Shift Handle Difficult to Move
 

Hello all, I'm new to the forum and the proud new owner of an '86 944 NA. My father and I are doing a little work trying to get the car fixed up and ready for the road by summer.

At present we are having a bit of difficulties with the shifter. The shifter moves smoothly forward and backwards (e.g., between 1/2, 3/4) but is extremely difficult to move side to side. It is probably worth mentioning that this car sat for some time before we bought it and it is in pretty rough shape.

Any suggestions as to what the problem may be? My first inclination was to look at the transaxle linkage and try to manipulate the shifter input shaft to see if the shaft is a bit stiff/sticky from sitting around. From what I can tell the linkage at the shifter end moves freely.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to joining the 944 family.

If the car has sat for some time, there may be some rust in the articulating assemble mounted directly on the transaxle. Shoot some PBlaster in the areas where it pivots and that may help to free it up.

See #9 for what other poster is referring to

https://www.only944.com/instructions/slainstructions/

I recommend the short shifter package from only944.com. It's a bit difficult to install (for 1st timers) from underneath the car. the instructions provided in the link is specific and the linkage replacement is well worth it.

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I'll give the PBlaster a try to free up the linkage and, once (hopefully) it is established the Transaxle is fine I'll probably swap out the linkage when I get a chance.