Crap: Missed 3rd gear, went "towards" 1st, now now first gear...

[MarkRobinson]

Bad night for 914's: First, with 1/8" tank showing, I ran out of fuel on my way home. A wife & gas can clear this up, but in the spirit of two Porsches leaving a 4-way stop sign, I decided to show the misses just how powerful my 72hp 914 was against her 450hp 911 turbo.

I lost. Funny, she was unaware I was racing & was driving normally. Ha!

Needless, my 3rd gear shift missed & I heard a "bump" & felt a jolt: I've felt this before missing 3rd, but this time it resulted in the apparent loss of 1st gear.

Now, I have 2-5 + R as normal, but the socket for first is not even felt: it's like someone welded up the gate on a gated shifter.

Because of her b-day and weather, I have not had time to throw it up on my lift to see if there's any damage to the shift linkage...but my gut feeling tells me this is internal. Sigh...

I have NO experience with Transaxles other than filling/draining: thoughts guys?? I have gone through my shift linkage (under the car) at least 6 times trying to refreshen everything...it's possible that something "gave" again: last time it was the firewall bushing.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Always check the linkage first; it's a lot easier and usually cheaper to deal with than anything inside the trans.

If that fails, then you can pop off the side-shift console from the trans (drain the lube first!) and try to make sure the shift rails and such line up correctly. There's an illustration or two in the Haynes book about that, and more info in Red-Beard's transmission rebuild article:
http://home.san.rr.com/pb914/rebuild/

--DD

[red-beard]

Mark, sometime in the next couple of months I'll be running a Tranny Clinic at my house in Houston.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

That's a great write-up. Thanks for pointing that out. My trans. is fine but sloppy as heck and I suspect a couple of the syncros are wearing. I'll know more when I have time to dig into it a bit, but that write-up looks like an awesome resource.

[red-beard]

Yep, I wrote that about 5 years ago, I can't believe the website is still up!

[MarkRobinson]

Ok Dave, I'll try that. PM & emailed red-beard for some specifics, but I gather he doesn't frequent the board too much.

I need to get this resolved this week: I have 2 more Porsche's coming as soon as spaces opens up & my dear 914 is taking space! Wife hates it, I enjoy it, but have a 996TT & a 944TS coming...fun cars!

Mark

[red-beard]

I think I know what is wrong. You may have a broken brake band, which is not allowing the synchro to compress, and then enter the gear. Look at my write up and the pictures that say "How did this get from here to here ?".

[MarkRobinson]

Can you re-post or forward me this article? the link does not work again & I'm into this project (finally!).

Thanks! Mark

[red-beard]

PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you a PDF of the article.

[MarkRobinson]

Can't do PM from my iPhone; hope this is sufficient; Porschesplutions@gmail.com

[Otto]

Could have broken an cv joint.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Or you can surf to it, thanks to the Internet Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050212113437/home.san.rr.com/pb914/

--DD

[MarkRobinson]

thanks guys. Mark

[MarkRobinson]

Nuts, pulled it apart & cannot figure out what might be damaged. According to my haynes, my gears & such appear normal. The 1st gear shift fork will not move the gear past the syncro as it touches the syncro when attempted to put the car into gear.

With the reverse/first assembly not attached to the trans (the cover took the axial rod & reverse/needle bearings/thrust washer all out with it, & I cannot see how you remove the axial rod to place it back into the intermediate plate so that I can check the first gear/reverse shift movement.

Both the reverse/first gear & the larger 1st gear have their mating edges (when engaging a gear) worn a bit, but dunno if that's the issue.

Thoughts???

[red-beard]

Digitial pictures are our friends...

[race914]

You can bypass the shifter and "manually" try 1st, 3rd & 4th. That is, try to put the car in 1st and then try to drive it a few feet. If it works, you can focus on the shifter.

Take off the plastic over on the shift console and you'll see the shift rod head (page 89 in your Haynes Manual)



Here's the shift pattern (think of it as your shifter pattern 'on its side')



Hope this helps!

[race914]

Here's a better pic of of the shift console with the linkage off. You don't have to remove the linkage to manually try the different gears.

[red-beard]

I'm hoping he already has the gear stock out of the transmission, or at least, the rear cover removed.