VW MotorSport Shifter - custom install

[Prawn]

So, for those who can't be bothered to read through a hundred pages of my build thread, I thought this was reasonably interesting and different. I did a little write up for another forum, so thought I'd post it in here for anyone else doing anything similar

Take several bottles of beer:

Add some ebay:

Throw in an auction that's listed in dollars instead of £ to add to the confusion, then wake up in the morning to find you've gone and bid far too much money on something you don't really need.

Wait a week whilst pretending it never happened, then return from work to find this waiting for you in a box:

So, I appear to have bought a VW MotorSport type shifter from a man in Slovenia, whilst bidding against Americans!

I best make it work then!

A few more pictures:

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. this will need cables. stock ones won't be long enough. D'OH

back to ebay, random scanning for gear shifter cables, volvo ones look pretty long, I'll try some of them!

The ends were wrong, so I bought some of these:

M8 ball joints, and m6-M8 thread adapters.

I set about threading the ends of the volvo cables, by running an M6 dye down the end of the rod:

Then screwed on the M6-M8 adapter:

To which a ball joint fits nicely:

Sorted.

Next up, cable stops:

Bit of 3mm plate cut to shape:

And the volvo cable ends fit very nicely:

repeat:

I didn't like the lack of self centering on the shifter, so decided to add some using a massey fergusson tractor brake pedal return spring:

Which would sit in here:

Drilled the base plate to locate the spring:

Then fitted it in, and forgot to take pics. works well though

Moving onto the tower, I wasn't so keen on the look of the welds on it, so decided to grind them back:

Then sanded it down and applied some primer:

it came out fairly good. Not perfect, but i'm not a paint man on the whole!

I finished adding threads to all the cable ends:

Then found that the ball joint ends on an 2000 02J linkage were the same size as the ones I've bought. result!

 

[Prawn]

Onto the cable stop bracket at the box end, I cut slots into it to allow the volvo outer ends to fit:

And that's the box end sorted:

Moving inside the car, here's the old shifter, mounted internally:

Removed, and the new tower placed into position:

An idea of how it might look:

The tunnel was a bit thin at the leading edge of the new tower where the hole used to be for the old shifter, so I made up a sandwich plate to bolt down through the tunnel and clamp the new shifter into place:

Started removing the old box linkages under the bonnet to allow me to hook the cables up and position the inner stops:

First volvo cable in place:

Measured up positions for the first cable stop, and welded it to a base plate. my welding isn't pretty, so don't be nasty

Cleaned up and in place:

First cable test fitted:

Second cable stop clamped up ready to tack:

Decided to add a little gusset on this one as it'll take more abuse on the fore / aft movement

Nasty welding, but it's strong enough! Cleaned up a bit:

All the parts sanded down and primed:

Then 3 coats of Porsche 8C6 orange:

And laquered:

Time to start installing

Gaping hole needed filling:

 

[Prawn]

Painted black, and all bolted up and finished

Sorry the last pics are dark, it got dark!

shifter feels really awesome to use, to precise with ball joints on all ends now, really accurate from gear to gear, and a nice short shift too which I can adjust to suit my needs.

Aside from feeling a bit more positive, there isn't really a great deal more to it, but I've seen these in the past and ALWAYS wanted one, so when one popped up on ebay, I just had to have it!

 

[Nogmeister]

Awesome work mate, and great write up! Not something I think I'll ever do, but nice to see the step by step

 

[g60leigh]

Awesome work mate.