Hello All,

I've recently been having trouble with my reverse in my manual '93 WV Fox. On occasion I'm able to hold my shifter in reverse and go on flat surfaces, but backing up hill is out of the question. I'm wondering if there is a possible solution to my reverse problem. I was thinking it might be a bent shifter rod, or a stripped reverse gear. If anyone knows of an easy way of repairing either of these it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dalton

On older VW's popping out of reverse was a common transmission problem, but I haven't heard of it on a Fox before. More common on Foxes is shifter linkage alignment issues. If it feels like it fully engages reverse (compare the feel to that of another gear that works properly) then is pushed back out, it's probably inside the transmission. If it never seems to fully go into reverse it's likely the linkage. Unfortunately, to properly adjust the linkage requires a special VW tool, basically a template. I haven't seen a dealer that still has one either. I have been able to get it close enough to work without the tool, but it was difficult and basically was trial and error positioning. The shift rod has an adjuster that both can be rotated on a spline and would slip in and out depth-wise.

Sounds like you may need a new reverse bushing - if you can I would check out car-part.com to see if you can get a deal on a 5 speed tranny (that is if you have a 4 speed - better economy and you don't have to press down and lean it towards 1st to get it to go into reverse either!) But it may just need a new bushing - common prob for this type of tranny - happened to me too