Kinda-freaking out! Shifter or tranny?

[Polski]

As im at a red light and it goes green, i put it in first, gear grinds and car does not move. I end up forcing physically the shifter into first, and holding it there for the shifter to stay in first. Car drove, the second went in easely. But when i pulled over, put it in neutral and tried first gear again, the force shifter into first didnt work anymore..
Same with second gear and reverse.
3-4 go pop in with no issue. With my lwfw, i cant try take off on third though...

Feels like the shifter is out of whack, but why randomly at a red light??


I have a B&M short shifter.

Thanks

Btw im at school now, and have no tools on me.. Still debating how to get home later

[Polski]

Found the culprit, that white circle shaped pivot housing is loose, 3/4 of the rubber booth inside is torn.

Anyone selling a shifter assembly?

[walky_talky20]

You should upgrade that crap. I think JHM sells a thingy for that.

http://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalo...5a210f67d800a4

Hmm. Kinda pricey, though. Probably just buying a replacement bushing at the dealer would be the best bet.

Wow, still pricey.
http://www.worldimpex.com/parts/genu...ate_58284.html

An entire shifter box from a junkyard goes for about $50.

[M-Hood]

Best fix would be to just replace everything with a JHM kit that actuall comes with a new later model shifter box, wont ever have to worry about that plastic part breaking again because the JHM kit replaces it with a bearing design.

http://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalo...5a210f67d800a4

[Polski]

Thanks for the advice guys, if i didnt have a short shifter, i'd pull the trigger on the JHM model.

But im just trying to fix this on a budget and get the car running as soon as possible.

Is that rubber notorious for often tearing?

[walky_talky20]

It isn't super common for it to break, but it does happen. I had your exact failure on my old '88 90 quattro (B3 chassis). That shifter bushing design is a lot older than you would think - same part number B3-> early B5's. When I replaced it in that car this was several years ago and I don't remember it being so expensive. I almost think that it was available aftermarket. It's a stretch to recall, but I think I only paid $20 or $30 for it brand new back then.

[Polski]

Updated situation.

I replaced the shifter bushing by a used one, but in great condition for 30$.

I'm adjusting the shifter linkage but i cant get all the gears to work 100%.
gears 2-3-4-5 and Reverse all work, but 1rst still does not go in. Same grinding noise, as if the gear is not all the way in.
At the shifter, the first gear "pops in" as it usually would, it just dosent do so at the transmission.

So where do i go from here?
-Am i not adjusting the linkage correctly?
-Should i raise the car to look at the linkage when it connects to the transmission?
-Or could the problem be inside the transmission itself?

Recall the initial situation. Driving fine, never any shifting issues and then randomly, when trying to go from a stop at a green light, gears 1-2 didn't want to go in.

On a side note, in winter, when it is cold, gears 1-2 have troubles going in when the car is cold. But when its warmed up, they would go in smoothly.
But I do not know if there is a correlation between the two situations. Hope it can give a hint on what could be wrong tough.

[walky_talky20]

Poor cold weather shifting is just par for the course. You can try changing the gear oil. If it is old (original!) than that may help a pretty good amount. This of course has to do with the synchronizers and matching the shaft speeds, so shifting while stopped is not affected very much. My 01A which has over 200k and *very* tired synchro's is a bit notchy when selecting first gear sometimes. At a stop light, sometimes it doesn't always fully go into 1st gear - I can tell it firmly stopped halfway. I just quickly take it into second gear and back into first and I'm on my way.

But it seems that you may have another issue with first gear. At the shop we'd throw the car on the lift and check the movement of the shift rod directly. Perhaps having someone in the car select first gear, then "helping" it a bit further right at the transmission. Might even disconnect the floor shifter rod completely and shift it "manually" right at the transmission to see what the deal is. Hopefully it is just a linkage issue. But if you can't get first gear fully selected, even with some direct manipulation at the tranny then you've got some issues internally. Best fix would be a used gearbox.

[Polski]

Thanks walky, I guess I have to be prepared for the worst. I'm going to fiddle a bit more with the linkage tomorrow.
The oil inside is very healthy. Gotta check its level thought.

I will raise the car and try to put it in first gear tomorrow also.

