Transmission Stuck After Recent Rebuild

[jbscheff]

The current problem: My transmission seems to be stuck in two gears. The shift pattern seems to be completely screwed up, can't select certain gears and I can't get the car into neutral. When I ease out the clutch with the engine running, it bogs down and dies, as if it was starting out in 5th. It won't move at all, unless you push it with the clutch in. Consulting a local mechanic, he says it sounds like it's stuck in two gears at once. How could this happen??? This is the latest in a series of problems less than 2k miles since a complete engine and transmission overhaul.

Over a year ago I took my '73 911 in to fix a leaking output shaft seal on the transmission, fix some engine oil leaks, and add a couple upgrades to the engine. Almost a year later, my car was finally done. The transmission had been rebuilt, and the engine, too, after what appeared to be a shop rag "mysteriously" found it's way into the engine. (see my previous post)

What is this crud in my engine?

Of course the Navy transferred me to San Diego before the job was done. Recently I flew back to Washington and picked up the car and drove it back to San Diego. The original shop suggested that I take it in for a valve adjustment once I got down there, which I thought was reasonable. On the way back to San Diego, twice the transmission slipped out of 5th for no apparant reason. I called back to the shop and told them, and they thought it was strange, but couldn't think of any reason why it would happen.

So I took it in to a local San Diego shop for the valve adjustment and wanted them to check a couple other things. I had been feeling some weird vibrations in the accelerator pedal, and the mixture on the CIS didn't seem right. The shop owner also mentioned that the valve noise was horrible. It turns out that the rocker shafts were installed wrong and misaligned, one of the transmission mounting bolts was missing, the drive shaft gaskets weren't installed, and all the bolts for the drive shafts were loose! In fact, two holding the port side shaft to the transmission were missing, and the safety clips under the bolts were free to swing around and were hitting the throttle linkage causing the vibrations. I was told that I was very lucky that the car made the 1200+ drive intact. The local shop fixed all that (except the CIS-no time before autocross) a couple days ago and I drove it home with no apparant problems.

This morning I tried to head out to the autocross, and as my opening stated, it won't go into gear and won't move at all. The only thing that has happened since driving it last is that last night I used an impact wrench on the wheels to put on my autocross tires. I'm pretty certain that the local shop didn't do anything to cause it. However, with the quality control problems with the first shop, I would bet that there was something installed wrong inside the transmission. The only detractor to that theory is that it went 1700 miles before getting stuck, which included one autocross and some spirited mountain road driving.

Is it possible for them to mess up the transmission rebuild and have it work for 1700 miles??? Could the vibrations from the impact wrench have vibrated something loose??

[don gilbert]

pull the inspection plate off, get a large screwdriver, and put the shift fork back in place, this has happened to me twice. Maybe its your prob to.

[john walker's workshop]

internal detent(s) improperly installed most likely. they hold one shift shaft in neutral while the other one moves. disassemble to repair. popping 5th may be a shift fork adjustment, pinion shaft end play, worn engagement teeth on the gear and/or the shift sleeve, or that missing trans mount bolt.