I have been having issues the last week or so getting into 5th gear in my Mk1 vRS. All other gears work fine, just baulks occasionally going into 5th and I have to go back to 4th again. Thinking of doing a linkage alignment first as there are no other symptoms or issues (funny noises or anything like that)

Maybe try to shim the ball joint? 

 

 

(This guy have a lot of good videos explaining the bushings in our gearbox.)  

 

 

On 8/14/2017 at 14:39, octyal said:

I have been having issues the last week or so getting into 5th gear in my Mk1 vRS. All other gears work fine, just baulks occasionally going into 5th and I have to go back to 4th again. Thinking of doing a linkage alignment first as there are no other symptoms or issues (funny noises or anything like that)

Deffo do a linkage adjustment first. When I first bought mine (with 69,000 on the clock) 5th gear was a little squeezy to get into. A linkage adjustment made it as smooth as butter. I also changed the gearbox oil. Next, as above, check the bushings on the gear shifter, and also put some lithium grease on the shifter.

6 hours ago, Skoda_newby said:

Deffo do a linkage adjustment first. When I first bought mine (with 69,000 on the clock) 5th gear was a little squeezy to get into. A linkage adjustment made it as smooth as butter. I also changed the gearbox oil. Next, as above, check the bushings on the gear shifter, and also put some lithium grease on the shifter.

 

Silicone grease would be a better/safer choice for lubricating plastic.

Managed to adjust the linkage yesterday, bit fiddly with trying to get the selector arm to latch on the little locking pin, but managed eventually. Best thing I found for securing the gear lever was an allen key, think it was a5.5 or 6mm one I used.

...and how is the gear selection now?

49 minutes ago, Skoda_newby said:

...and how is the gear selection now?

 

Much better, curious thing is before I dug the procedure out of the manual, it would have a moment at least once a day, once I had printed it and put it in the car, it hadn't played up at all! Will get some silicone grease to lube things up a bit too, and hopefully we will get a dry Bank Holiday weekend and I can change the gearbox oil as well. I know it had a clutch before I bought the car, can't guarantee if the oil was changed though, so may well need it at nearly 165k miles.