Wow! New stuff! Thanks Kevin. Every day I learn something new and valuable. Well, Justin, It's starting to look more and more like a transmission internal issue. Be careful with those vise grips. Any burrs on that shaft and it becomes hard to get the shifter back on, especially if you add a short shifter from online944.com (which I heartily recommend). Anyway, good luck in resloving this matter.

 

Update. The plug was indeed the problem. I backed it off and had Chrenan shift. With it in tight, it blocked 3rd and 4th. Backed off a few turns it shifted like a normal transmission should. On the spare transaxle, I could see the 3-4 selector rod sliding back and forth with the plug out. We had no idea why it was binding, but put in a washer, spun it back down and no more shifting problems. That saved some hassle of swapping in yet another transmission.

 

Yep there is supposed to be sealing rings in there which determine how much you will be able to turn that cap down. Too tight and no shift for you. Sorry that I did not see this sooner, glad that you got it figured out.

Erik

 

Never heard of this one before! Nice job solving it!