DIY Roadside repair of snapped bowden cable end
 

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ok, I'm driving around after un mothballing my 83 Wagon.
lots of tweaks and such to get her power up where it belongs.
FINALLY have it adjusted enough to get it to pull out the driveway, and it shifts through all 4 gears by 20mph and it's flaring on all of them...

my fears are realized when I open the hood, and notice the bowden bellows sitting at a 90° angle to the snapped cable. ok, it's broken, and I'm going to have to repair it to get the car to drive properly.

I get a wild hair, and decide to rig something, instead of going to the effort and expense of installing a new bowden cable.

ok, bicycle brakes and shifters use a bolt/clamp on their cables for adjustment, so I figured I would try and rig one onto the socket end... not an easy thing to do.

while digging around in my garage I spy a roll of SS bailing wire! perfect.
I loop a 6" section of wire around the base of my bowden ball end, and set each end the same length as the old socket end, then get a #10 crimp connector and set the cable, and the two ends of the SS wire in the crimp connector, and crimp them all together!
go for a drive... PERFECT SHIFTS!
I'll snap some pics in the daylight. I'm so proud of myself... redneck repairs 1 OE 0 !!!!

next parts order is going to include a new cable for the sd, dealer wanted +$50 I found it for <$20

Oh, I know I'll need to replace it soon. that wire will not hold up for as long as I plan on driving the car!!!
but if it snaps on the side of the road, it's good to know a simple wire crimp tool and a piece of wire will get the shifter working again!

I thought the owners manual on my 85 recommended 90w gear oil for throttle linkage joints?

John,
I wonder if you could get away with just pulling the cable inner out a little & crimp the outer to hold the bowden in a partly pulled out position, just to get home. Once I broke a throttle cable a few 100 miles from home & tied a piece of fishing line (guess what we had been doing?) to the linkage under the hood. It was then fed around various places under the hood, then between the hood & the fender & in the window. It worked as a hand throttle to get us home. Would not have been too good in traffic.

LOL, you city boy. Baling wire is NOT SS... you probably picked up some Safety Wire and used that... very good stuff...

Shooot! ifn it's wire, it's bailing wire... good for fixin narabouts anythang!

Na John,
Theres fencin wire. Always keep 30' coiled up in the spare. Who needs a tow rope!! & a set of wire strainers. If you get bogged in the mud you can pull yourself out. Done it many times in my MB's over the years. The strainers are good for lifting engines out as well !! They are good to lift 1500lb.

Then there is the stuff yous talking about. Its tie wire. If its broke, just tie it together.
Dont have bailin wire any more, its now poly bailing twine. you can use 20 strands as a tow rope if you dont have any fencin wire!! If the rubber donuts holding your exhaust up break, just wind twine around & around & tie a knot in it, its good for a few years.

& then theres ............. ;)

VW emergency kits always includ bailing wire and a pair of pliers/crimpers

Replacing the bowden cable is kinda a pia at the transmission end.

I didnt think bowden cables were used past 81 ??

yuup. every car I've seen has one.
before 81 it was a bowden rod on some cars

Your 85 300CD should have one, unless you replaced the trans with a 4-spd manual.

Charlie

still want to see the pix of dis fix

interesting repair job eh? https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_K...402_184524.jpg