Cannot shift into 5th gear

aja8888

aja8888

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Location
Texas..RETIRED 12/31/17
TDI
Out of TDI's
Parts

1stVWParts.com (Auburn VW) provided me with every internal transmission part for my Jetta 5th gear rebuild. Ordered on Monday, parts going in the car on Friday. Zeb Foster (their internet sales person) even called me and said the syncro ring I ordered had the wrong part number for my car:eek: . He fixed the order. Nice people, those folks in Wa at Auburn.;)
 
Y

you mad

New member
Joined
Dec 10, 2012
Location
Winnipeg
TDI
GL
Hey ymtdi, did you end up fixing your problem? What was the difficulty level of repair? I'm having the same problem.
 
D

Degate

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2022
Location
Canada
TDI
)3 Jetta 1.9
yhmtdi said:
***Update*** See end of thread


Had a wierd problem come up suddenly yesterday. I cannot get the transmission into 5th. Gears 1 to 4 work fine, but not 5th. Can't seem to move the shift lever past the 3-4 gate. Popped the shifter boot off inside to see if there was anything binding in there, but nothing obvious. Tried it by hand under the hood, and can pull the relay lever up a little bit, but can't get engage it. It's like the clutch gear is stuck on something.

Anyone ever had a problem like this? Any suggestions? I'm guessing the transmission will need to be opened to fix it, so may as well look for another one, and just change it out. Anyone have one they're will to part with for a reasonable price?

Oh, btw, car is a 2001 Golf, 264,000km. I've had it since 144,000km, so I don't know what might have happened to it before then. The shifter has never seemed as smooth as the one on my '90 GTI, or '82 Jetta, but I just figured it was because of the cable shifter linkage.

Anyways, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark
Click to expand...
Thread is a bit old, 03 MK4 same problem not able to shift into 5th and reverse is a difficult shift.

Readjusted the cables, checked shifter bushings which were found nice and snug, think one of the cable grabs maybe the issue, the soft rubber holding the plastic center had deteriorated.

Anyhow just so everyone is aware, the cable grabs each have different diameter holes.

The cable grab with the larger hole is directly under the filter box which I had removed for easy access, if this cable grab becomes obsolete it was easy to push out the plastic insert from the new one then using soap to lube up the old one. It pressed in by hand.




 
Last edited:
D

Degate

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2022
Location
Canada
TDI
)3 Jetta 1.9
Fifth gear now found and working as it should, the issue was two fold. The worn out cable catch and transmission adjustment.

The lock lever was very hard to get latched and my big hands were of no real help in tight quarters, ended up slipping this stainless steel pipe over the lever to give me reach. Once the lever found home it fell right into place.

I've owned the MK4 for almost a year, most of that time spent waiting on parts to arrive, anyhow in the bottom photo if you look closely you'll see where I have set the small plastic bushing that I had removed from the new cable grab. Set in epoxy, seems to work OK.

I have a pair of new grabs in the mail, been a month in transit so would expect them to arrive sometime soon.

Need to have a safety done and get her insured, have a trip planned to Barrie Ont.



 
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