Forge Short Shift Kit - Group Buy

[Greg Roles]

PM replied. Below outlines the problem side in the 08-09's. This is off a USA Rabbit and I believe the Polo is a steel arm, but it's basically the vertical mech bush that is the problem....

[Greg Roles]

The link to all the instructions 42DD have.....

42 Draft Designs

Just so it makes sense to both the guinea pigs, and to you guys when you go to fit, the square end links take round bushes. Yep it gets confusing, but all the end links are either square or rectangular. The later model rectangular ones take a rectangular bush. There are no square bushes. Please see the first MK4 fitment on the above link, and the second graphic showing square links and round bushes. My TDI has one square bush, which took round bushes, and I can confirm they are a perfect fit!

[Smead]

Just fitted the forge shift kit OMG the shifting is AWSOME real tight and crisp

[bn1986]

fitted mine last night too..

getting the old bracket off the splined shaft was a b!tch but the shift is significantly improved

For everyones info u really need to take out the battery airbox and battery floor thing to access the shifter mechanism

[insanekiwi]

It's good to get more feedback - I really do want to know how much more force is needed to shift, as I drive my car in daily city commuting traffic for 1.5 hours / day. I want a nice crisp shift - but not at cost of extra tiredness.

More feedbacks please!

[bfeboi]

fitted mine last night as well. i needed a cam puller to remove the old shifter off the spline..

I feels tight and mechanical. less sloppy. it did not shorten the travel of the lever much but you can feel the gates of the gearbox when you engage gears, which is nice

[kaanage]

Fitted mine this afternoon. Even though my car is quite low mileage, the original shifter was frozen to the splined shaft too so I used a heat gun to expand the shifter enough to be able to rock it off. I used anti-seize rather than the grease supplied by Forge when I put the new shifter on.

My impressions are the same as bfeboi. The Forge shift saves a bit of weight since the original one has the big handle - does anyone know if this is for testing or emergency shifting?

I had always thought that the Polo had a reasonably short throw and the original shifter is equivalent to the Forge shifter set to about the mid point.

[pog]

Looks like mine was delivered to an old address Ian had on file. Awesome...

Probably best to go visit the place and ask. If anything it may get redirected to you or to the sender.

[Blitzen]

Looks like mine was delivered to an old address Ian had on file. Awesome...

Same here... Whats more, it was signed for by some random at my old address!! it's a bit hard to get it when it was delivered to Darwin, and I live in Canberra now...

Ian has been great though, and I have another short shifter on the way...

[noone]

Probably best to go visit the place and ask. If anything it may get redirected to you or to the sender.

Hm, how about I let Ian sort it. I don't know who lives there, they don't have a forwarding address. It's not the end of the world, but poor admin.

[End User]

Short shifter and 42DD Bushes installed!

Trickiest parts were:
1. Getting the battery cage off. Who ever designed this thing is pure evil.
2. Getting the original shifter mechanism off it's splines. This alone took 45 minutes, and destroyed my lower back.
3. Enlarging one of the holes on one of the 42DD bushes. Would have taken seconds if I had the right tools. The other 3 fit perfectly
4. Putting the battery cage back on.

Initial impressions:
Shifter was set to the shortest throw. The movement is much more precise and confident. Throw is noticably shorter. More effort is required to get into gear, but no where near an amount that will make your arm tired in traffic. And I'm a 60kg weakling.
My only gripe is that there is sometimes some notchiness into 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. Hopefully it gets a bit smoother when things a bed in a little more.
Would have liked to try the short shifter without the bushes first, to gauge what difference each component makes, but two birds with one stone was too tempting.

Greg, I've got pics at home with which bush was used for the vertical link. I will email these to you tonight.

Anyone in Syd that hasn't installed theirs and would like some assistance, let me know.

[Greg Roles]

That's excellent news!!! I am uploading my bush install video to you tube right now, bit late for you Tommy, but may help everyone else.

Sounds like you need to slightly adjust the vertical mech cable length, and I'll have a video on doing that up in the next day or so. Basically making the cable end longer, moves the gearstick away from you, and making it shorter moves the stick to the left. I found just one notch on the cable end shaft made all the difference with notchiness. It's like the rubber OEM bushes have enough slop to allow the gears to "deflect" into place if the alignment isn't quite right, whereas having them tight you need to fine tune the H pattern alignment. BEFORE anyone tries that, mark the steel shaft with a nikko pen so you know where you started from, as just one "tooth" makes a big difference, and the stock setting is always perfect / close to!

Once I find out which bushes you Polo guys need, I'll most likely need to get a special order in, as it sounds like the 2008-2009 Polo kit will be a frankenstein mix of a few bushes from 42DD, and I only have about 4 kits of each model in stock at any point in time. Once Tommy lets me know the hole enlargement, I might be able to get a specific drill etc to prefab them before sending.

Anyone with a 2007 or earlier with the HWY gearbox can just run the MK4 kit, you have it easy, and I have more of them landing next week.

[Greg Roles]

Carformance Australia | Facebook

My new facebook page with the shift bush install video. Please like it!

[kaanage]

2. Getting the original shifter mechanism off it's splines. This alone took 45 minutes, and destroyed my lower back.

Anyone still to install their Forge shifter should get hold of either a cam puller or a heat gun to make this stage a LOT easier.

[Greg Roles]

Here's the two steps I think you have left to do Tommy, the rebuild of the cable end shaft, and the pivot itself, but I understand if you'd prefer not to go cutting things!

http://youtu.be/JHw3eRVASOE

Here's my attempt at explaining how to tweak the cable ends for notchy gears, especially if you do unhook the cable ends.

http://youtu.be/MYrh5989jMU