Which gearbox do I have

I've been looking into doing a 4 speed to 5 speed gearbox swap. So on further investigation i discover my gear is an 020 with FF code which I believe is a 5 speed gearbox, although when I bought the car I was told it was a 4 speed and have only every been able to select 4 gears. Is it possible that the gear linkage maybe setup incorrectly or I have a 4 speed box in a 5 speed case? How can I find out if my gearbox is a 4 or 5 speed? Here are some pictures of the gear linkage if anyone can identify it as a 4 or 5 speed linkage.







 

If it was a 4 speed originally, and the g/box has been changes for a 5 speed, perhaps the linkage wasn't changed as I seem to remember they are different.

as above, plus the housing under the car needs modifying/replaced if going 5 speed so you can get the lever over to 5th

Disconnect the selector rod from the back of the box then you can try and see how many gears you can get.  You will know when you are in reverse as it clicks.  From there you can work out where fifth should be if you have one, if not you will get third where you can go straight across to fourth, if you are in fifth and not third you won't be able to do that - does that make any sense at all?????

be careful when selecting directly from the box as its quite easy to over-shift and jam it in gear. made that mistake on a gearbox i was trying to sell in front of the buyer

Thanks all for your help.

cbdubs - yeah that makes sense and if not im sure ill work it out, cheers for the info

rubjonny - haha ill be careful mate, don't want that happening

rubjonny said

as above, plus the housing under the car needs modifying/replaced if going 5 speed so you can get the lever over to 5th

Finally got round to looking into this, I can get 5 gears from the box itself but then when I come to setting it up the gear lever wont go over enough. How do I check if housing under the car is the correct one or what's the mod that needs doing so that I can get the lever over enough to get 5th

basically look at whats stopping the gearstick going to 5th, and move it

I think I may have a 4 speed gear selector lever, 5 speed is longer for more sides ways movement so I'm looking into that at the moment

yeah you need to make sure all the linkages in the bay are 5 speed first, then stick side you may find it hits somethign before 5th so you need to mod that area to give you the room to go over

I can remember doing this swap in the early 90's, and I got the same buggered gears.  In my haste (prior to Al Gored's) invention of the interweb, there wasn't a whole lot of information… The selector is about about 2 inches longer IIRC and I had to swap that as well as the linkages.

More on 4 speed to 5 speed shift linkage | VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum


@ post 18 there is mention of the lengths.

VW Caddy, is known to me as Missinglinkz I used his short shifter kit, which looks alot like his selector extension for the short shifter…

Hope it clarifies the issue as there is also a side by side shot of the selector lever with the ball differences.

Thanks everyone for your help, it was the correct 5 speed lever which I missing, all sorted now