welding in a shifter bracket

[volksdragn]

Hi I picked up a new pan and the shifter mount is cut out, I picked one up from CIP 1, is there any one on here that can give me some tips on getting this thing welded back in the right place to insure that the car will shift correctly, measure ments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - John

[mac2881994]

I replaced the one in mine when I re did the pan. I drilled out the spot welds holding in the old one, then bolted the new one in tight and plug welded the original spot weld locations.

[volksdragn]

Thats what I was hoping for however this one has already been cut out, I guess i really need to try and find a car around here locally that i can do some measuring on.

[mac2881994]

I will try to take a couple of pics of mine when I get home tonight.

[mac2881994]

Sorry I completely forgot to get back to you about this. I took a pic and am waiting for it to come through my e-mail. it is slightly out of focus due to trying to hold the tape measure and the camera at the same time. As soon as it comes through I will post it. The measurement is approx. 17.5 inches from the front firewall to the middle of the front bolt on the shifter.

[mac2881994]

shifter location (800x451).jpg

Here is the fuzzy pic that I promised.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Cleaned it up a bit. No way to get the fuzziness out of it.

I have a bare pan, would you like a measurement from it?

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... id=1648811

Lee

[Marc]

What year is the pan, volksdragn? The shifter location was moved back in `68 and again in `73 - each time the shift rod was shortened.
If the entire roof of the tunnel has been cut out you'll need more than just the bracket to restore it...

[mac2881994]

My pan is a 66'.

[volksdragn]

Sorry it's been so long, thank you south for the pictures ol'fogasaurus the pictures and measurement help tremendously. The pan is a 63. It's kind of a bum deal to get good measurements from what it was factory like a day someone has cut it out before and I'm shooting from the hip. I don't know what would make someone want to replace it, maybe the shift rod bushing carrier broke off or something? MARC only the shifter bracket was cut out not the entire tunnel so hopeful it is a moderately easy fix

[Marc]

mac2881994's method usually works well. There's sufficient adjustment that it's not really critical, if the opening in the bracket is concentric with the one in the tunnel you should be fine.
Note that once the shifter's bolted in tightly, the welds are actually superfluous...at least until the next guy unbolts the shifter and the bracket & rod fall to the bottom of the tunnel
(An 8mm head stud or two work well to "pick up" a dropped bracket if that should happen)

Since the tunnel hasn't been butchered this should be an easy deal for you. Had it been, I would've suggested that you use a couple of pop-rivets (or small screws) to locate the bracket, then trial-assemble and verify that the shifter can be adjusted before plug-welding it in for keeps - if you even bother with that.

The `65-up shift coupler cages are crimped together and can work loose so that the radial relationship between the parts can wander - that can drive you nuts chasing it with shifter adjustments. The aftermarket Chaiwanese cadmium-plated cages are especially infamous for this (some even come misindexed out-of-the-box). So, once you've got everything all set & adjusted just right you may want to take the coupler back out and add a tack weld or two to secure the center in the cage to ward off future problems.

[volksdragn]

Thanks a million This has helped me out greatly. Hopefully i will post some results to this but it could be a while. slow and steady is the name of the game. Thanks again- John