915 requires force to remove from 5th gear

[thunderdenton]

I had my transmission rebuild in February (I had a shop do the work instead of doing it myself). Last month I finally got my engine rebuilt (did this myself with help from this BBS and Wayne's book). Both the transmission and engine have been in the car for about 3000 miles (doing the break in of the engine).

There is something that I do not think is quite right with the transmission and wanted to get some input about it (this is my first 911). If I do not down shift from 5th gear before coming to a stop it gets stuck in gear and requires a great amount of force to remove it from 5th gear.

Most of the time I downshift, but there are times when I do not downshift before coming to a stop (i.e. traffic is stopped so one hits the break and clutch stopping the car).

I have replaced all the bushings of the shifting assembley (except the ones in the shifter coupler), installed the factory short shift kit, used the correct amount of Swepco 201 80w/90 (no leaks), and adjusted the shifter (all before running the rebuilt transmission).

Thoughts? Ideas?

The car is a 1984 911 Carrera Cabriollet

[Jim Sims]

First thought is there's a problem with the 5th gear synchro assembly; brake bands are not collapsing and therefore are keeping the 5th gear synchro ring expanded outward making it difficult to move the 5th/reverse operating sleeve.

Second/Third thought are there's a detent problem or shift fork guide problem.

What parts were replaced in the rebuild? Jim

[GrindingGears]

Or it could be as simply as messin' around with the coupler adjustment.

[thunderdenton]

Hi Jim,

I did not get a list of the parts replaced during the rebuild. I have sent an e-mail to the shop asking this and their thoughts.

I wish I had known about this forum before sending the transmission off to California. I sent it to a company that does not get a lot of good feed back here.

If it is the transmission (and I think it is), I will do the rebuild myself (with of course help from this forum). I don't want to have to wait a month, have the transmission lost in shipping for three weeks, to get it back and then have problems with it!

Thunder

[Blaine Sellie]

Did they make a 915 5-speed gearbox in 1984?

Blaine

[sammyg2]

Not sure if this applies but something similar happened to me:

There's a little metal thingy (technical term) that is supposed to keep the 915 from shifting out of 5th direstly into reverse. If the linkage isn't adjusted right in the front to back plane you will hit this metal thingy before you get out of 5th gear. it doesn't happen all the time but when it does it is really hard to get out of 5th. You try and pull the gear shift down to pull it out of 5th, but it hits the metal thing before it can fully shift oput of 5th. You pull and pull but it doesn't matter because you are up against the metal stop. Don't ask me how I know. OK, what the heck. Go ahead and ask.

The first time I rebuilt and adjusted my linkage I found this to be the case. Starting from a stop light in 5th gear in order to get back home is not fun. It shifted just fine in all other gears, just had trouble getting out of 5th.

I had to adjust the coupler so that it essentially shortened the linkage, problem went away.
Hope your problem is that easy to fix.

[thunderdenton]

Hi Philip,

I thought of that... I don't think that is the case. It goes into all the gears. Correct me if I am wrong but going into the gears is normally where the most force is needed. Coming out of gears should be the easiest.

Thunder

[thunderdenton]

Well I hope that both Philip and Sam are right. I will take off the boot and watch what is happening. This gives me some hope (wasn't looking forward to a rebuild.

[thunderdenton]

Oh Sam,

When you say "adjust the coupler so that it essentially shortened the linkage" do you mean?

Loosen the coupler clamp.
Move the shifter slightly to the front of the car (it is currently in the center of the gearbox per the tech articles).

Thunder

[Jim Sims]

Hope it's the reverse lockout being referred to above but if it's not, the fix could be relatively easy. The shift fork guide can be accessed with the transmission in the car. To get to the 5th gear synchro one goesn't have to take the transmission very far apart. Cheers, Jim

[johndglynn]

The gearbox on my car was rebuilt by the Almeras brothers in Montpellier just before I bought it. My bro and I brought the car home from south of France to the UK in one day, and cruising up to stop at a toll booth on the autoroute, when we tried to pull away again, the car would not come out of fifth without a serious tug on the lever - hard enough to pull the gearknob off and a big CLUNK when it did come out.

Though it's never done this again since, 1500 miles later it's still really tight in top gear - there is no play at all in the lever. I took it to Tuthills who are in the next village to me (they build seriously good 911 rally cars) and they said it was a simple adjustment job, they are doing this along with some other bits on Tuesday so hopefully it will be sorted after that.

Will post some pics of the stuff they have in their yard when the car is back - unbelievable.

[sammyg2]

Yep, that's what I meant, the reverse lock out device, and
also to loosen the coupler, hold the tranny shift rod stationary and move the gear shift towards the front of the car so that the linkage moves back farther into the coupler clamp.

[GrindingGears]

Thunder,

I had to readjust my coupler last week and it took a number of times before it was perfect. There were times when I'd have it going into every gear including reverse, but it was a bietch to go in and out of 5th. Same thing happened with third gear. Eventually after alot of adjust drive adjust drive it shifted great 1-R. It's real easy, might as well try it.

Good luck

[car911]

This is not unusual. The 915 will stick in gear if you come to a sudden stop in certain gears. It only happens in sudden stops usually from reasonable speeds (eg. over 60km/hr or so)

Usually just a nuisance. I have heard lot's of suggestions how to fix this but nothing definitive.

After a while, you adjust to it and accomodate - ie. be more careful about shifting out before stopping, etc.

If it is really stuck, try easing back on the clutch just until it starts to engage, then clutch in and shift out as normal.

[thunderdenton]

It was the coupler adjustments!

I shortened the linkage as mentioned previously and drove it for six days. There is no longer a problem.

Now if there was a magic bullet for first to second gear shifting....

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

I don't think it's true that there's anything inherent about the 915 that causes it to stick in gear other than poor shifter-coupler adjustment. I had the same problem--sticking in fifth--and adjusting the coupler properly did away with it, at lest fo the last two years...

Stephan

[Dan Owens]

If the trans was rebuilt and sitting without use then you still need to go through the break in period before it loosens up all the way. New rebuilds are commonly stiff for a period of time/mileage. The break in is usually about 2500 miles before it starts feeling really normal. Keep your shifts above 4000 RPM and stop in neutral between 1st and 2nd shift just for a second and you should be fine. It will never be a speed shifter but will improve after break in.

[GrindingGears]

Originally posted by thunderdenton
It was the coupler adjustments!

I shortened the linkage as mentioned previously and drove it for six days. There is no longer a problem.

Now if there was a magic bullet for first to second gear shifting....

Awesome!

First to second IS a pain in the arse, I feel your plight.

Vroooom, clutch, shift...argh...shift...lugging now...gas....vroooom

Ahhh the joys of the 915!

[Chuck Miller]

Thunder,

This happened to me on a recent 915 rebuild... believe it or not, the problem was the spring loaded plate on top of the shifting tower. You take off the knob and the boot, undue the 4 spring loaded screws, remove and replace the plate (about $35.00) and it was fixed... There was enough ware and play in the 5th/reverse plane on the plate that the reverse lockout was hanging 5th in the gate....

Cheers,

[sammyg2]

Glad to hear it wan't anything serious. Isn't this board great?
I can't count the times the folks here have helped me when I was stumped.