Indicator stalk not smooth
 

The indicator stalk of my just purchased 86 works fine, putting it into left or right position feels fine too, but when then manually putting it back into neutral it feels as if I have to 'force' something beyond what I would expect. It just does not feel right (or is this 'normal' German grundlichkeit?)t. It does work fine though. Has anyone a picture of the open mechanics that go with the indicator? I am tempted to open it myself . I know it's assembled with rivets, and I realise it's a potential can of worms to get it back together. But before doing so and investing all the time, I want to understand how the mechanisme works and looks like.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1599223489.jpg

I installed a brand new stalk in my car. When pushing it back into neutral, it does take a bit more force than you'd expect. More than a modern stalk.
Yours is probably fine. Before messing with stuff, I would find another local 911 and try their stalk. Best to focus on the next issue, not this one.

mine is like that too. Im not sure if its hurting anything. Just make sure your steering wheel is centered with the canceler so you can avoid manually canceling it as much as possible

That was something I noticed when I bought my 86 Targa a few years ago. The indicator stalk just doesn’t have the nice feel when cancelling signaling that my 90 964 does. But, it’s a small complaint, and the signal lights all work properly, so I don’t even think about it any more.

For a company that's supposed to get the weight and feel just right, they really blew this one. Operation of the blinker stalk is splinters-under-the-fingernails annoyance. I don't understand how they could have made it this unpleasantly.

thanks guys, very helpful feedback

Yep, they're all like that. Feels broken and you replace it and the new one feels exactly the same.

I was hitting some of the switch's electrical contacts with Deoxit D5 spray and accidentally sprayed a pretty big shot of it into the plastic mechanism (Deoxit came dripping out from the bottom of the housing) and it served to inadvertently lube things up. It didn't fix the issue, but it did improve the manual cancellation operation / feel somewhat. I don't think this off-label use should cause any problems. So far, so good, but I still avoid manually cancelling the turn signal as much as possible.

I'm a big fan of Breakfree CLP spray lubricant, but I hesitate to use it in this application for fear of damaging the plastic components. The stuff is pretty amazing though. I'm tempted to try it as I know it would considerably improve the switch feel. I have an old, "graunchy," switch on the shelf, perhaps I'll try the Breakfree on that.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1599312942.jpg

to those interested, I modified the stalk mechanisme and now it's smooth as butter. Read here in a separate thread http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1074647-smooth-switching-indicator-stalk-finally.html#post11048829

alex..nice write up