Mis-aligned shift rod?

[mekennedy@stkate.edu]

I'm hoping some of you out there will be able to help me with advice on
this one...

I took my baby ('72 Square) out for her first long drive last night, and
things went fairly well; she didn't go up in flames, nothing made horrible
crunching sounds, the brakes worked just fine...

Question 1:  But there seem to be problems with shifting into the right
gears.  I already knew that in order to stay in reverse, the stick needs to
be held in place or it will pop out.  I took that as a sign that the
transmission was getting worn.  However, I was having a hell of a time
finding first gear every time I needed to downshift, and all of them seemed
a bit off.  Dave drove it a little, and he thinks it doesn't feel like
reverse is even going all the way in, so he's guessing mis-aligned stuff
rather than a worn transmission.  I read through what I could find in the
Muir book (basically just the part about removing a tranny where they tell
how to take off the shift rod cable) and it doesn't sound like it's
adjustable.  Is this a common problem?  Is it something anyone else has run
into?  Any suggestions about what I should look at or change?

Question 2:  In a slightly different topic, I also noticed that even when I
had the clutch pedal all the way down, I still couldn't shift down until I
was in the right speed range (e.g. slowing down from 4th to a stop sign; if
I tried to shift into first before the speed went under 10, the car
sputtered and jerked).  Dave thought he'd heard once that in VWs the clutch
shouldn't be pushed all the way down... is this true?  Is this a sign of a
loose clutch cable?

Question 3:  My accelerator pedal cable fell off three times on the way
home.  It seems to be wound very tightly--is this normal?  Should I just
grab some tool and try to bend the end so it doesn't come off again?

Thanks to everyone...

Meghan


Meghan Kennedy mekennedy@stkate.edu
St. Paul, Minnesota

1972 Bright Orange Squareback