God_Bot

My shifter has been sloppy ever since I got the car, 2-3" side to side at anytime. I decided to pull up the shift boot to see how bad the lever was and it was plenty tight. I couldn't get anything to move so I did some more searching which led me to the transaxle.

I've determined that it has lateral play in the intermediate shift lever as seen in the last photo here http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/trans-07.htm. I've labeled it as A in my photo. B shows how it moves and where the gap forms between the plastic and metal.


1987 944 N/A

Is this something I can tighten up with the transaxle still in the car? I could feel a nut on the opposite side of the plastic but it wasn't loose enough to turn by hand and I don't know the size of the nut so couldn't tell if my wrench just didn't fit in the space or was the wrong size.

I had the car up on ramps without anything removed, but if I end up needing to take off the transaxle then it might just be something that I live with for a while.

Ben951S

I was able to (from inside the car) just tighten down some bolt and it made the shifter very firm. There could be play in the shifter shaft (common), and a white plastic cup. I think what I tightened just pulled the whole thing tighter into the cup. It vibrates a little bit now (no noise, just visual), but it's very firm, and I like it.

SamGrant951

Ive noticed the same thing on my spec 944 - everything up front is new/tight...rear must be loose/worn out. Im not sure if those linkage parts are available new but if they are I might buy them as I hate the sloppiness.

God_Bot

Yeah, I didn't realize how much crap was built up under there. The whole car needs a real good cleaning everywhere.

Did you drop the transaxle when you replaced your bushing? I imagine I should drop it just to clean all the gunk off, but I really don't want to do so quite yet.

Dutch944

My white shiftingbushing was also completely worn out. So, i had a new one made. Costs about €10 and made out of delrin. Maybe interesting to start some kind of huge bulk action. The only one in underneath my car at the moment.

The new one is the black one:

968 GUY

Make sure the set screw at the rear linkage is tight. If it isn't, linkage will be sloppy, and eventually you will not be able to shift.
If it is loose, take it completely out cleanit and the threads in the hole and locktight it.

John_AZ

Nice. Years ago someone did a few in block aluminum. Good idea.

I have tired to "shim" the old intermediate shift piece with thin steel when I had the transaxle off and felt looseness. It made a difference.

John