Hi all,

I have a '66 Beetle which has decided it doesn't want to stay in 4th gear. I have tried moving the shift lever around, forward and backward but that didn't seem to make a difference. According to the Haynes manual, there are 2 plugs on the forward bottom left side of the transaxle which adjust the shift forks or something. Basically remove the appropriate plug and loosen the set screw and move it or somthing to that effect. Well, I spent about an hour under the car and I can't find any such plugs. Can anybody help me get my car to stay in 4th gear? The front mount looks fairly new, not cracked. 4th gear is a little noisy at 45-50 MPH but not at 70-75. Gear oil was low and if anything topping it up made the problem worse.

I don't believe there's any adjustments that can be made at the transmission, only at the shifter. Popping out of fourth is a common problem when a tranny has worn out.

Thanks for your reply. Anything special I can do at the shifter end that I may not have tried?

The two bolts allow adjustment so that it fully engages all gears, it allows the shifter to move forward/back & side/side. Make sure it is fully engaging 2nd & 4th.

I just had the same problem with my 72 Super Beetle, only it was 2nd gear. The plugs you are referring to are on the nose the right side of the nose cone just aft of the forward mount. On mine I did not find any adjusters under the plugs. I talked to a VW transmission guy and he told me the springs were not excessable unless you took the tansaxle apart and pulled the gear shafts out. I had him take my transaxle apart and he found a bad gear in 2nd. Works fine now. Clark

I just got a Baja Bug and it won't go into any gear. I took the rear shifter off and tried to put in gear with a vise grip by moving the shifter shaft. It acts as if it is "just" out of gear...if I push hard the gears will grind. It seems the shaft has to go a 1/4" more to get in gear completely. The former owner had just put in a new/used tranny and I suspect he did something to the shifter shaft or mis-adjusted something. I've worked on bugs since '66, but this new to me. Please help...Thanks.

He probably had the transmission nosecone off and didn't get the shift fork back into the slots of the shift rods. Unfortunately you need to pull the tranny to fix as you have to remove the nose cone and slip the fork into the slots, then reinstall the nose cone