Shift rod question

[Jeremy]

Two problems.
Did my '59 Beetle come with shift rod bushing? I took out the shift rod tonight to replace the bushing and there wasn't even an old one in there and couldn't get the new one to fit in the hanger.

Second problem.
I cleaned everything back up and put it together without a bushing (just greased) and attached the shift coupling back together to try a couple shifts. Put the shifter on and made one shift and it seamed to disengage something because it does not want to got into gear anymore. Just stuck in one place. I tried sliding the shifter back and forth in different positions but no luck. The body is off the pan so I can hear it clicking away in the nose cone but not engaging in any gear. It's a '59 pan with a SSC IRS trans with the stock '59 shift coupling. Stock shifter.

Any ideas?

Jeremy

[Trevor P]

59 didn't have a bushing, it just runs in the hanger metal on metal with a spring clip to eliminate any rattles. You can drill out the spot welds in the orig. hanger and weld in one of the later ones (these are available new).
 As for you shifter locking up,it sounds like your hockey stick may have disengaged from the shift fork rods.  Are you using the bus nose cone and hockey stick?

[Jeremy]

Thanks Trevor. I thought they all had bushings in them. I think i'll stick with the original hanger since VW seemed to think it was OK. As for the trans problem I was slightly panicing thinking I had pulled the hockey stick out too far but talking to Dad today he suggested turning the axles a couple rotations to engage a gear and that worked. I should have thought of that. Simple.

Jeremy