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What's the latest on the 5sp shifter centering spring? Still NLA from Porsche and no one replicating them now? I fear I'm in need of one as my shifter feels like I'm just stirring pudding and the 4-5 plane is no longer to be found
It might just be broken bushings but there is absolutely NO resistance across the shifter until I hit the reverse spring. Have to drop the TT anyway to replace the bearings so I thought I'd ask.
What year is your car? Different years have different centering solutions. The early transmissions (I think pre 87) have a coil-centering spring and are not susceptible to failing,
If you have a later transmission, stop driving the car until you figure out where the problem is. You can damage your transmission. Just ask me Broken 5spd.
Once you have ruled out the bushings and are confident the issue is in the transmission, I would recommend draining the trans front and rear and look for metal fragments on the magnets and use a magnet probe to get inside the case to look for debris,
Definitely stop driving the car and get the pieces out. The pieces from these springs will destroy gears....quickly. Replacement "gears" are expensive and some are very difficult to obtain.
The centering spring you need was available in 3 different configurations and started in 1985. (You would need to latest version made, if you could find one.
All the different versions are NLA.
There were some "reproductions" available, but they lacked the required precision dimensions of the originals and took some considerable work to make fit and function correctly.
Used springs are generally cracked, bent, or worn.
If you can find a used one, it is impossible to know when they are going to break (and they will), giving you a second chance at ruining gears.
The transmission can be converted to the early style springs, but it will "center" in 4th and 5th, instead of 2nd and 3rd.
People heat and bend the early springs to make the gearshift lever center in 2nd and 3rd, but heating and bending a spring will result in the spring breaking 100% of the time....resulting the same chance of ruining gears.
....There's no really elegant solution, at this time.
Since replacements seem not to be on the horizon in the foreseeable future, are there adverse consequences of running without any spring at all once the pieces are out, apart from the vague gear selections and the obvious risk of missing the intended gear and downshifting when you meant to upshift?
That in itself would seem to be more destructive and a bigger hit on the wallet than just a broken gearbox.
Do most people convert to the old setup and live with the 4/5 center, or go without a spring at all? Is a gated shifter housing doable? I've had a car with a gated shifter and the concept seemed quite simple
Since replacements seem not to be on the horizon in the foreseeable future, are there adverse consequences of running without any spring at all once the pieces are out, apart from the vague gear selections and the obvious risk of missing the intended gear and downshifting when you meant to upshift?
That in itself would seem to be more destructive and a bigger hit on the wallet than just a broken gearbox.
Do most people convert to the old setup and live with the 4/5 center, or go without a spring at all? Is a gated shifter housing doable? I've had a car with a gated shifter and the concept seemed quite simple
No harm in driving the car without a functional spring, however the "larger," piece that Michael pictured will not come out of the drain hole.
The "earlier" version of this spring was retained on a pin with a circlip and thus could not fall off the pin and "go through" the gears.
In 1987, they changed the design and deleted the circlip. Thus, it it possible for that larger piece of the spring to come off of the pin and then "go through" the gears.
Think "spoon in garbage disposal" event, with garbage disposal being damaged also.
In short, you are going to want to get all the pieces out, which means the transmission will need to be removed.
Some people go without any spring. Some people use the earlier springs and associated pieces.
Thus far, I've been able to hunt down used springs, in good condition, to repair the transmissions that I rebuild, which have a broken or cracked spring. However, these are becoming few and far between.
01-20-2023, 05:35 PM
5sp Shifter Centering Spring
