Factory Short Shifter welds broke

[kwm]

Wow I am kinda shocked to hear this I always thought is was a pretty high quality shift kit. Hope mine cont. to hold up.

[911pcars]

"Wow I am kinda shocked to hear this I always thought is was a pretty high quality shift kit. Hope mine cont. to hold up.:

Nope. Not the short shift kit in particular. All the factory 911 levers are assembled in the same manner. The lever may or may not eventually separate. However, if it does, it'll be in the middle of doing something important with the car.

Sherwood

[RickM]

Yup, seems to be a common problem. Pelican to the rescue when it happened to me.

I opted to weld the assembly together and forget about it. I replaced the inexpensive nylon shift rod cup and bushing while in there...details here...

Stick shift came loose - what holds it on?

[john walker's workshop]

hell, that's been happening way back to the 914 days. nothing new, same glue.

[}{arlequin]

you did get the extended warranty, didn't you?

[450knotOffice]

Back to the 914 days, eh? Hmm. I wonder why Porsche decided to glue the assembly together instead of spot welding it?

[john walker's workshop]

if i remember correctly, they don't really weld up nicely because the two metals are not alike. one sticks, the other doesn't. better luck with brazing probably.

[Jeremy Cottrell]

I had 2 go bad back to back. We installed one, I went to back out of the driveway and SNAP.
Intalled another one, this time the tech working on the car did the same thing. I was sitting next to him and couldn't believe it.
The third one was visually different in color and where the joint is, you could see a layer of glue/epoxy where the other 2 had been painted over.

I believe there was a bad batch, because for awile these kits were unavailable. It seems some bad ones were lingering around.

[911pcars]

As per my previous post, the factory-supplied levers are put together the same way. Maybe the epoxy they use for the over-the-counter parts is different (depends on the OEM supplier).

I've had several welded together using TIG and MIG, but not with OA gas. No reported problems.

We might as well delve further into improving the shift housing. Here's what I suggest (part DIY, part commercial plug).

http://www.seinesystems.com/ShiftHousBluPrint.htm

Sherwood

[goober]

Well boys count me on the "bought a nice new factory Porsche short shift kit and it broke" list.
I bought mine in August '06 and it separated in the same place as all of you. I don't believe it was epoxied though. There was clearly braze on the joint. It just didn't penetrate between the 2 parts. It was definitely braze because I ground it off in prep to TIG weld it back together and it was not epoxy. I ran a bead all the way around. (the metals are similar because it welded up fine) For alignment, I inserted a pin in the cross hole at the bottom of the shifter and used a square to align the 5th-R gate tang on the side of the shifter. Shifts like a champ.

I also had very poor quality on the centering fork. There were burs on every edge. I used a file to knock them off and then used a wire wheel to blend them in. Shifts smooth.

Pretty disappointed with Porshce for this one.

[Jeremy Cottrell]

Actually they are not put together the same way. I had 2 that were painted a glossier black, with the joint area painted over. I recieved a third from Porsche in Atlanta and it was a flatter black and the joint had a nice exposed epoxy ring. Even the shape of the lockout tab on the right side of the lever was different.

[Fud]

I've fixed a couple of these in the past couple of months.

I found that they were silver soldered. Well, they were supposed to be. I just sanded and cleaned every thing and re silver soldered them. Silver soldering is very strong if done correctly.

[Zeke]

I just finished welding Scott's shifter. It will mostly likely hold, but I can tell you the metal is not mild steel and doesn't weld easily. We were working at a bit of a disadvantage as the ball part was still in the housing. So, I only had one angle to get in there. Still, with the current as high as I could go on a 110v MIG, it just balled up. Any mild steel would have been blown open with that heat.

I don't know what that metal is, but the factory might have something with their epoxy. We just didn't find any down inside the joint. I'd say sand the shaft and the inside of the ball part, clean twice with a non residue solvent like lacquer thinner and swab with your better grade epoxy. I'm sure that would be good enough for many more miles.

Now, I'm going to take a spare I have down to my welding instructor and find out why it didn't behave as I expected. Scott and I were wondering if the metal alloy might have been on the stainless steel side of alloys. I'm pretty sure their are two different types of steel here between the shaft and the ball part that the shaft fits into.

[450knotOffice]

Milt, it was a pleasure to see you again. I could sit down for hours and chat. Thanks for welding up the shaft for me. It seemed pretty strong to me so I doubt I'll have any problems with normal usage.

Come on down anytime and take the red car for a drive.

[84porsche]

Wow, sorry to hear that happened Scott. Congrats on the short shift kit though. Welcome to the club. Glad Milt was able to help. I guess I am one of the lucky ones, no problems with my short shift kit (knock on wood).

[911pcars]

As I mentioned previously, the shift lever pieces I've seen were fully weldable. I've had 10-15 of them welded over a period of time by a pro welder using TIG or my brother's 220V MIG outfit, and he's not a welder by any means. A tack weld is a tack weld; melt two adjacent areas with heat and add a filler material. It's not rocket science, just an adequate application of intense heat.

BTW, all the levers I've seen have been epoxied. If any levers were silver-soldered, and they broke, then the soldering wasn't performed correctly. But I don't think the factory would have silver-soldered them when there are cheaper ways of joining parts using heat (e.g brazing and welding), and even cheaper without heat using epoxy.

Sherwood

[Zeke]

Sherwood, this was my first attempt on a shifter rod. I think if I had to do this again, I would insist that the rod be removed form the housing. Still, my MIG that I have countless hours using on sheet metal was no match for the lever. I have welded some fairly stout pieces before with the machine cranked up. As I said, I'm now a student of welding (currently earning an A+) and hope to come away with a fuller understanding of what I'm doing rather than sticking two pieces together. I still submit that the metal on these two parts is dissimilar in some way or it would have behaved better. IM(uneducated)O, of course.

I welcome additional comments on this. BTW, TIG is next on my syllabus and I intend to buy a TIG machine early next year.

[450knotOffice]

Thanks again, Milt. Let me know what you find out about the metals.

[Purkinjefibre]

My shifter broke just like that too.

I thought that it was a novel Porsche patented anti-theft device- try using a sloppy 915 with the shifter spinning around in traffic

cheaper than an immobiliser, i guess

[Zeke]

Originally posted by Purkinjefibre
My shifter broke just like that too.

I thought that it was a novel Porsche patented anti-theft device- try using a sloppy 915 with the shifter spinning around in traffic

cheaper than an immobiliser, i guess

LMAO! Yes, hitting the "gates" for 5th and rev would be a chalenge.

As Sherwood pointed out early in this thread, the alignment is critical. We tacked up 3 times before finding the right spot where it all worked. It was a small rotational adjustment each time. Finally, I put the lever in the 5th gear postion and let it rest spring loaded against the tab before tack welding. This was the magic, so there may be a reason to do this while the shift level is in place in the housing after all.