MK1 manual conversion

[intensem1]

As some of you know ive got a 1977 mk1 gls golf, pure old ladies car, complete with auto box.

I have the whole thing appart at the moment and figure its the best time of any to do a manual conversion.

Interested to know how hard this is to do with the old golfs and what parts are needed etc.

Is it harder to do 5speed conversion and can 4 speed clutch pedal box etc be used?

This is all new to me and any help is appreicated.

[gldgti]

i havn't done the conversion - but the gearbox is independent of any of the pedal stuff so if you make it work with a 4 speed, it'll work with a 5-speed too.

i should think once you swap the pedal box (and the rack! yuk!) all you'll need to do is find the shift linkages and rods and stick. you may not need to swap the rack if you can make up some of your own bracketing to hold the gear linkages.

[gotrice]

If I was you I would go straight for a cable shift gbox. You need to make up some custom mounts for the gbox side and rear but it is a better system and will give you a better shift than the old linkage system. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

[Valver.]

The 1600 won't have enough torque to pull over the tall cable shift ratios (or turn a 228mm flywheel and clutch set-up). You'd need a 4.24 ring and pinion to give you similar effective ratios, which would complicate things a lot more too... and add a lot more expense

The easiest way to do it is to buy an unregistered manual Mk1 (plenty pop up on eBay), and swap everything over from there. You know how everything bolts together then It would only cost you a few hundred bucks that way - mind you, I'd replace the clutch and rear main seal while you're at it. HTH

[The_Hawk]

The last conversion I did was helping a mate swap out a full engine and gear box from one Torana to another. The install itself was straight forward since we were basically able to unbolt from one car and bolt into the next. The problem we had... Starting the car.

It just wouldn't crank at all.

Checked all the electric system and they were powering right, checked everything else we could think of. Still no joy.

Anyway, we went about tidying everything else up while we pondered calling in an expert or towing it to one. Then it hit us. An auto box has a circuit in the shift lever that means you can only start in Park (and usually neutral) but not when the car is in gear. *smacks forehead*

We had carefully unbolted the switch and hid it up under the dash, problem was we didn't actually bridge it

In the end my mate made up a removeable jumper so it basically acted like a kill switch.

Just thought I would mention is since it caused us so much grief.

[Golf Loon]

Mk1 pedal box is easy, pedal just hangs off the end of the column.
I`d do it with a 4 speed first, as its cheaper and easier to get/

What cable shifts have a better shift than the rods Gotrice? I think they feel vague and slushy.