldn't get it inside the ball in the first place. But I did it. Everything went together smoothly after that.