> I have been reading Samba posts about vibration, and another suspect is the CV joints.  Perhaps raising the back 1.5" is behind this?

I was going to suggest this as a possibility...I have a 1.5" lift too
and had a lot of vibration that was at wheel speed, but also dependent
on how much torque was getting to the wheels.  Also, the shifter would
vibrate a lot, like you mentioned.  I know my CV's were shot.  Did the
930 CV upgrade over the weekend and everything is now silky.  I did
also replace the rear wheels and tires, so I can't rule out a
tire/balance issue, but I'm pretty sure the CV's were the culprit.
I'm hoping this will be the end of my CV saga that started with last
year's broken axle.

Alex