Hey guys, I recently purchased a 63 VW dune buggy. Im having trouble finding the gears when shifting. It feels sloppy and inconsistent. Is there anything i can do to tighten it up a bit and make it easier to quickly shift?

There are a couple of trouble points to look for. If you unbolt the shifter (make sure you keep track of how things come aprt, which direction things come off) there is a bushing the shift rods rides in. IT is white with a metal ring around it. It sits in a metal hanger welded to the underside of hte tunnel. Make sure the white bushing is there and if not it needs to be replaced, but, you need to make sure that the hole the bushing sits in in the metal hanger is round and not worn out from the shift rod rubbing in it.

At the rear where the shift rod meets the transmission, there is a shift coupler. Depending on which year of parts were used there is 2 different styles. Early ones were round with set screws holding it to the transmission and hte shift rod. The later stlye was a rectangular box that holds 2 rubber bushings with a steel pin mounted in them. The early style coupler is fairly bulletproof. the later style one can have the bushings fall apart or wear out so the metal pin in the middle flops around alot when trying to shift.

Hope this helps.

brad

I had same issue with my wife's buggy.
Brads comments are right on
Shifter itself needed adjusting and shift rod where meets tranny was lose too.
I sent it to my mechanic to be adjusted when I drop buggy off every year for safety check etc.
Shifts like a million bucks now

Is there a certain mechanic that works on these? I live in central NY and am having a hard time finding one! Or is this an easy fix to attempt myself? I'm not too mechanically fit haha