Shift Linkage Adjustment Question!

Has anyone ever tried adjusting the shift linkage as per Dieselgeek's Jim Royston's video and the plastic locking lever didn't lock the assembly from moving up and down? I'm trying to figure out why the shifter wants to pop out of 5th gear and tried adjusting the linkage, but when I turned the black plastic lever to the vertical position, it did nothing. I need to figure out if there is a way to fix this in order to be sure that adjusting the linkage will not fix my 5th gear problem. The car is a 2001 Golf with 5 speed manual transmission.

I can't remember where I saw this, but I think mine did the same thing. I remembering putting x-number of quarters under the shifter, believe it or not. Hopefully a search or another member has the details on this.

Edit:
Also, IIRC you have to push in when you turn the lever. It's been several years since I did this so my memory's a little hazy but you could try that to make sure the lever really is broken.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=274276&highlight=shifter+stack+quarters

Growler said:

Use scotch tape to tape 9 quarters together.

Worked a treat on my own car after mine got broken in the same way.. I forgot to unlock it before i went to loosen the nut...

Click to expand...

eb, thanks for the link. Sounds like the spacing is the thickness of nine quarters. I'll go give that a try right now. Maybe it'll be all I need...

Also when you are trying to lock it out, I think I remember you have to hold the shifter down while possibly pushing the lever in slightly and then turn to the vertical position. My money is on it's not broken, I thought mine was, used the quarter method, only to find a year later when I did it again that the locking mechanism worked fine.

Oops, looks like you were right. I must not have been pushing in all the way when turning the lever to the vertical position. Adjusted the linkage, but it didn't solve my problem, so I think I'm gonna have to have new 5th gear installed. Thanks for the help!

Linkage stuck in locked position or seems to be

I tried the adjustment procedure and in doing so noted that the "golf club" part that is supposed to move up and down about 1/2inch and needs to be locked does not really have any play. Further the lock pin does not seem to have any effect and I was able to pull it out of the transmission. Prior to adjustment we had just been lubing the linkage a lot and that helped but I was still having trouble with 5th gear. Thoughts on what should/can be replaced?
read some more posts so, to be clear here it seems to be staying in locked position and not releasing/sliding up. Does it make any sense to loosen the nut on top?