small project - improving shifting on a 915 transmission

[pjm1]

As many of you know, we recently bought an 86 Carrera and we love it. It's our first Porsche and something I've dreamed of owning my whole life. As a first small project on the car and in order to get our inexperienced feet wet, we're going to try to improve the shifting of the 915 transmission. Here are the parts we're ordering:
- new shifter bushing for underneath the shifter
- new shift rod bushing
- new shift coupler from stomski
- the spring from fellow forum member Karsten17 to help keep the shifter in the 3-4 position
We've read a fair amount on various threads about these improvements and it sound like the difference these changes can make is substantial and all for a pretty reasonable cost. We're excited to get them in there and feel the difference! If anyone sees anything we're missing on the list, let me know, or if you have any other pointers on shifting improvements.
Thanks, guys!
Pete

[Funracer]

Do the shifter bushing and the Karsten spring at the same time, then drive the car to see the improvement made by just these changes. Then do the coupler. Not sure which shift rod bushing you are referring to you will have to figure out the best time to put that in. Read a few posts on adjusting the shifter after the coupler is changed. I used the procedure in the Bentley manual which worked well but did take a couple of tries to get right.
You will be very pleased with the results. The Karsten spring completely changes the way the 915 shifts, and the new coupler allows it all to work together better.

[Bill Douglas]

New coupler bushings work very well. John Walker did a post a week or two ago on the subject. Worth looking at before the stomski purchase is made.

[kenikh]

Nothing beats a Wevo gateshift, but these kinds of improvements are a great way to make a tired shifting mechanism feel fresh.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[Discseven]

Pete... will suggest that much depends on condition of existing parts. Be interesting if you posted comparrison photos of new to old parts. Then commentary after new stuff is installed. Congrats on Carrera!

[Flojo]

Originally Posted by pjm1

the parts we're ordering:
- new shifter bushing for underneath the shifter
- new shift rod bushing
- new shift coupler from stomski
- the spring from fellow forum member Karsten17

well, you actually have it all there, best bang for the buck.

as auxiliary parts, don't forget the trans- and engine mounts.
regular ones with will do the job.
you could go for the slightly stiffer cabriolet version.
their swap is easy, do one at a time.

[pjm1]

Originally Posted by Funracer

Do the shifter bushing and the Karsten spring at the same time, then drive the car to see the improvement made by just these changes. Then do the coupler. Not sure which shift rod bushing you are referring to you will have to figure out the best time to put that in. Read a few posts on adjusting the shifter after the coupler is changed. I used the procedure in the Bentley manual which worked well but did take a couple of tries to get right.
You will be very pleased with the results. The Karsten spring completely changes the way the 915 shifts, and the new coupler allows it all to work together better.

Thanks, Funracer. Good suggestions. The shift rod bushing I was thinking about was the one mentioned in 101 projects - it goes in a bracket that holds the rod going between the shifter and the coupler. I'll check out the Bentley manual too - just got that in the mail last week.

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

New coupler bushings work very well. John Walker did a post a week or two ago on the subject. Worth looking at before the stomski purchase is made.

Thanks, Bill!

Originally Posted by kenikh

Nothing beats a Wevo gateshift, but these kinds of improvements are a great way to make a tired shifting mechanism feel fresh.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

Yeah, I've been thinking about some sort of gateshifter... Need to keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by Discseven

Pete... will suggest that much depends on condition of existing parts. Be interesting if you posted comparrison photos of new to old parts. Then commentary after new stuff is installed. Congrats on Carrera!

Thanks, Discseven! Good idea on the comparison photos. I'm hoping to get the parts in a week or so and install them shortly thereafter. I'll post some pictures then. Thank you!

Originally Posted by Flojo

well, you actually have it all there, best bang for the buck.

as auxiliary parts, don't forget the trans- and engine mounts.
regular ones with will do the job.
you could go for the slightly stiffer cabriolet version.
their swap is easy, do one at a time.

Thank you, Flojo! Good suggestion on the mounts. By the way, I really enjoy a lot of your posts - thank you for all of your contributions to the forum!

[Flojo]

Originally Posted by pjm1

Thank you, Flojo! Good suggestion on the mounts. By the way, I really enjoy a lot of your posts - thank you for all of your contributions to the forum!

you're welcome. thank you

[pjm1]

Hi guys,
It took us a while to get all of our shifter improvement project parts:
- new shifter bushing for underneath the shifter
- new shift rod bushing
- new shift coupler from stomski
- the spring from fellow forum member Karsten17 to help keep the shifter in the 3-4 position
But we have them this weekend and so we started on our project. So first thing we did was install the Stomski shift coupling.
Here's a picture of the old shift coupling in the car:

It's pretty dirty in there! Here's the coupler out of the car. You can see how the bearing has worn away over time and has some visible space in there:


We then installed the stomski coupler which was pretty easy to do and took the car for a test drive. We also tried to clean things out in there. Here's a picture of the coupling:

On the first test drive, it was clear we needed to adjust how the coupler was locked into the shifter rod as I had a tough time getting into third gear. But after stopping and doing some adjusting, I think things are in good shape and you can feel that there is less play in the shifter linkage overall, so a good step forward.

