Mark Hubley

I'm in the process attempting to swap a transaxle w/LSD from an early 944 into my 924S. With both trannies on the floor of my garage, I've also done a 5th gear swap (http://www.944spec.org/944SPEC/techn...-5th-gear-swap) to keep the short 5th from my 924S.

After doing the gear swap (and thinking I was in the home stretch) I noticed that I can't shift gears in the "new" tranny (the one with the LSD that's presumably going into my car). Periodically throughout the process of the gear swap I would grab the shift linkage and shift the gears. After getting the gears all in place, I tried to shift gears, and the linkage won't budge. It's stuck in one of the forward positions (maybe 1st, 3rd, or 5th?).

I"m not sure of the proper vocabulary here, but this pic shows the rear of the tranny with part of the 5th gear assembly removed. Note the three rods toward the front of the pic (short one on the left, longer one on the right). The one in the middle should move up and down when I move the shift linkage (it does in the other tranny), but it won't budge.



Any thoughts on how to free up the shifter???

I've tried banging with a hammer on the various shafts, to no effect.

Taking the various gears back off the shaft didn't make a difference (I haven't removed the fixed gear since doing the swap; not sure that taking it off would do any good).

FWIW, this happened to the other tranny, too, after doing the gear swap. At one point I simply used a wrench to spin the gears a few times, and it came loose and I can shift it. Unfortunately, that didn't work with the tranny I want to put in my car.

If I can get this sorted out, I'll have a transaxle with a regular diff and a tall 5th gear for sale.

KevinGross

From the location of its shift rod, you have second gear engaged. Banging things with a hammer is not recommended.

Kevin
Catellus Engineering

supes6

I had a similar problem when I did my 5th gear swap, turned out that I didn't have the gear selector tabs aligned properly when I put everything back together. I think I had to pull the rear casing off again and move them into place.

Mark Hubley

I pulled the cover off the passenger side of the tranny to expose the gear selector shaft (part 1 in parts catalog illustration 304-00). Was hoping I could see what was going on and maybe get the three gear shift rods sorted out. What I found is that the nub on the selector shaft is stuck in the 3rd/4th shift rod, in the position toward the back of the transmission. I still can't get that shift rod to move, and I can't take the gear selector shaft out of the case because the nub won't line up with the hole to remove it.

So, looks to me like it's the 3rd/4th shift rod that is stuck. I guess the next step for me is to remove the black cover and expose the rest of the gear set. Hopefully, I can then figure out what's going on and fix the problem.

I wonder if the fact that I can't remove the gear selector shaft will cause me problems in trying to remove the black cover/gear set?