78Silver928

I've been trying for an hour or so to snap the new shifter ball cup onto the TT ball at the front with no success. I've been trying the ratchet strap approach, and it looks like I have now bent (slightly) the ball cup shaft. I greased the ball and the cup with white assembly grease, tried heating the ball cup with a heat gun hoping to soften up the plastic to no avail.

Any other ideas?

AirtekHVAC

I have done this twice successfully with a ratchet strap. I snaked the strap around the actual cup, and cranked her down. I broke an el cheapo strap, so use a good one.

9zwei8

I found success using the hose clamp method. Good luck

jwillman

When I did mine the first time with TT in the car I struggled as I could not rotate the ball cup over the top of the ball because of clearance issues between the tunnel and the ball cup and ability to position the rod with it still attached to the shift lever assembly. I was trying to snap it on a diagonal versus straight down.

I was able to get a better angle by disconnecting the rod from the shift lever in the car.

That said the cup liner is designed to snap into the cup and be held in the cup by a lip on the cup. Once I did get the ball to snap on I could still move the arm up and down on the cup liner while the cup liner stayed on the ball. With the arm connected to the shift linkage the top of the tunnel would not allow enough travel for it to come off but I still used a tied wrap to prevent it from coming off.

I would think it would be virtually impossible to seat the cup liner in the cup properly while installed on the car. See photo above of a liner fully seated under the ball cup lip. If not seated the liner sits up above the lip.

I was unaware of this until I replaced it during my TT rebuild. Once its properly seated inside the cup it snaps over the ball much more easily and helps hold the liner onto the ball and into the cup.

Without it seated inside the cup the cup lip is an additional restriction to the cup liner being able to pop over the ball. Have you tried seating the cup liner only and then sliding the cup over the liner and ball? You will have the risk of the arm riding up and maybe off the ball but a tie wrap solves that and you have at least resolved the shifter slop.

Koenig-Specials 928

+1
I used this method 2 times successfully

GlenL

Third alternate:

Crowbar levering against top of tunnel. Or is that the bottom of the tunnel? In any case, levering with small crowbar

Dave928S

As jwillamn said above, be sure you have the plastic ball cup seated fully in the housing, because if it isn't it will be constricted at the opening and it'll be very hard to pop on to the ball. If not clicked into the metal ball cup housing properly the housing can also come off and leave the plastic cup on the ball. It takes a bit of effort to get the new plastic ball cup properly seated behind the lip in the metal housing, as seen in the pic.

78Silver928

Finally got it on the ball after much swearing. I ended up shaving some of the plastic off of the lip otherwise it was never going on. Even then, it took heat and about 400 lbs of force to pull it on. I couldn't get enough force with just the ratchet strap, so I hung a 2x4 inside the strap and pried against the bellhousing with all my weight. Now I can't get that stupid rubber boot over the shift coupler. I can't imagine doing any of this without a lift. I was standing full height under the car and it was still a huge PITA.

Imo000

Next time use a small hydraulic jack and a rope.

78Silver928

So I got the car down to verify that I am getting all the gears now with the shifter coupling and front ball cup replaced and it is much better. Still lots of side to side movement in the shifter when in gear, so I assume it also needs the bushings on the shifter itself? At least those should be A LOT easier, but I just re-installed the center console about a month ago... Now I know why it was out from the previous owner, just like I found out why the interior door panels were off. Ugh. I have refurbished and maintained/ wrenched on many cars over the last 30 years, and this one is tough! Hardest car I've ever had to work on from a serviceability and access standpoint especially. Just hoping the trans doesn't have to come out because with the messy shifter it was grinding in a lot of the gears...

jwillman

The grinding "in a lot" of gears sounds like a clutch travel issue/ engagement issue and not necessarily just sloppy gear shift. There is a shift linkage rigging/ adjustment procedure in the WSM to ensure the gear lever is in the correct neutral/ rest position that allows for travel into each gear position.

I have never driven another manual to judge mine against the/ a norm. All I can say is I have a good forward ball cup, rear shift coupler bushings, shift lever bushings and springs and the shift linkage was rigged in accordance with the WSM and my shift lever has some lateral play when in any gear.

I have also adjusted my clutch and confirmed slave cylinder travel so I know my clutch engages and releases properly.

It goes into all gears without grinding although I feel a little resistance in getting into 2nd. Likely an aging syncro.

78Silver928

I found out last night why the shifter had too much side to side play... the 4mm hex grub screw wasn't tight enough. It had hung up a little on the way in, felt like it was tight... turns out it hadn't come close to bottoming out in the tapered hole in the shaft. Now its good, even got the rubber boot over it. Changed to Redline 70/90 NS that 928 motorsports supplies for these gearboxes. The magnetic plug did have some filings on it, but nothing big, and I have no idea if the grease had ever been changed. I tried to strain the fluid with paper towel to check for any synchro chunks and didn't see anything. Next I will check clutch travel and see if it still needs some bleeding, then give it a drive on the weekend. Fingers crossed it won't need a trans rebuild/ synchros.