Maybe the PO broke it and had it (poorly) welded back together.
  I bought a VW Fox for $100, that had a broken shifter shaft; right at the
circlip groove above the detent spring.  Some people can break a crowbar in
a sandbox.
  I used an all-thread stud and tapped threads into both sides of the shaft
to attach it back together; no welding required and able to maintain that
important circlip groove.........

Mike B.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Allan Streib" <streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: Frankenshifter

> Well --
>
> I ground that weld down to the diameter of the shifter rod, cleaned
> and greased all the gearshift pivot parts, and put it back together.
>
> With that bump removed from the gearshift rod, I was able to get the
> top collar down onto the spring so it is actually under some
> tension.  The reverse lockout now works!  I had to re-adjust the
> splines in the center linkage joint because things are now evidently
> sitting a little differently.  Got it close enough where I could get
> it shifting properly by adjusting the gear shift base plate.  It
> actually feels like a proper gearshift now, instead of like a
> broomstick in a bucket of rocks.
>
> I mentioned that the tabs on the lower ball half were bent (bowed).
> This made it difficult to get the spring to sit on the little nubs
> that protrude at the top of the tabs.  I solved this by using a zip
> tie around the tabs, to hold them against the gear shift rod.  At
> some point I'm sure I'll need to replace at least the lower ball
> half, if not all the plastic parts in the pivot bearing, but for now
> it seems to be working fine.
>
> Still can't figure out WHY the gearshift was cut in the first place.
>
> Allan
>
> On Jan 19, 2008, at 3:29 PM, Allan Streib wrote:
>
>> Dug into the gearshshifter mechanism on my '91 GL today.  You may
>> recall that my trouble is that the shifter is sloppy and that the
>> reverse lockout does not work (shifter pops right over the lockout
>> "fence" with no downward pressure).  Adjusting the shift linkage per
>> the Bentley instructions resolved a good deal of the sloppiness but
>> not the reverse lock-out issue.
>>
>> So, I thought I would take the gearshift pivot stuff apart and see
>> whether it looked significantly worn.  I got the gearshift lever out
>> and discovered -- it's a Frankenshifter.  It's been cut, and re-
>> welded.
>>
>> http://picasaweb.google.com/allanstreib/UntitledAlbum/
>> photo#5157279273183368114
>>
>> Whoever did this did not grind the weld back down to the diameter of
>> the rod, so now I can't remove that lower ball half from the rod: it
>> won't slide up past the weld.  The other thing this weld does is
>> interfere with the movement of the upper spring, and also prevents
>> the top collar with the set screw from sliding down past that point,
>> so the upper spring can't be compressed more than that.
>>
>> Why might this have been done?  All I can think of is that some ham
>> fisted PO was unable to disassemble the shifter bearing at some
>> point, and decided to cut the rod -- maybe he didn't know that the
>> shift knob unscrews?  OR, he wanted to reorient the shifter to bring
>> it closer to the driver.  The rod is welded back on at an angle, so
>> that when installed the top part of the shifter angles towards the
>> driver.  I can't tell from the Bentley illustrations whether this is
>> correct or not.
>>
>> SO -- I can grind the weld back down, hope there's enough of it left
>> to hold the rod together, reassemble and see if the reverse lockout
>> problem goes away.  But does anyone know if the shifter is supposed
>> to be angled toward the driver?
>>
>