I have a 1982 fuelie Rabbit convertable, owning it a couple of years.

It has 110k on the clock and have put about 5000 miles on it since purchase.

When I first purchased it, I put all of the factory bushings and related hardware throughout the whole shifting mechanism assembly. I also put a Neuspeed short shift kit (without Weight). The car shifted great!

By the time I put 4000 miles on it, I lost 5th gear as I was traveling about 70 mph on the interstate. 300 miles later the car lost 3rd and 4th gear, with the shifter wagging around with the whirl-a-shift syndrome.

Since then, I have replaced the front and rear motormounts with eurothane mounts, and put the eurothane inserts into the side mounts because I didn't have the time to chase around for a press to swap the rubber inserts.

I have gone through and replaced every shift linkage piece and utilized 4wd crawler Heim joints and custom teflon bushings.

They sent me a MK II shift Teflon rod pivot bushing mounted in front of shiftr assembly, instead of the MK I version bushing. I have alligned everything, but with the three different color bushings and a new pivot assembly later, the Shift rod diameter is too small for the bushing diameters, creating the excess slop in the shifter assembly, and I still cannot find 3rd, 4th and 5th.

This current setup is much tighter than when I first rebuilt the shift assembly and the transmission is older than the 020 transmissions built after this model that "self Machine" (has rivits). Plenty of tranny oil, and has never leaked since I've owned it. I still have no 3rd, 4th and 5th. In shifting the transmission by hand without linkages connected, everything seems to actuate without bind.

Is there a better shifting assembly setup sold by anyone, to eliminate this B.S. and make it bullet proof? It is definetely a through-back design left over from the air-cooleds. Most other Auto makers use cables to eliminate shifting related problems dues to the motor jumping around on its motormounts from different torque loads. After all, it is only a whopping 92 Horsepower.

Any help will be appreciated.