Stuck in Gear

[penp]

My 914 race car is sticking into gear.

First time it happened I was in a race and it stuck in neutral. This was after making a pretty forceful upshift right after cresting (and then making a hard right on) an off-camber hill - one rear tire was definitely underloaded - probably should have waited a few seconds to make that shift...

Had a reputable P shop look at it. They put it on the lift, took off side trans cover, claim they did nothing at all, but that the car mysteriously started shifting again. (They also checked the entire shift linkage - which was fine.)

Well, I took it on the track and after a few laps, it stuck again – this time in gear. In the pits, a friend showed me how to take off the side cover and lever the shift forks over manually with a screwdriver to get unstuck. So I drove it again - stuck again. So I took the cover off - this time on my own - and levered the shift rods to neutral and put the car on the trailer. No use trying top run it again.

So something needs to be repaired. Does this sound like the "goes into two gears" at once problem I read about in another thread? Bent shift forks?

Bottom line: is this a repair that can be done by a shop with the trans in the car and on;y have to remove the side over and the rear cover, or does the trans have to come out?

Thanks

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

It's almost a trivial operation to remove the trans. I'd pull it, myself.

--DD

[John Rogers]

Where are you located and are there any shops that can work on 901 transmissions and do them well in your area? If you are in the San Diego or L.A. area I know a some but other places are for others to chime in with. You did not say what engine you have and what the HP output is and I am suspecting it was the 3rd to 4th shift since that is one many people do pretty hard? Since the trans stuck I would guess the bearings are shot and possible other parts as well and a complete rebuild is probably in order. Get ready for sticker shock in the extreme as that can run upwards of $5K depending on what is needed.

The big lesson here is two-fold, first transmissions that old need to be shifted "gently" and second always wait until the car has settled to shift when cornering or cresting a hill as the flex of the body into the engine transmission assembly can cause misalignment to a degree. Good luck with the repairs.

[penp]

But Dave, then what do I do?

In your opinion, does this sound like the going-into-two-gears at once thing, or more of a rebuild thing?

BTW, the box makes no noise nor grinding at all.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

I don't know what the problem could be. You can search around for the rebuild article that "redbeard" (AKA "pb914") wrote, or get the "Dr. Evil" rebuild video and notes.

Since John has poked around in these transmissions more than I have, and has used them very hard at times in his race car, I would defer to his judgement on the cause.

It might be worth just taking the trans out, disassembling it, and seeing if there is anything that is obviously wrong. Disintegrating bearing cages, for instance, would be a big clue even to me! The above-mentioned article and video will give you ideas of other stuff that you can check. You can try Google searches for those; I don't have links handy.

--DD

[Joe Ricard]

I had one do this after rebuilt it. Turns out I was setting the shift forks per the manual and the worn out side shift console did not like it.
I spaced them out a little further apart (like it was when I took it apart) problem solved. and it shifted like butter. soft melty 914 shifty butter.