Which came first, no 5th gear or spinning shift lever?

Jim Garfield · 02:30 PM

While driving to Lime Rock for the Vintage Festival last wkend. I couldn't get into 5th gear. Since I could get everything else I decided to keep going and try to figure it out once I got there. Along the way I noticed that the shift lever was swinging about freely when in gear. Once at the track I discovered that I couldn't get reverse either.

I got out my Bentleys and after studying the exploded drawing thought that maybe the shift rod bushing bracket had come loose and was preventing the lever from engaging the spring loaded plane (5th & rev). I decided that I would drive home slowly in 4th and open it up when I got home.

On the way home I couldn't get it into 3rd and the other gears were getting difficult to find. Then 25 mi. from home at the bottom of an exit ramp off I 95 I couldn't get any gears at all and the lever was obviously not attached to the shift rod anymore. Two hours and an $80 flatbed ride later my son, me, and the car were home, I decided to go to bed and look at it in the morning.

Turned out that the set screw in the shift lever coupling had backed itself out and dropped into the tunnel. But I also discovered that the shift lever is two pieces and the upper shaft was loose in the lower piece.

The repair looked to be very straight forward except that I thought that I was going to have to dismantle the shifter mechanism and buy a new lever ( it's a factory short shift ). But in doing a search of the BBS archive I discovered that the shift lever is epoxied together at the factory.I had some WEST system epoxy in the garage so I cleaned up the two ends and reglued them. The bushings all felt good so I just relubed them.

Using Wayne's book, the Bentley manual, and this board made the whole procedure a snap, an hour and a half start to finish. Thank you to everyone who contributes tech information, it's an incredible resource.

I'm still puzzled by a couple of things. Why the set screw backed out AND the shift lever broke seemingly at the same time, and why the factory epoxies the lever together instead of welding it or drilling the shafts and putting a pin or a set screw through them.

A couple more things... I had to modify a 4mm allen wrench by grinding off 1/2 "of the short leg to get clearence to tighten the set screw ( might want to adapt one now if you're going on a long trip ), and don't forget to feed the lever through the hole in the carpet before you get it all assembled or you will have to take it all apart and do it again....

....you know how I know.

Oh and the car shifts better now than it ever has so I think that the set screw has been working itself out for a while.

Jadams1 · Jadams1's Garage

So does that mean you are ready to drive to Burligton Ct. on September 13th for the Porsche Swap Meet at Camp Chase?

Glad it turned out to be an easy and inexpensive fix. You must have been thinking 915 rebuild???

Jim Garfield · 09-02-2003, 10:28 AM

John, sure I'm up for that.

Rot 911 · 09-02-2003, 12:22 PM

I bet my post came up in your search. Same thing happened to me. I decided to weld the two parts together.

CHILI · CHILI's Garage

Same here. Well, at least the part where the car wouldn't go into 5th. All other gears were fine (I don't remember trying reverse), so I thought it was the tranny cus I heard a terrible "blam" when I tried to force it into 5th. I was in a bad mood, and the thing wouldn't go into 5th sometimes and was getting worse. Anyway, I pulled the engine and trans. Ordered all 5 syncros from our host, and had a buddy put them in. He said there was nothing wrong with the trans. Must have been a coupler problem. I was a novice, so I didn't think about that. When I put it back together it was fine. I guess I just did a better job of adjusting it than the PO. Moral of the story: check the coupler before dropping the motor

Oh, and don't force anything. After all, when a Porsche says "no" it means "NO"

Jim Garfield · 09-02-2003, 04:58 PM

John & Chili, yes the thought did cross my mind that it was the transmission and that I was going to see my top end rebuild money go out the window

but the sloppiness of the shifter made me think that it probably was linkage related.

Kurt V, Thanks. Your reply in the archive saved me tearing the shifter mechanism apart and welding or relacing the shifter. It's strange that the shifter is epoxied isn't it?

911pcars · 09-02-2003, 06:18 PM

Jim,
You and a few others have discovered the infamous split shift lever. Why did the factory glue it? My only speculation is that, during assembly, they want to make sure the welded tab on the lever (for 5th/rev.) is aligned with the vertical tabs on the carrier plate. I suppose it's easier to align and glue the upper and lower lever sections after the tab is welded.

Although you've welded it already, here's a page from my website that provides add'l shift housing mods:

Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars
www.seinesystems.com

Jim Garfield · 09-03-2003, 04:50 PM

Sherwood, after seeing all of the positive posts about your gate shift kit in the shift related threads, I'll be following your blueprinting suggestions and getting the kit soon.

911pcars · 09-03-2003, 09:23 PM

Jim,
Great to hear. Let me know how the mods work out (w/the GS kit).

Sherwood