thrash

took me perhaps 3 hours to drill and tap everything, clean all the nasty goop out of it (i think it was originally lithium grease that had gotten crap in it, it was now this sticky black glossy stuff). I went to the store, bought some hardware, and came back to install it. I was unable to find the nylon bushings he referred to, but i found stainless steel rolled spacers instead, and cut them to length using a dremel tool and a bench grinder

For those interested, a steel spacer with a 3/8" ID will fit over the cast nubs and be a pretty tight fit.. i pressed mine on in a vise. I then used some 1/2" ID rubber bushings on the outside edges to support the factory rubber locators. I bought some nylon 1/2" ID short offset spacers but those ended up not fitting with the rest of the stuff.

In any case, the difference in shifter feel is night and day. I haven't gotten the car running again yet (driveline and exhaust are dropped while i do parking brake work - new cables, new rear calipers, etc) so i'm not sure its actually going into gear (although the reverse light does light up when i select reverse

anyway, if you have any slop in your shifter, i really suggest doing this upgrade. If nothing else, it makes fixing/repairing the linkage with stock parts really, really easy in the future, as you've drilled _6_ rivets and replaced them with metric allen head screws.

Fyi, here is the hardware i bought:

4x 5mm x .8 10mm hex head screws (for the "box")
2x 6mm x 1.0 16mm hex head screws (for the lever->box mounting fork)

i used the taps i got saturday from the $35 sears Metric Tap & Die set that they stock in-store and the sears cutting oil. You'll need left handed drill bits and a reversing drill to get the rivets out.

Look in the link for pictures.. mine looks pretty much just like that now.

Note, to see if you need this, get under the car and push/pull and rotate the shifter arm, and look at the U joint where it attaches to the transmission. If you rotate the arm, but there is slop before the transmission select rod turns, you have slop. If you push/pull on the arm and the arm moves before the select rod moves, you have slop.

I have very, very, little of either movement now. THe difference when using the shifter from inside the vehicle is noticable.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/1581653.phtml">A4 shift linkage upgrade</a></li></ul>

VAP

but you'll never "feel" a smoother, more precise shifter setup.

When I bought a spare linkage rod from a salvage yard to do this years ago on my UrS4 and later A4 and most recently on my 90 and saw how the design worked I knew there had to be a better, more permanent fix that didnt rely on rubber components, bushings, pot-metal cast parts and their associated wear and inherent weaknesses.

I opted instead for an aircraft U-Joint setup. I cut the U-bracket off the end of the shifter rod and welded a stainless steel u-joint on one end with T304 Tig wire. On the other end I milled it open to accept the transmission rod and turned a press-on sleeve that would allow me to use a larger diameter grub bolt w/jam nut to insure once tightened it never loosened up.

It reduces the slop in the shifter to absolute "zero"... I mean not even .0001" in any direction. And the feel is incredible! And since it relies on needle roller bearings instead of bushings it'll never wear out. I wont even tell you what I paid for my u-joint since it was an AF&amp;P certified part but you can buy similar U-joints without aircraft certification for around $90 each in stainless and 20% less in nickel-plated steel. They're primarily made for steering linkages in the automotive industry but they are simply the best you can do for shifter linkage ugrades. You can also slip silicone boots over them to keep out water, drit &amp; debris.

Until you drive one you cant begin to appreciate the difference. But once you do, there's no going back to stock or modified-stock.<ul><li><a href="http://www.hotrodsusa.com/store/ujoints.html">stainless u-joints</a></li></ul>

KungFu4point2

gonna start cuttin stuff up and ordering parts now.

thrash

i paid about $8 for parts to do this. The big win was making the whole assembly easily rebuildable by removing the rivets and putting in the removeable fasteners. If there's slop in a few months i can easily take it apart and spend some more time building a better bushing.. i mean i did this with parts i could find on a sunday afternoon. If i actually had to engineer something.. yeah, it could be a lot better

VAP

it's a fine solution for everyday driving and light track/Auto-X. But the cast pot-metal housing cross-rod causes the larger center cast section pilot bores to loosen up, become eccentric and can break/fracture the center housing section with extended track use. Plus the difference in "feel" is incredible. If you gave the existing mod a "10" then the aircraft u-joint mod would be closer to "100"... it is ABSOLUTELY "that" good!

Its an "option" that I thought "some" might appreciate knowing about. It'll never compete/compare with an $8 fix for the masses that are lined up for a down &amp; dirty cheap fix that works. But then it was never intended as such, in fact its not even in the same ballpark as that. This is SERIOUS long life, bullet-proof and ultra precision race car/endurance stuff. But at the same time is perfectly suited to and at home on a street or dual-purpose car. Not at all like a racing clutch or flywheel or many other items commonly found on only race cars. There's no "down-side" with this modification other than buy-in.

But there are a few... not many but a few who "may" want a little more and it's for them I posted this.

Hidshadows

I had another idea for that, but that looks better. No reason to reinvent the wheel.

quattro.pilot

so basically the u-joint is welded in place of the fork/grommet/box assembly

VAP

over the entire u-joint and shaft assembly making it water-tight and dirt/debris free. It also eliminates the possibility of any vibration tho mine never vibrated even pre-boot.

I end up doing 5-6 a year for friends and local Audi guys. Next time I have one in here I'll do a write-up with pics on it.

Ghostfire

I want this..

Ghostfire

Don't be afraid to tell me if my price is way off.