Hi.
I bought a csp shifter for my early van,could someone tell me if you need to use a vw shift plate for the reverse lock out and does the shifter come with a insert to go in the front shift rod under the van where the ball on the shifter sits. My shifter came in bubble rap with no instructions or other parts.
Thanks Lee.

Should come with its own shift plate, but I didn't get anything else. The ball on the end of the shifter should fit into the socket under the cab

ewan wrote:Should come with its own shift plate, but I didn't get anything else. The ball on the end of the shifter should fit into the socket under the cab

yup should come with a locking plate id get in touch with however you got it off and ask where it is...

Hi berpsta and ewan,thanks for the reply.
Could you tell me if the shift plate looks like a standard vw plate,as i have one of my standard shifter.
Cheers Lee.

Mine works fine using the standard vw shift plate.

the 1st one I got with the CSP shifter looked very similar, but it bent after driving the van for a short while, making it almost impossible to get reverse. CSP replaced it with a different one which was much thicker and now everything seems ok. Another problem I had was that the ball would not reach the socket properly so every time I went for reverse it would slip out. CSP do two different shifters where the length between the shift plate and the socket varies however neither fitted my bus properly. I ended up cutting the ball off and welding in an extension piece then welding the ball back on. Now the shifter works great. Not sure if anybody else had this problem could just be a slight difference with the linkage on mine.

I was having trouble selecting reverse, so thought I'd give one of these a try
Old Empi / Hirst Trigger shifter?


Front gear selector rod has the late 66-67 setup so ordered accordingly.


Old one measure 46mm from baseplate to bottom of ball (CSP only 30mm)



Managed to got the old one setup better (think it may need a slightly thicker base plate), so the CSP one will be going back. Not the best finish on the alloy cast handle either!

Hi dsbus.
Thanks for the reply,i'm now thinking that i have been supplied the wrong year shifter as csp do 3/4 different models for the various years of bus. My van was built in 1957 but the standard shifter seems to have a larger ball on the end than the csp one. When fitted the csp was very sloppy and hard to find a gears. The csp shifter does'nt seem to have any model number on it to track year/years specific.
Looks like i'm going to have to stick with the standard shifter or buy a new one,as it was purchased 18 month ago.
Cheers Lee.