Can't turn adjusting collar

My A4 has been slipping in forward lately but this can be corrected by putting some pressure on the shift lever. I suspected that I might need to increase the pressure on the pressure plates so I intended to turn the adjusting collar one notch clockwise but i could not get the collar to turn in either direction. I have the transmission in a good neutral position and I removed the screw that sits in the notch . It's hard to apply alot of pressure to the adjusting collar but based on the comments of others it doesn't seem like it should require much pressure to turn the collar. How much pressure is needed to turn this thing? Is there a specific tool to use to turn the adjusting collar?

Thanks!
Mark Thompson
Ericson 32

[Don Moyer]

Mark,

You're correct in your assumption that the forward adjusting collar should not require much force to turn. My guess is that you're not quite deep enough into neutral. Try moving the shifting lever more toward reverse.

I think that our reversing gear adjusting instructions may be a bit misleading when we say to place the reversing gear in neutral to free the adjusting collar. In many cases the neutral zone may be quite narrow and difficult to find.

In actuality, when trying to free the adjusting collar, it isn't so much a matter of finding neutral as it is to get completely out of forward. This means that you can simply pull the shifting lever all the way into the reverse mode to free the collar, without worrying about stopping within the neutral zone.

Don