Factory lever vs. short lever:

 

That is not tall enough for me. I'd hate to feel I was manipulating a nipple down there.

 

Does that extra spacing between the pivot and rod points change the shifting rod travel angle or increase the stress on any of the other parts? I am a bit concerned about how this changed geometry affects the amount of friction on other parts of the transmission and/or linkage.

 

Flott, everything fits just fine as far as I could tell. There is actually a fair bit of flexibility in both the front and rear rods. I agree with the inititial post, that the shifting feels much more "crisp" with the short shifter.

If you are going to do this mod, I highly recommend you also do the front ball cup replacement at the same time. It is not a while-you-are-in-there maintenance item because you get to the ball cup from under the car, but a worn ball cup makes for very sloppy shifting, and you have the opportunity to make the ball cup replacement job easier with the front rod disconnected from the shifter.

Also the "set" of the shifter is determined by the distance the ball cup is threaded onto the front rod, so you can make this adjustment at the same time. You need to get it almost right the first time though, because once the new cup is mounted down on the ball it is going to be very difficult to get it off. The cup locks onto the rod with a lock nut, so there is the ability to put the lock nut on "not too tight" and then be able to twist the front rod a revolution in either direction to get the "set" just right. I will post a diagram below.

 

shifter diagram: The front rod ball cul seats on a ball welded to the top of the torque tube.

 

Thanks, Gretch. You are a wealth of useful information. Can you please elaborate on how you know the "set" is just right? Is that just centering the shifter or something else? Do any of the Big 3 provide intallation instructions with the new ball cup? I assume they do for the short shifter, right?

 

The instructions usually go something like "count the number of threads (rotations to remove) the old ball cup as it was installed on the rod, and match that number when reinstalling the new ball cup. That is just fine if the original "set" is ok with you, and maybe not so if you are significantly reducing the height of the shifter. The way to determine what is right, is to perform two tests.

1) sit in the car in the drivers seat (seat adjusted to your favorite driving position), with the shifter in the neutral plane. Does it feel right? shift it up to second and then down to third, does it feel right.

2) when the shifter is in the neutral plane, how does the shifter boot fit? shift to 2nd, how does it fit? Shift to 3rd, how does it fit. If the boot is being streached against the base frame, in either gear selection, you MAY want to adjust the set.

And yes the shifter I bought from Dave came with installation instructions. I posted about the install when I did it (as well as when I did the ball cup install). You can go look at those posts for a bit more "color"

 

Sterling , trans must come out for any internal repairs .

 

Sterling,

It may be as simple as loosening the rear shifter rod connection at the tranny (splined) and with someone under the car while you are inside..shift into 3 to pull the rod out of the splines...rotate the lever to where you want..ie pull it toward you and then (making sure it is positioned) shift up to 2 pushing the rod back on the splines and tighten the locking collar.

Did this on my 84 about 4 times before I got the positioning right...
Good luck,

Later,
Tom
midlman@rennlist.net
89GT

 

Relative has '78 where we installed '85 gearbox. Both of these boxes display same symptom of wanting to keep lever between 4-5 instead of 2-3. We couldn't find anything really wrong on either one on that regard. How exactly it's decided where lever stays on neutral? Two springs fighting it out or some other method? Now '85 box needs to come down so would like to get it right this time.

Erkka

1992 928 GTS 5-speed lever in the middle
fluid that came out
Oak Green Metallic 22L
Classic Gray MX

 

This is great! Takes away one of the things I did not likek about my previous 928 - a '91 GT.

Now, if someone could make that clutch pedal adjustable, so it would not have to be depressed so far down... (or give that a shorter "throw" as well)

 

Ok,

Not sure if this will load or not but here goes. This is the "cut down" version on my 79 with the original Porsche GTS boot.

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/memberupload.php

 

Ok,

One more time.

 

How bout a side view for good measure. It only took me a year to figger this out!!!!

 

Nice interior! Especially the dash and console!