Itinerant Air-Cooled

It seemed a straight forward and simple job. By the end of it I was demoralized, humiliated and bleeding.
I had mistakenly bought two sets of mid and rear bushings. I trashed the good pair from WW right away. The rear bushing from the pair I got from BD was of such poor quality I threw it away and re-used the OG mid bushing in the rear. The mid bushing from BD was broken by the time I got it in too. This would not stand.

I sourced yet another (#3) mid bushing. I cracked it too. I 'fixed' the bushing with a bit of wire, flared the hell out of the end of the tube and rammed the assembly in. I will buy yet another set of bushings to have on hand so that one day when I am feeling especially Zen or inclined to self harm I can try again. It is after all a straight forward and simple job.

I offer my experience not for your pity or ridicule but to reach out to and help others who may have suffered this procedure, come out from behind the shame and isolation, begin the healing process, and move forward.

fredg wrote:By the end of it I was demoralized, humiliated and bleeding.

rear bushingfrom BD was of such poor quality I threw it away
mid bushing from BD was broken by the time I got it in too.

I offer my experience not for your pity or ridicule but to reach out to and help others who may have suffered this procedure, come out from behind the shame and isolation, begin the healing process, and move forward.

Did you provide feedback to Bus Depot? They depend upon our passivity to execute their business model of sending wrong or junky parts into the oblivion of humiliation and destruction as they process your credit card payment.

Anyways, I think you might be doing something wrong if it has been that difficult. The BD bushing has flashing that prevents the locator divots from inserting into the shift rod, you need to whittle in a very confined spot. So, how does it shift now?
Colin

Replacement shift rod bushings are CRAP, and not just because they aren't Scottish. Every bit of that flashing must be removed, and sometimes the little locating pins must be reshaped from oval to round before they will fit into their corresponding holes on the shift rod.



I, too, suffered the shame and humiliation of shift rod bushing replacement. I had successfully repressed the memory of that event until I read your report. Now I am experiencing terrifying flashbacks and think I probably have PTSD. Good thing my therapist is on speed dial.

Seriously, unless they are broken into little pieces, I doubt that the original mid and rear shift rod bushings ever need to be replaced. They just don't wear out. If they are loose in the shift rod tube you can enlarge the inner circlip slightly. If they slip on the rod you might consider inserting an appropriately sized screw where the locating pin(s) should be (just an idea).

Thanks for sharing your story, fredg. It is time we brought this issue out from the shadows.

Tim

Oh my, that flash is terrible!

Satch, that looks just like the one I got from Bus Depot !

I found the other OG rear bushing while emptying the trash this morning. I will clean it up and stash it for later.

Rusty is still on stands, so I have yet to see how she shifts. All three bushings were pretty thin. The linkage now has minimal side play compared to how it was.

fredg wrote:All three bushings were pretty thin. The linkage now has minimal side play compared to how it was.

Graceful, not skinny. They were designed that way.

The original bushings almost never need replacement. I think marketing copy blames these bushings for slop but guess what? If you had no bushings at all, the slop would be exactly the same. The movement of the gearshift fore and aft and side-to-side doesn't relate to the 1/4" vertical movement of a ten foot shift rod.

Best way to see slop is to have a shift person at the gear shifter and have them do the side-to-side movement *in a gear*. You look for where the efficiency is lost. Then have them do a fore and aft movement *in a gear* and look for where their movement gets wasted.
Colin

I never checked for slop before I removed the shifter and forward shift rod. New bushings did stabilize the rod when it hung loose.

This is a perfect example of "If it ain't broken don't fix it." Rusty was a desert flower. No rust, not much paint no rubber seals and sand lots of sand and red dirt. The tube was full of it. I have replaced nearly all the rubber seals and boots. I get carried away sometimes.

The end is near!

It's looking good!

I think we've all figured out that in many cases, the original, slightly worn VW parts on our 40 year plus old VW's are better than what's sold today. As Colin mentioned, the shaft bushings are rarely bad and most simply clean the shaft, tube and then re-lube them up. Just make sure to use enough grease as someone (me) didn't. lol

Over the years on this site and the Samba, new classic VW owners simply replace original parts that are not bad with inferior crap being sold today. I'm certainly guilty of it but I've learned from the experience.