A part broke on my manual shifter and can’t find the part to replace it

Todon24

New member
Joined
Jan 18, 2022
Location
Maryland
TDI
1998 VW Jetta TDI


Hello all,
I am new here just got my first Jetta tdi and it’s great. However I ran into a problem while shifting gears one day and found that a part broke(picture included). This piece has a stud mounted to it and it snapped off into the plastic that attaches to the gear shifter. If anyone is familiar with this part or assembly please let me know I can’t seem to find it and I don’t know the name of it.
 

Phi1osopher

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
Location
Austin, TX
TDI
'96 B4V TDI Passat Wagon
not directly relevant, but here is a post I made outlining the bushings with lots of photos.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Just an FYI: if the car is in nice order, and you plan to keep it going for a while, you may want to just avoid the whack-a-mole game of struggling to keep the crappy early style cable shifter working and just upgrade it to a 2000+ version from an A4 platform car. VAG obsoleted most all the parts for the early cars like yours, good used parts are getting harder and harder to source, and the later versions are vastly superior even if very used already.

It will take some minor mods to make the later A4 shifter work in an A3 (making it work in an early A4 car is easy, with no mods necessary), but it is not hard and has been done many times. Any 4 cyl 2000+ A4 car can be a donor, even a gasser. You slide the shift tower up and out of the transmission and swap everything from that all the way to the shift knob, including the shifter box itself that bolts to the tunnel.
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
but it is not hard and has been done many times.
I suppose “not hard“ is a relative term, based on one‘s mechanical experience. Plenty of folks here are just regular folks trying to keep their old car alive.

The exhaust and heat shield need to be dropped.
Need to buy the Polo shift box or mod your current to mate the newer shift box to the body.
Think about shift knob compatibility.
Remove stock parts and install newer parts.
Adjust and drive.

I did the above in my driveway, on my back. The only reason I did it was because my dp flex broke, and I’d read nothing other than rave reviews. I modded my stock box… I didn’t want to spend an extra $150 at the time or wait for parts. Not hard, but I consider myself an ok mechanic. With the work involved, I’d recommend just rebuild the stock shifter, unless you own a race car…. My B4V with good parts and a kharley short shifter feel just as good, IMO.

I’d bet the investment would be $200+, but that doesn’t include the Polo box cost, if you want the easy way out.

-Todd
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
Windex put the A4 shift tower in the wagon before I bought it, and I could not believe what a difference it made. The regular A4 box can be installed, and there is a write up on here about how to do it. I think it’s a very worthwhile addition and would not hesitate to swap the stock parts for one.
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
Had the same iss.e drilled it out and put a bolt on and deformed the treads.
$0.30 fix
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
When mine broke, i drilled it out and used a nut+bolt until i could find a replacement assembly at a junkyard. It was a sloppy fix, and definitely not something you want to keep long-term.
That sloppy fix was for me... a 130k mile repair that never failed
 

Windex

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Cambridge
TDI
05 B5V 01E FRF
Windex put the A4 shift tower in the wagon before I bought it, and I could not believe what a difference it made. The regular A4 box can be installed, and there is a write up on here about how to do it. I think it’s a very worthwhile addition and would not hesitate to swap the stock parts for one.
Guilty. If I ever own another B4, upgrading to the the MK4 (2000 and up I might add, the 99.5 cars kept the old style) shifter mechanism is the first mod to do.

The Stock A3 and B4 (same mechanism) shift is like shifting a carrot in a food processor - and that's when all the parts are in good order.

The other side benefit of the new mechanism is that if there are any issues, there are a million A4 jettas and golfs in boneyards from which to source parts. B4s are starting to become hen's teeth in comparison.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Yeah, the lack of good parts for the early cars (and VAG pretty much obsoleting EVERYTHING for them) would steer me to the upgrade for sure.

Even when the early cars were NEW (and I know, I bought one), they had lousy shifters. I was used to the 020 rod style setup, which when in good order, feels much better than the early cable shifters. I drove one of the very first Corrados our dealer got in, and right away I hated the shifter, LOL.
 
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