Another DOH moment. I looked over my remaining parts and realized there was a new push down part included for the spring. this is what alex was talking about. X\ lol got it in, resounding CLICK and its super solid! =D no dremel required!

 

great. almost done?

 

Headed out to car now! And 5 pages for Nick's gift FTW! I love AF

 

Feel is, of course, better. Though there are many pieces that give that result... the plastic piece that fits inside the pivot ball is replaced by metal, and the reduction in throw alone makes it feel like there's less slop (35% to be exact).

So to say that the new rail bushings made the shifter feel more solid is a bit subjective, but they definitely keep the shifter from moving around as much as it did with the original rubber bushings.

Soon you're likely to start noticing the play that the stabilizing linkage (the one that adjusts the forward/backward positioning of the shifter) introduces to the shifting setup. With the boot off you'll see the shifter move forward/backward when going between gears, and this motion is compounded by the reduction in throw. I've been contemplating this:

http://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalo...7f2faaf87ee81f

If I get really ambitious and want to rid the shifter of most of the play then I'd replace the shifter linkage attachment piece:
http://jhmotorsports.com/shop/catalo...7f2faaf87ee81f

As for the push-down reverse pin, I installed mine straight. My ebay shifter came with instructions (did yours?) that said to install it straight. At first it was difficult to engage reverse because of the orientation of that pin. Over time the pin has put itself at a bit of an angle relative to the rod, and shifting into reverse became much easier.

 

******* change rod! ive dropped the bolt and cover thing in twice and spent wayy too long cursing the engineer who designed this razor trap

 

It is done! And i am happy with it, but it will probably need adjustments. I'm too tired to do this tonight though, so I'm going to go to bed. It shifts fine, and its stiff. The shifter wiggles side to side same as stock though but whatever. The shifts are so short! It feels sporty, which is something the old Audi hasn't felt like in a long while.

I'm going to bed. Tomorrow i'll trim the boot spacer to fit. Thanks for all the help AF.

 

Congrats!

I ended up removing the entire spacer and plastic ring at the top to get it to fit my SS and ****.

 

This is the truth. I must have dropped every single one of the nuts/bolts/fasteners down into the little well under the shifter assembly and by the time i was done fishing them out my hand looked like i stuck it into a wood chipper

 

I got sooo angry at the stupid bolts. It took so much time to get everything in. I did end up losing one of the 10 mm Flange nuts that hold the shift bucket up to the body, but I just bought one at ACE, no worries. Also bought a magnet which was invaluable.

 

If you ever remove the shifter again that will be less of a problem, I promise Last time I reinstalled my shifter I think I only dropped it once!