"Bus Shifter"? Is that a subtle joke?

I got the rear shaft out last night, it was fairly easy, but the coupler has to come off, then the rest of the shaft can be snaked out by the front of the transmission.

The head of the pin shows that it's been moving around quite a bit. I'll get it welded at work today, then try to get it back in this evening... let everyone know how it works.

 

Just to wrap up:

I welded the pin on the rear shift shaft, the one that is in the lower hole of the shift lever. I drilled and pinned the rear coupler with a 1/2" pin (12.7mm versus the original 11.9 mm) made from a transfer punch (which took up the slack in the oval bushing holes). Finally, I cut the shift handle 50mm shorter.

During reinstall I found it difficult to get third, even though everthing else felt 100% better. A little digging found the cup had moved up on the front ball socket (bushing previously replaced). So I supplemented my wide tie wrap with a hose clamp (about 6" diameter) and tightened up the front linkage.

I also left out the springs on the shifter... frankly because they were so difficult to install, and I didn't see the functionality.

Result: Tight shifter in all gears... very nice action... a little higher effort than before, but not bad... and no more sloppy shifter! And at least as tight as my wife's brand new Honda... which is what it should be. Awesome! Highly recommended!

Now, on to rear wheel bearings and lower ball joints when the package comes from 928 specialists!

 

Bus,

Nice write-up and good work. How was it replacing the forward shift ball bushing? I bought the whole cup, but I can't get in there to change it out and then realized that I could just replace the bushing.

 

Sorry, being a little slow this morning, but would love to see another annotated picture showing weld (or location of) & etc--

 

In this photo, the upper pin goes to the left, that is the front shift shaft that connects to the ball and socket on the top of the torque tube. The lower pin goes to the right, that is the rear shift shaft that goes to the coupler on the input shaft of the transmission. The head of the pin is visible to the left of the text box that says "This one is pressed through". The head of the other pin is not very visible, however, it was pushed into the shaft, and then welded. The head of the rear shaft was just pushed in, no weld. This had moved around in the shaft slightly until it continued to build more and more clearance. So, I took the shaft out and welded the pin in.

 

You have to remove the cup either way. then you can decide to only change the plastic bushing or the entire cup. The exhaust has to come off and you'll have to take the shifter inside the car apart. Getting to the locking nut for the ball cup is very time consuming. There isn't much room but with a very small pipe wrench (smallest you can buy) it's doable. Plan to spend at least one weekend day on it.

 

Hi, I did just that, I kept the OB length, but reduced the throw by increasing the spacing between the two holes at the bottom of the lever. (cutting/welding).

 

I have just replaced the rear bushings and in the process of doing that discovered exactly the problem that BUS had. The pin in the rear shaft was LOOSE. I changed the bushings and brazed the pin back in and the shift is much better now both fore and aft and side to side. The 130,000 miles old bushings didn't look any different to the new ones.

One procedural note for anyone else doing this - I struggled to get the rear rod forwards enough to get the rear coupler
off - remove the shifter lever first - lets the rear rod move a lot further.