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Cannot move shifter knob into 3rd or 4th positions when bus is moving

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kinggeorge13:
My couplers are in!  My couplers are in!  Yep, a HUGE difference between the better two options and the crap cheap option.  And even at that one of them is clearly more heavy duty than the other one.   Get all my damned taxes sent in today so I can get back to enjoying life out under my bus putting in my nice new heavy duty coupler and everything will be happy again!   

I will post photos of the three different couplers in the next day or two so you can get a good view of how different they each are.   

Will this along with the clutch adjustment I'll do while I'm under there finally be the solution to no 3rd or 4th gear available when the bus is physically moving ?   I hope so.   I need to get some camping days in soon before the Summer Vacation crowds start showing up everywhere.

-George

BUSDADDY:
It can't make it any worse, bet it solves your problem.

Regardless of how "heavy duty" that coupler looks it's worth 10 minutes to weld the pressed in collar the shaft goes in to the sheet metal cage, 1/2" of weld on each side is plenty. In some cases that collar can get loose and twist in the cage, usually after letting a non VW person drive it.

kinggeorge13:
Ok so got my nice new shift coupler installed this afternoon and adjusted the clutch cable.   I drove it off the ramps and checked that while sitting in the driveway with the engine running I was able to easily shift into all gears and let out the clutch lightly to ensure the gears were actually engaged and started to move the vehicle.   So far so good.  So tomorrow I'll get a one day permit and give Bart the '76 bus a quick road test.  I say quick for two reasons:  1. I'll know very quickly if I'm able to shift from 2nd to 3rd or 4th at road speeds or not.    2. The bus is backfiring lots and I don't want to draw undue attention that I don't have all the mechanical parts done up nice yet.  I suppose it's a pride thing.     

Here is the new heavy-duty coupler happily installed.   It did not require extra welding to hold the pressed-in tube secure because on this particular version the entire armature including the tube is all one single cast piece of heavy-duty thick steel.   Very nice.   Still need to slide through the lock-wire into that grub screw and tighten it up so it cannot come loose.


Meanwhile though, I did find some interesting stuff and one surprising thing.    The interesting thing is how a previous owner dealt with a new clutch cable that was apparently too long:


And the one surprising thing?  As I wrote in an earlier post, someone had worked on the bus at some point before me and chopped out the fuel filter and put a small plastic tube between the two hose ends that used to go to the fuel filter.  I fixed that up several weeks ago and installed a nice new see-through fuel filter just a little bit before the fuel pump.   However, look what I was able to see today once I was underneath at the right angle to adjust the clutch adjust wing nut?  Hidden almost completely out of sight up above the torsion tube.... and it's plenty old and dirty inside and out:

kinggeorge13:
So did the rest of you hear angels singing yesterday late in the morning?  I sure did.  It happened exactly when my bus shifted into 3rd gear at speed for the first time since I got it.  And then as I sped up along Glover Road it shifted into 4th, also for the first time.   I could clearly hear the praises of "Hallelujah" from the heavens above.   So it's now working and working fairly well (not perfect yet, but close) from the combination of:

1. New front shift rod bushing (mine was literally torn open)
2. Initial adjustment of the stop plate on the floor under the shifter (and clean up and re-greased)
3. Tightening of the clutch cable
4. Replacement of the sloppy shift coupler in front of the nose cone with the new built-like-a-tank one

So there ya go.   This super-long involved rambling post is just about at an end.   All is not 100% perfect yet as it's not shifting nicely into 3rd and 4th every single time but like all buses, it takes a little practice to learn exactly where that sweet spot is for the shift knob to get to and mine right now seems to be needing pushing the knob more to the right than it really wants to go for it to click into to that correct "notch" it goes into for the 3rd and 4th gear to engage (that's how I always describe how it feels, anyway).   So I'm thinking a little more adjustment of the stop plate is in order but I'm plenty happy.   The gears are there.  No grinding. 

I may just go out this weekend and treat Bart the Bus to a nice quick coat of gloss black rust paint from a rattle can to cover all his major previous wounds that are rusting visibly just to make him look a little nicer until I get around to doing his actual bodywork (he is a black bus).  Oh yeah and gotta get that old fuel filter outta it's hiding spot and new hose in it's place.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions.   

-George

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