Carrier Linkage fix

[Marty4th]

Hello everyone,
I am new to the site but not VW. I have owned my 99 beetle from new and love love love it. No problems what so ever except the carrier linkage. I have had to replace this part twice and well, me being me I thought "there must be a better way". Below is how I fixed my carrier linkage once and for all (last 5 years no problems). I have attached a pic to help explain my directions. In the pic everything from the yellow line back (direction of yellow arrows) always breaks off. This part you DO NOT NEED. Just use the rest of the linkage.

1. find a bolt that fits into the hole just above where the factory bolt was located.
2. using a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel cut the head of this bolt off, discard the bolt head.
3. slide the bolt into the hole (I used some epoxy putty for added strength).
4. now drill a small hole (shown in the pic) through the plastic linkage and the bolt that is now inside the hole.
5. next place a cotter pin or similar steel pin through the hole you just drilled and bend it so it wont fall out.
6. put this bolt through the mounting bracket on the transmission and bolt it tight using a lock washer and nut.
7. Connect the cable back into its factory connector.

This has solved my Carrier linkage problems and shifts just fine through all gears including reverse.I know this is not OEM but this is just my suggestion as to how to fix this problem and as far as I am concerned it's better than factory. Hope this helps someone out there who has went through a few of these like I have.This whole thing took me about 30 min. to do.