Well for the last week or soon the transmission has felt a little weird. First of all when letting the clutch out in first gear the stick shift is bouncing around and shaking. This has never happened before. It almost looks like it was going to pop out of gear. Trying to shift into some gears has become harder.

Yesterday the car was driving fine and I stopped to get some food, when I came back out to the car 20 minutes later I started it up and put it into reverse and tried to back up. It felt like something was behind the tires (like a newspaper or something of that size) so I put it in neutral and got out of the car to look around. Nothing. Got back in put it in reverse and tried backing up and had the same feeling. I pushed it a little harder and then heard a bad noise, like someone dropped a hammer in the back of the car. I pressed the clutch in immediately and tried to shift to neutral but was unable to move the stick. Then I had the vision of 2-5 thousand dollars flash before my eyes.

So I called the insurance company and waited 4 hours for a flatbed to come pick me up. The car is back at my house right now as I don’t have a new mechanic here in Nashville. So from the high level description does it look like I have the opportunity to rebuild the transmission or could it be something simple (like my luck would be that good)? I have to look at this like an opportunity or I will start crying. I have never had any issues with this car. It is an 85 911 with 150 K on the clock. As far as I know this is the original clutch. The syncros were worked on before I purchased the car 3 years ago, but the paper work is in storage so I can’t look at it right now.


Whatever it is I need to wait until my house in Portland sells and then I can send it to the shop. Please someone recommend some shop names or people in Nashville area that are good. I am not looking for cheap (although I don’t want to pay out the nose) but for someone that is really good and knows what they are doing and what to look for.

 

I am not expert but it is possible you clutch cable has failed.

If you can get under your car, try moving the clutch arm at the tranny asnd see if it moves smoothly.

 

i dont think that the cable failed becasue the only way the car will move (when someone is pushing the car) is by pressing in the clutch.

any other thoughts?

Ron

 

It's time Ron, 85 you need to understand and work on the car yourself. Unless you are independently wealthy you need to be able to understand how it all works.


Engine off
1- put in first gear, can you move car.... it should not move as it's in gear and motor will hold it.
2- put in clutch, does car roll, while rolling let clutch out, does it stop... it should. If no maybe clutch cable is frayed / broken.

3- with car stopped with clutch in can you shift through all gears, does the shifter feel normal ie not too much play can you move all over the "H" pattern.
IF not maybe your linkage is loose, open access plate behind front seat and look at linkage and swival connector, are the allen screws loose?

Start car in Neutral
1- How does it sound, normal?
2- shift into first gear and try to move car, if normal good. If it there is no noise but the engine seems to die under load, then you are probably shifting into a high gear by linkage failure.
3- jack up rear of car and now try to go through gears slowly, does it all work.

So at this point you know a bit more.

 

Sounds like you may have had two gears engaged at the same time origionally.

Just for giggles drain the tranny fluid and look for chunks.
As always be sure you can get the filler plug out before you take out the drain plug