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Last week I noticed sudden difficulty with engaging 2nd on my '69 MT. Most people here suggested a shifter alignment problem more than an internal problem. There were no noises, just problems getting into 2nd gear. So I looked at the shift plate. No obvious wear, and the bushing seems OK. A bit of slop in the shifter, but not much at all. So I left the adjustment alone. I looked at the coupling under the car in front of the tranny. Looked OK, including the set screw. I'm confused here, though.. Photos in Bentley (Fig. 5-1, p.18) and Haynes (2.5b, P.95 and Fig. 6.4, p.97) show just one set screw. But the 1966 Elfrink manual (p.107) shows two set screws. Was there a difference early/late? Maybe I just needed to look farther ahead in the tunnel to find the forward screw? Anyway, everything looked tight. No locking wire, though. Looks like somebody replaced the square-head screw with a hole for the wire with a hex-head screw with no hole. The screw tip was the right shape to pass into the dimple in the selector rod. Guess I should have put it back with loctite. I decided to change the gear oil in the tranny. I'd never done it to this car since I've had it (3+ years). I'm embarrassed to admit that it was about a quart low, and the magnet was full of crud. Put fresh oil in and went for a drive. Three days now, and 100 miles later, no problem with 2nd gear anymore. Low/old gear oil must have made 2nd gear sluggish in there? Seems better now, in any case. -Mark Fuhriman '69 Fastback ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org