Mk4 shifter links question ......

[aaron001au]

Hey all , I have a mk4 golf with a 1.6 AKL motor and 5 speed box.

The last few weeks the shifter has become extremely sloppy you can put it in gear and then move it back to the Centre and move it in a circle motion all while in gear and some times it's hard to select a gear.

Now this leads me to believe that the bushes in the my shifter links are buggered I was looking looking on ebay last night and found 2 different "repair" kits for this one is a oem style with bushes the other is uprated style that's has no bushes (I will supply links for both as soon as I can get on a computer)

If I was to buy this would this fix my problem and make my shifter firm again or will it remain sloppy ?

Also they say to replace this other item(3rd picture) when doing the shifter links but I'm not 100% on what it dose and if I need it ?

Any thoughs or input would be great thanks

[dylan8]

Keep in mind there is multiple shifter types for mk4s across the years and engines.
I have no experience with refreshing them and what's good/not good though , just thought I'd put that out there for you

[aaron001au]

its for the 1.6 akl engine , im pretty sure its the only one that doesn't have shifter cables and has the metal rod instead , im also now thinking that my problem may lie with in the shifter box its self as the bushes in there are prob shagged

[YellowLemon]

For my 1,6L AKL got the link kit at the top (OEM style with the plastic bushes) and fixed the sloppy shifter issues 100% good as new. Worth a try for less than ~ $100, right?

In my eBay searches I couldn't find a bushing kit for the shift tower for the AKL ..... heaps for the shifter cable type, like here: VWVortex.com - DIY: Shifter Tower Bearing & Bushing Repair

I'm not sure if it's the same in our crappy shift rod versions

[aaron001au]

For my 1,6L AKL got the link kit at the top (OEM style with the plastic bushes) and fixed the sloppy shifter issues 100% good as new. Worth a try for less than ~ $100, right?

In my eBay searches I couldn't find a bushing kit for the shift tower for the AKL ..... heaps for the shifter cable type, like here: VWVortex.com - DIY: Shifter Tower Bearing & Bushing Repair

I'm not sure if it's the same in our crappy shift rod versions

Thanks for the feed back yellow lemon , that's great to hear I'll order some tomrrow and give it a go , I mean mine are almost 170xxx old so they really need doing any way do you think the other style link rod would work about the same ?

[aaron001au]

Found the problem to my sloppy shifter seems I'm totally missing a Bush and this was loose and just sitting there .... parts are on order to fix it

[shauny]

Oh, do you have a link to the kits you posted the image of? I did the little bushes on the end fo my shift weights which helped improve the shifter for about a month (felt like brand new) but then now it is feeling sloppy again and I can do the row around in circles while in gear like you mentioned.

I know that my big round bush which I think you are saying was missing (round golf ball looking thing - was that what was missing?) is worn on mine, and so are the ends of those rods you pop off

[aaron001au]

The little round cream bush above is meant to have another bush around it and mine was missing so i had to replace the whole part to fix bush ... here a pic of how it should look



i also had to modify the new part as it had a counter weight on it that's not meant to be there , im now just waiting on my new links like in the first post i bought the metal one , will report back once i have them and there fitted,

the bush i replace got rid of a lot of back and forward moment but no side to side as for the links i bought them from , it was just off ebay.co.uk

[brad]

Should have left the counterweight if there was room. WOuld have given a very sporty shift feel I reckon.

[aaron001au]

I could it was hitting exhuast , fire wall and the counterweight all ready on the box