Ever feel like a complete and utter fool? Yesterday, I did. There are real mechanics and there are rank amateurs.
"Hello group, my name is John and I am a rank amateur."
The job: reinstalling the transaxle. The old tranny jack adapter my son found a couple of years ago worked great; having control of pitch back to front and left to right made the positioning of the unit rather delightful and almost made me feel ... smug?
I did forget to put the black plastic tube in place but, reading that some folks leave them out entirely, I followed a Rennlist suggestion to simply cut a slit from one end of the tube to the other in order to compress it radially, therewith allowing the retaining bumps at each end fit through each ends' hole yet still snap in place. Seems to me that keeping road dirt out of that chamber betwixt TT and transaxle must be a sound idea.
So what did I eff-up? I could not get the shift rod to engage with the couple of the transaxle. Oh, how I fought it! The geometry was clearly
wrong, but everything
looked right. I should have told myself, there and then, to walk away and get more information. Perhaps three hours of grunting and head-scratching later, I did get up off the floor (have been lying on my back and pondering the situation), wised-up and used google images to look at "944 shift linkage" (more 944 pics than those of 924S) and ... D'UH! I had the delrin shift arm bushing upside down.
How stupid!
This picture shows how NOT to install your on-gearbox shift linkage; the transverse element of the cream colored Delrin connector should be on TOP, the longitudinal element BELOW it.
With that flipped - OF COURSE - the male shift linkage and female shift rod end immediately and smoothly coupled into a perfect and blissful union. I sealed their connection with the Yellow Screw, wired as per instructions and used blue Loctite on the screw holding the dogbone onto the shift selector shaft.
How much longer would it have taken without the internet? Would I have made the same error were I not thinking about world events and other existential fears? Dunno. Maybe.
Continuing to hope that you and yours are well and that all of our futures look intact.
John