Another shifter rebuild question

[janz]

86 Carrera, what a PITA to get the console off as not all the wire cables have disconnects. So I manage to get the console over the shifter and around the emergency brake and i can peek under the carpet and see 5 screws holding the silver housing to the tunnel. Everyone says how easy this is and the actual bushing and cup replacement probably is but no one says how to get at the stuff. Keep in mind I have AC controls (fan and temp) along with emergency flasher along with rear window defogger along with central electric locking and last but not least is the fader control in the center console. So now I can't get the carpet back for obvious reasons unless I slice it from the front to the shifter. I can lift it and see the 5 screws/bolts so can I sneak the allen wrench under the carpet and remove these and have the silver body of the shifter mechanism come up away from the carpet and tunnel? Then all I've read says to change the rod bushing located in the tunnel and its bracket is held on by a couple screws/bolts from the top. From the top where???? Does that mean I have to disassemble the whole emergency brake cover with its heater controls and temp knob not to mention the E-brake itself. Again dealing with carpet in the way. Those guys that say they can do it in an hour or 2 are full of it or they have a very simple bare bones car. I like all my options/accesories in my Porsche but they sure make it a pain to work on it and usually can't find any real useful help in the books or on this forum when it comes to this. Most everyone wants to be a racecar (great palladrome) driver with a bare bones car and then brags how they can do these simple jobs in little time. So you folks with an 86 coupe with all those goodies in it give me a little help here please. I guess a lot of you wouldn't do the job because of all the stuff in the way.

[PSJoyce]

Janz

If you’ve got the console off, it’s not bad at all. I lifted the carpet from the passenger side, and was able to loosen the Allen bolts that attach the shift tower. The shift rod bushing bracket is held on by two of the three Allen bolts in the back.

Paul




Here, you can see the shift rod bracket, held on by the two forward bolts in the rear of the shift tower:



And here is the bracket in place, after removing those two bolts. You can use a 4mm Allen to remove the cylindrical cup the shifter bushing slides into, then slide the shift rod bushing off the shift rod.




Oh yeah, be very careful not to bend the A/C thermostat capillary tube in the white plastic sheath. You can see it all kinked up, running forward from the console, in my first photo. Now, that, is a pain to replace.

[janz]

Thanks Paul thats exactly what I was looking for. The capilary tube on mine is inside one of the bundles of wire. I was able to get the console over to the side without unplugging any of the controls the wires and cables were long enough. That was how I guessed it would come out but I was getting a little antsy about it as its my first time. See your from the cape area, I'm from western Ma (Holyoke) actually met my wife at corn hill beach out there. Did a lot of fishing in that area and once in a while go out of Hyannis on the Helen H cod fishing on Georges banks. My sister has a house on Marthas Vineyard.

[AVIMAX]

If you thought taking it apart was a pain, wait until you put it back in. I found the most frustrating part was attaching the console back to the floor with the two screw near the front. They are hard to get started into the clips in the floor, they are in a strange position that does not allow you to use a screw driver, and even when you get them going, very difficult to tighten down so the console will be solid. Every time I thought I had it, I would nudge the console, and the screws would pop out a little making the console loose again. I ended up turning them by finger and then tighten with some pliers. Maybe it's just mine? The first time I did this on my '86, it took more than 2 hours. However the second time it was much less. The only tip I have which may be obvious to you, but wasn't to me, is to make sure when you drop the shifter assy back onto the tunnel, make sure the shifter rod bushing bracket is in place at the rear of the opening and sitting on top of the tunnel just like in the 3rd picture from PSJoyce. It is nearly impossible to fish around and try to attach that bracket to the shifter assy when it is not in place first. That's what I tried for about 15 minutes the first time until I realized it was easier to do it with the bracket in place. In fact I found that with the bracket in place, and if you are careful, it works out better to start the 3 bolts that hold the shifter assy first and then the 2 for the bushing bracket. Just my 2 cents. And I too thought getting the console out of the way was a real pain, and then trying to work under the carpet without ripping it was no fun either. Much easier the second time. I did it twice because after I changed the bushings, there was not nearly as much improvement as I was hoping, so I put in a Wevo shifter and PSJ, and now all I can say is WOW!

[GH85Carrera]

[QUOTE=PSJoyce;4067573]Janz

If you’ve got the console off, it’s not bad at all. I lifted the carpet from the passenger side, and was able to loosen the Allen bolts that attach the shift tower. The shift rod bushing bracket is held on by two of the three Allen bolts in the back.

Paul




OK so you can just turn the leather shifter boot inside out and get to the parts. I looked at starting the process and knew that the two hours I had was never going to be enough to finish. I could see getting the center console out of the way was going to be a big pain but I did not want to attempt removing the shift knob to get the leather boot out of the way.
I figure it will be a many hour ordeal.

[PSJoyce]

First time, it took me about eight hours start to finish. The time consuming parts were getting the console off, pulling the stock shift knob off (only had to pull the shift knob off because I was switching to a Wevo shifter -- used a billet shift knob with Allen screws going back together to make it easier the next time) and installing the new shift rod bushing into the l-shaped shift rod bushing bracket. I also took my time, including test drives, getting the alignment of the PSJ shift coupler with the new Wevo shifter just right.