We also tried to replace the shifter ball cup bushing and the shifter rod pushing. We began by removing the front of the console, which came off ok. We then found the three screws that hold the console to the floor and took those out (it was tough to get to the rear-most screw under the carpet!). So now the console is loose. But we need to get the shifter knob and shifter boot off if we hope to remove the console. In looking in wayne's 101 projects and the Bentley manual, it looks like you can take a wrench and put it under the shifter knob and bang it up and off with a hammer. But in the pictures I've seen, the shifter knob looks different than what we have so i'm a little hesitant to try this in case it might damage the shifter knob. Here's our shifter knob:

Is the way to get this shifter knob off using a wrench and hammer? Thanks for all of your input and advice, guys! Just to remind you all, too - we are at the WAY bottom of the knowledge and skill totem pole here so don't hesitate to mention even the most simple solutions. Thank you and hope everyone is having a good weekend!

[archstanton]

Pete,
I also have an '86 and do not need to disassemble anything in order to get console up and over the shifter. After unscrewing the console from the floor just rotate so that the front end moves into the passenger foot well. You should be able to get the back end past the front of the drivers seat and then work the console up until you clear the shift knob. No need to release harness connectiins or dissemble any of the console, etc but you probably do need to remove the passenger foot well board to allow harness movement. Good luck with it

[pjm1]

Originally Posted by archstanton

Pete,
I also have an '86 and do not need to disassemble anything in order to get console up and over the shifter. After unscrewing the console from the floor just rotate so that the front end moves into the passenger foot well. You should be able to get the back end past the front of the drivers seat and then work the console up until you clear the shift knob. No need to release harness connectiins or dissemble any of the console, etc but you probably do need to remove the passenger foot well board to allow harness movement. Good luck with it

Thanks, Archstanton! That's great to know - we will try that out. Thank you for your advice.

[pjm1]

Hi guys,
I tried Archstanton's advice today which looked promising (thank you!) but we weren't able to remove the center console due to the lack of play in the wires going into the front of the center console. It's a little bit hard to get a great picture of exactly what's going on, but here's a shot at it.

Here's the side of the center console with a green arrow showing approximately where the wires are going into the console for some of the climate controls.


If I hold my phone in front of the center console looking back to the rear of the car, here's were we can actually see the wires going into the console.


What I'm trying to do is lift the console up over the shifter, but to do this, i think I need to swing the front of the console out into the passenger footwell. But as these wires have very little play in them I'm having trouble figuring out how to move the console enough to get it off over the shifter.

Sorry for the very amateur question, but do you guys have any other pointers on how to get this console off so I can get access to update my shifter bushings?

Thank you guys and hope everyone has had a good weekend!

[freeform911]

Remove the passenger side foot board..it should give some slack to the wires under the carpet..believe it a single 10mm nut holding the board to the floor..

[pjm1]

Thanks, freeform. I tried that given Archstanton's suggestion but there still wasn't enough play. Maybe the wires are stuck under the carpet... let me see what I can find out.

[jac1976]

It’s been a while, but if I believe you can remove the screws from the side of the console (the non-upholstered forward section) and it will separate from the the rest of the console. Once inside, you should be able to remove the wires from the rear of the controls.

[freeform911]

Pjm..
The wires for my 86 were kinda melted into the floor when I removed the console...
There should be enough slacking the wires for you to remove yours...

As another poster said. You can disconnect everything from the back..but it's a pain in the butt...

Good luck

[archstanton]

There also are connectors within at least some of those harness bundles leading to the console. So you could try disconnecting them.

[archstanton]

Originally Posted by jac1976

It’s been a while, but if I believe you can remove the screws from the side of the console (the non-upholstered forward section) and it will separate from the the rest of the console. Once inside, you should be able to remove the wires from the rear of the controls.

Yes, you do need to remove the black plastic cover at the front of the console. There are 2 screws on each side

[Funracer]

I was never able to get mine up over the shifter either for the same reason, because of short wires behind the console.

I ended up getting it up off the floor vertically high enough to prop it up there with a block of wood and bungee cords so it was tilted over towards the drivers seat. then unbolted the shifter from the floor and slid it out underneath the console.

Not as pretty as getting the console over the top of the shifter but it worked.

[JohnTucker]

If I missed this in the thread, apologies...but first and foremost...do a proper clutch-cable adjustment. Make sure it's properly adjusted per spec. I have:
-rebuilt my pedal box with bronze bushings
-installed a new clutch cable
-installed bronze bushings into my stock shift-linkage.
-installed a short-shifter with all new bushings

All that was good...but for me and my car, simply !!!! adjusting the clutch cable !!!! properly (mine was not) was 95% of the difference/improvement for me. It's crazy simple to do and will take you, maybe, a half hour + some fiddling. Just make sure you add that to the list of to-do's. You'll thank yourself a million times. For me it was like a got a new car. 915's are GREAT when adjusted properly.