901 Transmision working backwards
 

Hi , this transmission is in a 914 but I thought I'd try over here.

I have a spare 901 (side shifter) I had no history on so I sent it to a reputable guy to have it checked over. He dissasembled it all and found no issues. Put it back together with all new gaskets and seals. I just installed it and I'm having some wacky issues. 1st is where reverse should be and vice versa. It appears I have one forward gear and 5 reverse gears. Anybody seen this before or have any ideas.

thanks, Joe

Maybe he flipped the diff.

He put the ring gear/diff in after the pinion instead of before. Basically, he flipped the transmission. If it was in a 911 it would be fine, but in the 914 it's on the wrong side. The tail cover has to come off and the intermediate plate with the pinion on it taken out, then the diff. put in, then put the intermediate shaft and tail cover back on.

Australian model!!!

Take it back & get him to sort it out SmileWavy

You have a tailshifter shift lever in the car is my guess.

Exactamundo!

I was at an SCCA road race back in the '80s. A newcomer to the E/P group trailered his 914 into the pit area, hopped in, started it up, put it in "reverse" gear to back it off the trailer, and drove straight ahead into the tongue height jack, narrowly missing his tire rack. It turned out that they had finished the fresh gearbox and put it in the car the day before, never started the car or tested anything.

I haven't heard the accidental reversed ring gear story in awhile .. always good for a chuckle. In college (Denver), a couple guys towed their VW van to a junk yard which allowed them to install a purchased transaxle on site. (The early vans of course have a reversed ring gear because of their reduction gears.) You guessed it .. it was late afternoon when they finished, with no time to do the job over .. so they drove it home backwards ON THE FREEWAY.

haha, I had a friend rebuild his VW trans about 30 years ago with this same result, I laughed my ass off. I would scream that old Elvis Costello song "5 Gears in Reverse" at him whenever he put it into gear.

He knew exactly what he did (reversed ring gear). Pulled the trans again the next day, 24 hours later had it back in working perfectly.

Poor Joe probably isn't as amused as us. Sorry Joe .. we definitely aren't laughing at your frustrating situation. It's just that it brought back memories that had to be shared to keep things light. Most of us have been there at one time or another ..

I have to share this one in the general spirit of mirth. Before I discovered Porsches I was a Hot Rodder and our club entered a downhill trolly derby. We quickly welded up a cart using enormous drag slicks etc in a mini dragster, complete with rack and pinion steering. When we fronted up to the start line of the very steep and very twisty hill road we discovered the rack and pinion was installed upside down, so turning the steering wheel left turned the cart right. We all thought no problem, simply turn the wheel opposite to the direction you need to go. The brakes were 'dodgy as' and it all ended badly, once you get up some speed and hit a bump you go into auto reaction mode. It was a wonder we did not kill a spectator or ourselves.

No Problem guys, have as much fun at my expense as you like. What I find really frustrating though is that all the problems that I seem to encounter are out of my control. Just previous to this I had my wiring harness fry. Finally tracked it down to a short in the freshly rebuilt alternator. Seems they don't test it with the 914 back on. The washers they use on the terminals were too large and shorted on the cover. A lesson to you always test out any new wiring for shorts before turning the key.

914 and 911 guy, not taking sides yet.