It has been a rough weekend and transition back to student, pair that with boyfriend status and its gotten rocky at best, but things have planed out now and smoother water looks to be ahead.
Sarah Jayne helped me the other night, we finished around 2am
she is installing the gas tank right now. It went pretty smoothly and it was nice to have a friend along for the ride. We forgot to put the steering damper back on so we had to re-install the gas tank again and she is tightening down the bolts. I then forgot to rehook the fuel line up, so gas went every where.
I decided to wait till the next day to fix the gas line so it took all of 2 min, then I installed the Berg shifter...
The review is thus far.
The installation was straight forward for the most part, two 13mm bolts and bam the old one is out and the new one is in. The installation of this thing is ridiculously easy, so easy I could barely call it an installation. But there's a catch...
Alignment of this shifter quite frankly made me want to toss it. The alignment is not something that is exactly a step by step process, more of a loosen the 13mm bolts, wiggle it around, and tighten. Quite frankly if I had the spirit of Hitler and Ferry Porsche in the car with me, I dont think I could align it 100%. So I went to visit Sarah Jayne to test it out. The alignment was soo bad, 1st was unobtainable for the first 25 min of its use. I almost had a wreck over it as I was pulling out, shifted out of first, then it decided "Nope, not going back in", then by the time I got it back in I started pulling out only to find that a Neon was zooming past me honking its horn. After out visit we had to make a dash to a bellydancing performance and on the way back, the shifter litteraly pulled a Gandalf the Gray "YOU SHALL NOT PASS" into first gear. We sat at a light for like a good 45 seconds, so long that the car behinde (which was nice enough to not lay on the horn for all of those 45 seconds) decided to pull around. So I just took the shifter and got it in 2nd and started off in 2nd, and passed the car behind me.
So as to how it shifts... its the only reason I put up with the alignment shifter. When this shifter works, the heavens part, and the VW gods bellow and thunder "THATS MAH BOY!". The shifters throw is not to short. The throw is exactly how I wanted it. I know I could drive it with a shorter throw, but this is just right. I got the alignment pretty good and every 1 in 2 shifts makes it into first now cleanly, and if it doesnt make it on the first, then I shift it in to second then back to first and it gets in gear. This shifter is tricky though and you can get lost in what gear you are in as I have done it. The transition from gear to gear though are smooth though but no slop, and it has this satifying click/clunk that lets you know its in place. I ususually like light and clickly shifters, this one is not so light, but thats because the build quality of the shaft and the amount of material that went in to making this thing. It is not as heavy as the mini shifter though but is not feather light, it has weight, but its not fat.
Overall, I am very pleased with the purchase. It is the right height and is a blast to drive with.
I need to fix the sway bar yet again, its a pain, but I have some parts that will not make it sag again.
