Gear Lever Not Centering

[NickPicks]

Usually, when you let go of the gear lever in neutral, it springs to between 3rd & 4th gears.

Well, my A3 1.8 SE 2000 AGN engine, EBD gearbox doesn't, so changing gear is a bit more hit and miss than it should be.

Does anyone know where the centering spring is? Is it in the gearbox, or is it in the lever assembly?

Is there anything else it could be?

Thanks.

[Sly]

Did you say in one of your other threads you've got a Haynes book? Page 7A.2 has a good breakdown illustration of the gear lever assembly and shows a couple of springs and there's a setup guide on that page that mentions some springs/collars on the transmission end of the cables as well. Can't help any further than that as I've got a lazy auto! Good luck...

[NickPicks]

That's some memory!

I did have a Haynes manual I borrowed from the library a while ago. I'll have to borrow it again.

[Sly]

I've scanned it as a PDF, PM me your email if you want it...

[shane420]

Yo Sly, any chance u could hook a brotha up with that Haynes?

[Sly]

Yo Sly, any chance u could hook a brotha up with that Haynes?

Ha, depends what you need from it!? I'm not gonna send you the whole book because then I won't have one! They're only 15 quid mate if you'regonna be using it a lot or as Nick did, support your local library.

[NickPicks]

Well, I'll bring this thread back from the dead:
After my wife complaining that the car is difficult to get into gear, and it's hurting her shoulder, I had a look at it this weekend:

I disconnected the cables at the gearbox end, and the lever springs nicely into the centre, and I can see the centring srping working there. The cables are nice and free running.
So I followed the Audi method of aligning the mechanism (push the gear selector lever on the gearbox fully dow, turn the lever to vertical, line the gear stick up with a pin through both holes, then tighten the cable adjusters), and it's even worse - I now get reverse instead of first, and can't get 5th gear (it's like the mechanism has lined up one gate across).
So, I lined the mechanisms up on 5th gear, and it now selects the gears OK.

The gear lever still doesn't spring into the gate between 3rd & 4th like it should though, and when the lever is disconnected, there's no spring in the lever on the gear box (the one by the battery) - it just stays where I put it.

Should there be some sort of centering spring on the gearbox itself?