Shift rod won't turn for adjusting

[andreic]

I am a new 914 owner, 1975 1.8L with a side shifter. When I got the car the owner told me the transmission had been rebuilt about 4 years ago, and he had some receipts to confirm this. However, the transmission did not want to go into 1st gear at all, and going into second gear I had to push the lever quite a bit to the left and then forward (instead of just forward). The PO told me that it was likely an adjustment problem.

Today I tried to follow the adjustment procedure in Haynes' book and got stuck on the step which says to turn the shift rod clockwise until it hits the stop. I understand what is supposed to happen, but the shift rod won't turn at all. Certainly not when I grab it through the inspection panel; but I even removed the whole shift lever and clamped the shift rod with vise grips and tried turning it this way, still no luck. I put quite a bit of pressure on it, to the point that I was worried about damaging something in the transmission, or the bushings.

Did anyone ever run into something like this?

In the end I got my transmission to shift quite OK by reclamping the shift bar about 1/2" before the stop in the shift lever. It now goes into all gears, but needs quite a bit of effort (sometimes I need to use two hands) to get past the springs for 1st and reverse. I guess it's alright like this, but I'd have liked to get things done right.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Is the transmission in neutral when you're doing the adjustment? It needs to be in order for the rod to rotate.

Is the 2nd/3rd gate just "outside" the spring? If so, that's pretty much where you want it.

--DD

[andreic]

How do I check if the gate is just outside the spring?

[andreic]

And yes, I think I was in neutral when I tried to rotate the rod...

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Move the gear shift lever left and right. At some point in moving it to the left, you'll feel the lever start to push against the spring-loaded lockout plate. You should have to push into that in order to get the transmission into 1st or reverse. The 2nd/3rd gate should be just before you start pushing against that lockout plate.

--DD