Ok sorted now i think.
I went from Cardiff to Bristol to get the part as ALL the local dealers/scrapyards didn't have it. VW ftw!. Cardiff said it was 10-days wait from Germany. So i paid £20 to the stealership for what appears to be a small bit of metal with a plastic ball-joint in it! I had no other choice.
I then proceeded to TRY to fit the 'ball' shown on the left of the picture into 'shoulder' on the new £20 part. JESUS what a job it was! I have done alot of things on cars in the past and this topped them all in frustration. No matter what i tried to do they just would not fit togther. I tried clamps, levers (which may have bent the attached part), hammers, etc to no avail. The amount of force required to get it to go in was insane.
In the end me and madocks (who came over on day 2 to help) took the entire gear stick off, took it to a local garage, asked to use their heavy duty vice and with the correct angle/force it took a matter of seconds to pop in.
The wierd thing was i previously asked a VW mechanic how he did one a few weeks ago and he said "it was a bitch of a job but i just levered it off the engine block with a metal bar". My effort with a shovel didnt come close and eventually broke a T-section on the water res. How the hell he did this and avoided major damage is a mystrey. Someone must be driving about with a damaged/broken gear selector or he was VERY lucky.
Morale of the ordeal: 1> It is better to fix stuff yourself if you have the time as a mechanic will probably fook it more. 2> Whenever doing stuff on cars it is easier to take the thing to pieces in the long run.
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