Mk1 Gear Selector (Lollipop) issues

[Cameo62]

I'm about to give up on this. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do from here and I'm really hoping there's someone who can help me.

I got this Citigolf as a project and knew there were issues. I sorted most of it. Did the major cambelt service and I'm about to get the car driving but when I shift, I found the "lollipop" comes out of the "cage" it's meant to sit in.

I've changed all the bushings in the shifting assembly. Every single one hoping that would be what I'm missing. It started feeling better as I heard the click into 1st but then I couldn't get neutral. The "lollipop" popped out of the cage again. This is very weird. Everything is tightened correctly so it's not like it's loose.

The gearbox selects everything correctly:

Neutral:



1st:



2nd:



The "lollipop" assembly:









I found this at the bottom of the gear lever. Could this be my issue:





Can anyone please help me? Are my adjustments off? Do I need to play with the pinch bolt of where the "cage" attaches to the long shaft of the gear lever to try and fine tune linkage settings or do any of the pictures show something broken or wrong in your opinion?

Thanks.

[Cameo62]

Got an opinion from a friend stating the settings are far out. I got the car like this so I haven't changed anything. I was mainly trying to figure out if anything os broken here.

He says nothing's wrong and I just need to get the settings sorted. Is this true?

[Cameo62]

Selector shaft was aligned wrong. He was right. Realigned. It's sorted.

[PapaJo]

From your pictures it appears that,

1. That square shaped lever is the shorter one that is usually fitted to the 4 speed gearbox and linkages. 5 speed one is longer,
2. The 4 speed and 5 speed lolipop is not the same. The black rubber portion has a smaller diameter on the 4 speed vs the 5 speed one,
3. The rubber ball of the lolipop should be centered inside the square or else it will either jam or pop out when rod is moving forward an backward.

When the lolipop is inside the square, there should be very limited gap between te ball and square frame. Less than 0.5mm or almost touching on both sides. That removes alot of the slop from forward and backward movement and you will have a more precise push on the relay lever pushing the arm over on the gearbox.

The lever that clips into the ball on the square lever appears to be bent/angled down and that is then a 4 speed arm used and not 5 speed one. 5 speed one is s-shape like.

Check out the internet for pictures of the 5 speed gear shift parts to get a reference to your installed parts.

[PapaJo]

One more thing, the bottom of the gearlever might have been bent. When gearlever inside is in neutral position it should be straight up and the bottom c shaped portion should have a gap of 10-15mm between the tip of the c shape and the metal plate.

That tip on the c shape was cut shorter and the c shaped tip should have a short lip to catch on the metal cup as it has to slide ontop of the metal cup when you select reverse. Reverse is pushed down and gearlever then slightly tilted and then slide over the edge of the plate cup to lock gearlever into reverse position.

[Cameo62]

Hey, the car is 4 speed. I thought it was fixed but it wasn't. I got the measurement sorted, stuck a 10mm socket between the bottom of the C-shaped bit and the metal surround under the car (as per a thread found on another VW forum) and got the spacing lined up using that. Changed the ball in the gear lever itself but still no dice. Every time I move the gear lever itself, the linkage setup gets stuck somewhere along the way and won't return to neutral again. I can select all 4 gears and reverse on the 'box itself with no issues though.

I've given up. Getting rid of the car after paint but thanks for all the input you've given me.

[PapaJo]

Check out this video to help you getting gear selection aligned.
https://youtu.be/YMcIIdMTTqI?si=n2RR4elQJP6Lm6K-