moving shift knob closer to rear of car on 1985 911

[oly]

I want to move my shift knob closer to the rear of the car so that I don't have to lean forward to reach the positions for the 1st, 3rd, and 5th gears. And I believe that I can do this by adjusting the shift rod coupling attachment to the shift rod. In particular, the Bentley Service Manual gives the information in the section called "Shift rod coupling, adjusting" section. My questions are:

1. How much can this adjustment move the shift knob to the rear of the car? I've read that about 1" is possible. It is likely that the car is currently at the original factory setting.

2. What level of difficulty is involved? The method looks easy because it is only a matter of loosening the shift rod clamping nut, preloading the shift rod in a counterclockwise direction when facing rear of car, temporarily tightening nut, testing for correct adjustment, then torqueing nut. For me, the challenging part will be testing for correct adjustment since the tests don't give exact measurement values. An example is: "All gears must engage with approximately the same effort and throw."

3. What problems will I create if I set this adjustment so that the shift knob is not approximately the same effort and throw to all gears? Example: knob is 2" closer to 1st, 3rd, and 5th gears and 2" further from 2nd and 4th gears. I'm not worried about the knob being too close to the driver seat in 2nd gear because the seat is fixed so that it does not move backward or forward.

[Oh Haha]

This is a pretty easy mod.

I would be sure to mark clearly the position of the coupler on the rod before starting.

You can just loosen the rod clamp just enough to move it and then move the shift lever to the desired position. You could easily get an inch of adjustment out of it. By keeping the clamp barely loose, you can maintain the side to side adjustment which, if lost, can be a real PIA to get back to where it was.

In my case, no adjustment helped so I made my own shift lever to bring the knob closer to me.

[Oh Haha]

This is a pretty easy mod.

I would be sure to mark clearly the position of the coupler on the rod before starting.

You can just loosen the rod clamp just enough to move it and then move the shift lever to the desired position. You could easily get an inch of adjustment out of it. By keeping the clamp barely loose, you can maintain the side to side adjustment which, if lost, can be a real PIA to get back to where it was.

In my case, no adjustment helped so I made my own shift lever to bring the knob closer to me.

[tcar]

New shift lever - a lot easier...

What about a short shift kit?

[911pcars]

The shift housing opening around the shift lever places a limit on how far the lever travels fore and aft.

In neutral, the lever should normally rest in the middle of the opening. If you loosen the shift coupler clamp and adjust the lever closer to you (neutral position), be aware that you might adjust it too far and prevent the gearbox from fully engaging.

A short shift kit (factory type recommended) reduces the gear-to-gear travel and can provide a little more leeway in the above adjustment. You can also heat and bend the lever so the knob is closer to you.

Sherwood

[rootmatt]

There is a further limit imposed by the reverse lockout device, especially if you install a short-shift kit. If you move the coupler too far, such that the lever does not travel far enough forward in 5th gear, then the reverse lockout will not function properly and can block the lever when trying to get back out of 5th. If you're looking at the reverse lockout device while testing, this should become obvious to see.
That being said, about 1" sounds reasonable. I wasn't measuring when I did it.

Matt

[john walker's workshop]

the amazing "long" shifter

[oly]

Thanks for the posts everybody! That was the supplement to the Bentley information that I was looking for.

And then some. : )

[richde]

Originally Posted by rootmatt

There is a further limit imposed by the reverse lockout device, especially if you install a short-shift kit. If you move the coupler too far, such that the lever does not travel far enough forward in 5th gear, then the reverse lockout will not function properly and can block the lever when trying to get back out of 5th. If you're looking at the reverse lockout device while testing, this should become obvious to see.
That being said, about 1" sounds reasonable. I wasn't measuring when I did it.

Matt

I tried moving my lever back and this is exactly what I encountered. I ended up moving my seat up, which gave me better leverage at the wheel and was the best solution to both "problems." Most people probably sit too far back and don't realize it.

[dentist90]

The simplest solution to your problem may be to bend the shifter toward you a bit. I'm not tall, so I found my problem was with the knob hitting my thigh in 2nd gear.
Bending the shift and having a short shift kit should make it very easy to reach 5th gear.

[oly]

Thanks for the help everybody. I used paint to mark the original fore/aft and clocking position on the splined shaft. And I was very careful to only adjust in the fore/aft direction. The end result was that I only managed to get the shift knob about 0.25 inches closer to me before it would cause problems getting out of 5th gear. But now I know that I've done all I can with that method.

[john walker's workshop]

just make it longer.