915 test shifting before assembling into engine / car

[gs_subsea]

Dear forum,

I have 1982 915 rebuilt transmission I purchased from the forum and I am trying to "test shift" while I have it out of the car. I filled the transmission with 901 once it was shipped to me and I am now ready to mate it to the engine and install it in the car.

I attached the coupler to the end of the shift rod to get some leverage and tried shifting it unsuccessfully and wondering whether I am doing something wrong before I decide to drain and take a look.

I believe the transmission to be in neutral because once I rotate the output flanges I get no rotation of the input shaft.

I can feel spring action while extending the shift rod outwards ( got about an inch extension of the rod out ) but can only rotate slightly left to right. When I check for input shaft rotation in any of these moves I see nothing and hence think the tranny is in neutral.

Any input / help would be much appreciated

[fanaudical]

From my experience with my rebuilt tranny:

- There is very little rotational movement of the selector shaft - just enough to transition from one shift fork to the other.

- There is significantly more selector shaft travel in/out of the case.

- It takes more force to move the selector shaft than the gear shift knob because of the leverage added by the shift linkage.

All that said - You should be able to shift into all five forward gears and reverse by manipulating the end of the selector shaft. It may help to have somebody slowly rotate the input shaft while you try.

For your "neutral test" - Be sure to rotate both output flanges at the same time so they spin the pinion gear and not just turn the differential spiders. A better test may be to rotate the input shaft and watch the output flanges (both of them).

[Zuffenwerker]

Yep your in neutral all that sounds right. There is a factory tool for shifting on the bench, I have it and it makes it all very obvious.

[gs_subsea]

Thank you, I have an old clutch disc, I will use it to turn the input shaft and revert