Fine Tuning

Adjusting the Brake Balancer

Something the tuners don't always tell you: If you lower your car, you must adjust the brake balancer to compensate for the change in ride height, or you might experience rear wheel lockup and/or your braking performance will not be optimum. Some lowering springs come with a spacer for the brake balancer, so that this does not happen, but most don't.

The brake balancer is located on the (U.S.) driver's side, under the car, just ahead of the rear axle mounting point. There is an arm coming off the front of the axle beam, with a spring attached to it. The other end of the spring goes to the brake balancer.

To adjust the brake balancer, simply park your car on level ground, and loosen the 13mm bolt/nut combo at the end of the spring. Slide the bolt/nut until the spring is just snug between its end points. This is the factory setting. For fine tuning, slide the bolt/nut up to give more braking to the front brakes, and down to give more braking to the rear brakes.

Shifting Problems Corrected

Before I go buy out aluminum door lock thingies so that my car can look cool, I make sure it drives well. One of the things I'm very picky about is shifting. This is where VW's kinda suck. The shift action in a VW is pretty good, especially in the A2 and A3 cars, but the problem is that those &*#!ing shift bushings wear out too fast. I can't stand having play in the shifter, if you feel the same, then keep reading.

How to Get Rid of 'Play' in Your A2 VW's Shift Linkage
Let's assume all the shift bushings are tip-top, or that you are about to install all new shift bushings, etc. This is tough to explain, but if you're looking at it, it makes sense. A lot of the side-to-side play comes from the two white cylindrical plastic bushings. They are located on the aluminum tranny bracket that bolts to the rear drivers side tranny mount.

There is a swivel-double-L shift piece that has a bolt going through it. The two white plastic shift rods connect to it. The two white cylindrical plastic bushings sit under the swivel-double-L shift piece. The bolt that goes through the white bushings doesn't tighten down enough, and has up and down play. This causes a lot of side to side play in the shifter. To remedy this, put a THIN washer on the bolt, it will take up most of the play. Play also is found between the lower bushing and the bracket. This can be eliminated with a spacer around the outside of the white bushing (aluminum tape). The final source of play is between the threaded portion of the bolt and the lower hole on the "swivel-double-L shift piece". A quick fix is to carefully tap around the hole in the bracket with a hammer until the bolt fits snug. Don't bent the bracket, just reduce the hole size. These modifications should reduce side-to-side play substantially.

The shift arm/with ball that is located next to the exhaust manifold. This piece costs something like $45. To make sure you never have to buy one, take yours out, and coat the ball with epoxy. It'll never wear out. The stick shift itself. There is a plastic ball in the middle of the stick shift, and it has a rubber ring around it. Problem is, on most cars, this rubber ring doesn't fit very tight around the ball, and causes side to side play in the stick.

To remedy this, with the stick out of the car, fill the gap between the ball and the rubber ring, with epoxy, and let it dry (of course). Note: cars with the 'adjustable' ball, the ball can easily be unclipped and removed without having to remove the whole stick shift. Another thing. There is a orange/red bushing at the front of the 'shift-box' that the main shift rod goes through. Contrary to what many say, this bushing DOES wear out. People don't think it does, because it doesn't usually crack, it just stretches, so it's not as noticeable. When you are redoing your shift-bushings, make sure not to forget this one.

1999, Alex Ranarivelo