Sending out S.O.S someone please help

[dynevahn]

Hey guys as some of you may know I picked up my 79 930 on friday and drove it last night and it drove great. I was driving it on the way to get it dynoed when I was at a light and revved it to 3rd gear and dropped the clutch and I felt a snap underneath the shifter and it revved all the way up like it was in neutral, well it was in neutral. Now its stuck in neutral and wont go into gears. I dont think the tranny went out on me as I can still shift into gears. What could have snapped? Im thinking the shifter linkage but I dont know much about porsches. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

btw I am in Charlotte, NC. If any guys out there can help me get this fixed (being it doesnt need a tranny reuild) I wouldnt mind paying good

[PorscheGuy79]

Coulda blown the clutch, wait for others to chime in.

[Don Plumley]

Congrats on your new Porsche - sorry about your mishap. Porsches BTW don't generally like line launches. Or so you now know.

Could you better explain:

Now its stuck in neutral and wont go into gears. I dont think the tranny went out on me as I can still shift into gears.

[dynevahn]

well tranny was rebuilt 2 years ago. This is the 915 5 tranny and new HP(?) clutch. When I push the clutch down it feels strong. If I push the shfiter into 1-5 gear it stays in neutral.

[Joe Bob]

If you get it up on a lift.....you can try to hand shift it.....you might want to post where you are located.

[Jim Sims]

Take off the cover on the hump behind the seats and check the shift coupler; its clamping collar may have loosened or the plastic bushings within the coupler may have failed. If not that, then the collar or joint on the shift rod under the shifter may have failed or loosened. I don't believe the 5-speed 915 was original with a 930 engine so it will not do as well under the higher horsepower loading. Dropping the clutch will cause rebuild time to come sooner; 915 parts are expensive - just the basic items for a rebuild end up around $800 to $1200. If you want the "drag"/stop light type performance you may want to consider a different car unless you have a thick wallet.

[lateapex911]

Easy things to check are having someone in the car and shifting while you observe the linkage. If it's moving at the trans, then some shift forks are bent or broken' or there is some other internal damage.

I think the 930 came w/ a 4 speed and it was much different. There are High end trans available that are 5 speeds by RUF, (I think) and others that are designed for the power. WEVO makes a bunch of trans parts too.

[Jim Smolka]

Could be as easy as a loose CV joint?

[lateapex911]

Doubtful, for that to be the case, he would have had to A- shear the CV completley in two, AND B- have an open diff.

I suspect issues in the trans.

Did he say he was stopped nd selected 3rd gear, and dropped the clutch?

Ouch.

[dynevahn]

sorry I meant to say 1st gear.

[Grady Clay]

OK, we have a 915 5-speed with a 930 engine. Do we know if the 915 has a LSD or open differential?

I would first proceed with inspecting the Constant Velocity (CV) joints. A CV coming loose at the transmission with an open differential has exactly those symptoms. If it was an SC and has the 100 mm 923 CV joints, they are way too small for a 930.

When inspecting the CV joints, feel the rubber boots. It is possible for the cage to come apart and under load the races spit the balls out into the boot.

I agree inspecting the linkage but only because it is easy. From the description that doesn’t sound like the problem.

Next I would remove the shift pivot plate (after first removing the drain and fill plugs) and inspect for anything wrong. You will need a new gasket here.

If all of the above confirms everything appears OK, time to pull the engine and transmission for better inspection. It could be the clutch or internal transmission.

Best wishes.
Grady

[lateapex911]

Grady, I would think a CV joint in that condition would make a bit of a racket when the car was in gear and the clutch released.

Thinking further, as this car has a non stock trans, I guess it's not a far reach to think that it could be missing a ltd slip....

Lets hope it's a CV.....

[dentist90]

Bogeydrvr just had a similar problem, thought at first it was his clutch. Giveaway was that when he put the car in gear and let the clutch out the speedo would begin to climb. Try that with yours... if the speedo is registering yet you are not moving look for sheared bolts or broken cv joints. This is the thread:
Broken CV Joint
When you first posted that you dropped the clutch in 3rd gear I kind of wondered what DIDN'T break!

[dynevahn]

yes! the speedo is going up. The axle and cv joints look fine to me. What exatly do I need to inspect?

[kycarguy 935]

I had a similar circumstance happen to me and it was the shift coupler bushing under the small panel behind the seats. It really gave no notice of breaking and would just shift in a couple gears. The linkage may also have came loose. Like Grady states its real easy to check too.

[dynevahn]

ok well spoke to my father whos in the parts business. He told me to jack the car up and put it in first gear, then see if I can push the tires, the left tire moves freely with sounds of metal scraping coming from cv joint area, and right tire moves but you have to force it. He also said to spin the tires and see if the belts were moving, they did not. Now Im left to figure out what to do.

[dynevahn]

anyone know of a good shop in nc?

[dynevahn]

ok well put the car in 5th gear and put the e brake on, looked under neath the right cv axle (going into the tranny) was spinning, the left one was not.

[dentist90]

Broken CV joint it is, then (unless there's something catastrophically wrong with the internals of your differential). Check this thread out, it has some good pictures of a driveshaft change:
CV joint Replacement
Post later to let us know what exactly it was and how it turned out. And take it easy on the clutch!

[dynevahn]

thanks, anyone know where to get cv axles? I doubt pepboys or autozone carries them.