Would low transmission fluid be a cause? Logically it shouldn't, as far as my knowledge goes at lest.

[Polski]

Update #2.

So i raised the car up, got under it, while someone was shifting gears in the drivers seat.
With the linkage connected:

All gear pops in equally, with no help needed.
Gears 2-4-R all pop in, the shifter linkage is flush with the tranny.
And 1-3-5 all have the same distance linkage to tranny. And when it is in gear, i cannot push back the linkage further back for the gear to go in more..its already in 100%.

So gears 3-5-R work,
1 rst gear goes in at the shifter and tranny but grinds.
2nd gear only goes in at the shifter when using brute force.
4th dosent seem to go in at the shifter, but does at the transmission. grinds none the less.


Do i bother disconnecting the floor linkage and do it again?

So should i source out a new transmission? Or take it to an audi specialist shop for a second opinion?

[walky_talky20]

Hmm. This could be a problem with the "slider bolts". Something is causing you a problem with the shift forks fully selecting the gears. Check out M-Hood's input in this thread:

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ghlight=slider

That said, the simplest and cheapest fix here is going to be a junkyard trans. Should be able to get one for $300 or so. Labor is the killer. Usually around 8 hours or so on a quattro car.

[Polski]

Thanks for that link walky, it gives me hope.
Now that i think about it, before i got to that red light, i was in 5th gear on the highway, maybe my slider broke also.

For some reason, local scrap yards want 700-1000$ for a used transmission here

I'm going trough my bently right now and i cant find the slider in the transmission section.
But i did find a "left stop bolt" and a "right stop bolt" that hold the "relay shaft".
Could those be it?

[M-Hood]

Thanks for that link walky, it gives me hope.
Now that i think about it, before i got to that red light, i was in 5th gear on the highway, maybe my slider broke also.

For some reason, local scrap yards want 700-1000$ for a used transmission here

I'm going trough my bently right now and i cant find the slider in the transmission section.
But i did find a "left stop bolt" and a "right stop bolt" that hold the "relay shaft".
Could those be it?

Could be the same if it is a huge torx head bolt. The one on the left side sits right next to the slave cylinder and the other one right near the axle flange.

[Polski]

Thanks Mike, when your's snapped, did you simply put a new one in? or did you have to align the slider inside?

[M-Hood]

Thanks Mike, when your's snapped, did you simply put a new one in? or did you have to align the slider inside?

Just put another one in.

[walky_talky20]

Yes, just looked in ETKA. The "relay shaft" is held in by 2 "stop screws" that are exactly what Mike pictured in that thread. One on each side of the relay shaft.

I'm really liking this explanation for the failure. Sounds very plausible. Those bolts are less than 20 bucks each at the dealer.

EDIT: Guess I'll give the part numbers here:

Left: 012-311-718-D
Right: 012-311-720-D

[Polski]

Awsome guys! Thanks alot for the help so far.

Thanks for those part numbers also, I had a hard time finding them.

I'm going to take a bite at it on this upcoming friday. i'll let you guys know of the outcome.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

We have those bolts available below.

Click HERE

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Jason

[Polski]

Ok little update!

Good news first. After messing around for 2h with the passenger transmission mount, finally got the bolt out.
I wish it was the one next to the slave, took 5 minutes to check that one.

Anyways, Bingo! :




Here is the reason im glad it wasn't the one next to the slave, this issue would have never been discovered:


Im guessing that when i changed my clutch, i was in a rush to put everything back together, and forgot to tighten 4 out of the 6 bolts.
How bad can it be if i did about ~10 000 miles like that??

[walky_talky20]

10k miles with the bolts loose? Or with the axle boot ripped to crap? The joint is probably damaged, but if it isn't causing any weird vibrations on accel or decel, you can throw another boot on it and call it a day.

[Polski]

10k with the bolts loose...

to be sure im getting a refurbished axel for cheap and slapping it on..might as well with all the bolts loose lol.

Btw...could the heat from the downpipe kill the boot?

Tomorrow I should have the stop bolt and boot, so i will let you guys know how it goes.

[Polski]

Popped in the new stop bolt, every gear works flawlessly again!!

Thanks again guys!