90 awd 5sp trouble pushing shifter left and right? alot of resistance

[95gstnj]

hey guys, my 91 tsi awd is not self centering the shifter. it goes into gear fine, but when out of gear, it is hard to push the shifter left and right, as if it was gunked up or something. i changed the fluid, thinking it might help ( new bg syncroshift or whatever) but it does nothing. i took the cotter pin off the left shifter cable ( the one controlling l&r movement, dont know the technical name for it) and tookthe cable off the nipple. the shifter moves smooth like it should without the cable attached, so that rules out a gunked up or dirty shifter, so the problem is definitely not in the shifter. the car runs fine, but its kind of pissing me off. any help would be appreciated thanks

 

[4g63mightymax]

I have had two 1990's with this same problem. Both of my mine were sitting for a while before I bought them (a year or two). I originally thought it was the cables or the shifter itself, but after tearing my first 90 apart, I found it to be the linkage on the transmission that the cables attach to. I sprayed it all down with some rust penetrant and wd-40 and they are a lot smoother now. They arent perfect, but way better than they were. You may want to try that and see how it works out.
Hope I helped!
Jeremy

 

[95gstnj]

thanks, what did you actually take apart? the rubber boot on the tranny & then clean the linkage in there, or did you go inside the tranny?

 

[RoasT BeeF]

I had the same problem too. Found out the linkage was hitting the intake pipe... Take a look around and make sure its not hitting anything.