One other thing I did that helped, I think, was to only loosely tighten the five shift tower bolts. I moved the shift lever back and forth into all positions to be sure the new shift rod bushing was lined up correctly and wasn’t binding, then tightened the Allen bolts, then checked again that everything was lined up, and that the shifter and shift rod operated smoothly without binding.

Paul

[janz]

I'll be getting back to this right after work today. Do I need to remove the 2 bolts that hold the shift rod bracket before I can lift out the shift tower, Seems that the shift rod would hold the tower in partially if the screws weren't removed. Then I can see its going to be a pain to line them up with the bracket floating when trying to get the tower back in position. Can I attach the bracket to the tower then (is there enough room to) slide the the whole thing over the rod?. Thanks guys this is the help I was really looking for as its tough to see whats going on in there with all the stuff in the way.

[PSJoyce]

This diagram might help

You do need to remove the two Allen bolts holding the l-bracket on first. Then lift the tower out.

Re-assembly – you need to slip the l-bracket with new bushing (parts 21&22 in diagram) over the shift rod, and then attach the cylindrical shift rod head (part 24) to the end of the shift rod with the 4mm Allen. Then, line up the l-bracket in place in the car and carefully lower the shift tower into place. Loosely fasten the l-bracket (21) to the shift tower with the two Allen bolts, then use the remaining three Allen bolts to hold it all in place. Check to make sure there's no binding, and you should be good.

I did disengage the shift rod (25) from the shift coupler (27) to provide the maximum amount of play in the shift rod under the tower – had to readjust the coupler afterwards anyway.
Paul

[PSJoyce]

Just in case a shot into the tunnel under the shifter helps, here's what mine looked like going back together. I just lowered the tower on top, and it all lined up OK

Paul

[janz]

What position did you leave the tranny in, 1st, neutral ??? You put the new cup on the end of the shifter or in the recepticle before you put back together. BTW your pics are great, anyone doing this repair should give you a big thank you for your time and effort to post these. One more did you replace the bushings on the coupler and should this be done before assembly of shifter or can it be done after shifter is installed?

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by PSJoyce

note: L-bracket goes on TOP

[RWebb]

gear it's in is not imp.

[PSJoyce]

Thanks Janz

I took the photos so I’d have a record of how it all went back together. At this point, I’ve got a pretty good photo record of a few, certainly not all, disassembled 1985 911 pieces.

The Wevo installation directions said to leave the transmission in third. I think if you’re using a stock shifter, neutral would work. With the car not running, you can get the coupler “sort of right” and select gears. I wouldn’t start or drive the car ‘till the coupler alignment was pretty close, though.

Put the greased new cup bushing on the cleaned and lubricated ball end of the shift rod. It snaps on. The new bushing will just slide into the cylindrical shift rod end – there is nothing that holds it in place.

I bought and installed a new Wevo PSJ instead of replacing the coupler bushings. The coupler bushings (or a PSJ) don’t need to be done at the same time as the shifter bushings, so you can do that job after the shifter is all buttoned up. One thing, though, is that I found it much easier to set the coupler up correctly when the shift boots were pulled up so I could see what the reverse lock-out was doing and how the shifter lined up with the housing. You don’t have to be able to see the top of the shift tower to align the coupler, but it sure helped me.

Paul

[PSJoyce]

Thanks Janz

I took the photos so I’d have a record of how it all went back together. At this point, I’ve got a pretty good photo record of a few, certainly not all, disassembled 1985 911 pieces.

The Wevo installation directions said to leave the transmission in third. I think if you’re using a stock shifter, neutral would work. With the car not running, you can get the coupler “sort of right” and select gears. I wouldn’t start or drive the car ‘till the coupler alignment was pretty close, though.

Put the greased new cup bushing on the cleaned and lubricated ball end of the shift rod. It snaps on. The new bushing will just slide into the cylindrical shift rod end – there is nothing that holds it in place.

I bought and installed a new Wevo PSJ instead of replacing the coupler bushings. The coupler bushings (or a PSJ) don’t need to be done at the same time as the shifter bushings, so you can do that job after the shifter is all buttoned up. One thing, though, is that I found it much easier to set the coupler up correctly when the shift boots were pulled up so I could see what the reverse lock-out was doing and how the shifter lined up with the housing. You don’t have to be able to see the top of the shift tower to align the coupler, but it sure helped me.

Paul

[janz]

Finished, not to bad once you have the guidance provided by these threads. Here is a tip I figured out while doing this job. No need to disconnect all the cables and wires going to the center console. Just go behind the seats and, remove the rear tunnel cover thats under the carpet. Now loosen the nut and bolt keeping the shift rod clamp tight. Now move the shifter towards rear, 2cnd gear and the rod will come apart from the coupler. Help it down so it doesn't get banged up and then move your stick shift all the way forward and the console will hinge and slide right over it and place the console by the pedals. Do the shifter work first and then replace the console back over the nice and loose stick shift and now you can go behind the seats and replace the coupler bushings per instructions in the book. This will save a lot of time not fiddling with all the controls mounted in the console. With this complete thread you may be able to do it all in 4 hrs. Don't let the bushings scare you they are pretty pliable. Thanks again guys for the guidance, hope I can return the favor. Have to do the steering rack next week as toe in and out won't adjust and stay so I'll be adding the turbo tie rod kit while I'm at it. Getting closer to my goal of making my 86 100%.

[PSJoyce]

Very cool. I've gotten a lot of help here, just glad I can help someone else

Paul