Hard shift to first in 1970 911 E

[Gasman59]

Ive looked around but haven't found a definitive answer to this question so here goes:

I have a 1970 911E with the early transmission that places first directly below reverse, left and down.

My problem is it is very hard to shift into first gear.
When stopped, I need to put a lot of effort into the left-down movement into first.
It just seems wrong. It feels like I might break something.

It will enter first O.K. But with more effort then should be necessary, in my judgment.
A few times I thought first was engaged but to my dismay, lots of grinding when I let the clutch out.

Shifting into second and through the other gears both up and down is flawless.

Any suggestions???

Thanks a bunch in advance.

Ron Y
1970 911E Targa

[Scott Clarke]

Ron-
Here is a possibility: your first gear slider is worn. Unfortunately, these are very expensive. They have a bunch of teeth that are supposed to be pointed, but become blunt when you "grind" gears. They also tend to mushroom a bit. The result is that it becomes difficult to get the slider to slide onto the syncro teeth. The good new is that you can replace the part without completely disassembling the gearbox. Removing the nose cover is all you need to do to gain access.

Some have had good luck "sharpening" the points of the slider and removed the mushrooming with a dremel or some such tool. I did this, and it was surprisingly easy. I have not tested the gearbox yet, however, and also am not sure how long this fix will hold.

Wayne's "101 Projects" covers removal and replacement of the first gear components of the 901/911 gearboxes.

-Scott

[superhighperf]

i've got the same feel in my car and have been driving it for years. putting tranny in seccond gear first seems to do the trick. sitting at the light in nutural, go up to seccond and then down to first. never down shift to first while driving. if the car is rolling seccond works fine.

[donstevens]

Ron,

I agree with the guys above that it is simply normal wear. I had a 71 with a 901 box with similar wear.

Per superhoghperf you can drive it in this state using his tips for quite a while if you don't have the time, money, or inclination to rebuild the box. One other tip is to let the car creep a bit in second and while it is just barely rolling slide the shifter down to first. This give the dog teeth a chance to line up without any excessive grinding.

Changing worn gear lube might help a little but don't expect much improvement.

Good Luck

Don

[berettafan]

sort of unrelated but i had a celica that hated to go into first gear and i got in the habit of pulling down to second before going into first. It worked nicely.

Funny thing is I've done the same for every manual car i owned thereafter even if it wasn't needed. Hard to break old habits i guess.

Erik

[GDSOB]

I make sure it's in neutral and revs have dropped before trying first gear. If rushed it will grind.

[Scott Clarke]

Before my 911 input shaft broke I experienced exactly the same phenomena with first. After changing the lube to Swepco the effort required to shift into any gear was considerably reduced. Also, make sure your clutch is properly adjusted. The '70-'71 clutch linkage is a little funky. There have been many threads regarding this subject.
-Scott

[Gasman59]

Thanks all for the comments.

The car has a noisy bearing in the transmission so a trans rebuild is in the future for me.
This was part of my negotiation over the purchase price.

A local shop that only works on Porsche told me to just drive it until things worsen.
I added Tufoil to the transmission and the bearing is almost silent.

I do not think the PO was much of a driver so I have no doubt about the mushrooming gears theory.

I will try the second to first approach. Since it is when stopped, I prefer to lay off the throwout bearing which kills the drop it in while rolling slightly concept.

The clutch seems fine, but worth checking. The only time it grinded was when I thought first was engaged and it was not

No magic fix here I guess.

Thanks again,
Ron Y
70 911E Targa

[wkbergman]

I have same experience - thanks for these inputs.
WB

[RWebb]

It may be a spendy and time consuming trans repair. BUT first try some easy & cheap stuff (that should be done anyway, most likely).

- change trans oil to Swepco & change every 2-3 years
- change all the bushings in the shift linkage
- check the shifter/tower for proper operation

[island911]

FWIW, I just had a similar problem.

It turned out that the stationary shift-fork (pivot block) had 1 of 3 studs come loose. This caused flexing in the system when going for first. (1st needed attention too, but this made things worse.)

Because this plate is so ease to access (hey, it's an access plate) it may be a good place to start looking. You can also test the sliding action /shifting right there (isolating problems)



6 is the block

5 is the access plate /cove.

[Scott Clarke]

I can now report that the sharpening of dog teeth I did (see above post) was somewhat fruitful. First can now be engaged with relative ease, although it still requires some effort.