Niels Jørgensen

Just got my car back after a $3K service (well, almost) which I thought fixed all there was to fix, but now I suddenly can't get the damn thing into gear.

1st have always been a little troubelsome (usually put it in 3rd, then 1st), but other gears have been very smooth, now they're all very very difficult.

I understand bad synchros would do this, but the car was fine driving home, then after sitting for 3 hours, it suddenly acts up? I don't get it...

Anyone have any ideas?

If it helps, the story is something like this: The car has had a bleeding servo system for a while, the A/C has been dead and the ABS light has been on for years. Now, a few weeks ago, one of the fans stopped and I decided it was time to get everything fixed. I disassembled the fan and found a broken wire in the motor, easy fix, but then the cooling light came on (You just can't win, can you?).

So, I took it in for service today and they found a broken pipe in the servo system (below radiator), a defect wiring harness in the front right fender area (ABS), empty A/C (was refilled, hoping it doesn't leak) and a crack in the water tank (filler neck)). New harness, pipe and tank have been ordered and will be replaced ASAP, other than that, they did an oil change, cleaned the brakes, balanced the wheels, and replaced filters and wipers etc...

Can't see how this would affect the gearbox, but I'm asking none the less: Could it have?

Sorry for the rambling, and thanks for listening, I'll go talk to Dr. Laphroigh now...

bd0nalds0n

I have no idea about a fix, but I definitely feel your pain and have been there myself. If it's any consolation, it's a transient feeling. It IS possible to get all caught up on everything, and it's hard to express the complete joy when you string together a series of months where everything works perfectly.

Alan

Forward or rear shifter cup - could be a total coincidence...

Pull the leather & rubber sitck shroud & look at the shifter linkage - does the forward linkage pivot move front to back as you move the lever? It should not...

The rear linkage is harder to see...

Alan

Shane

Air in the Master cylinder, probably needs a good bleed. Can you shift into gear with the engine off?

Nicole

Hi Niels:

I'm sorry to hear of these troubles! Please don't drive this beautiful 928 into the ocean - from your house you would not even be able to pick-up enough speed to get it far into the water...

I haven't had a manual 928 in a while, but remember the talk about the broken ball cup, which sometimes seems to start with unprecise shifting. Do you think there might be a problem with the linkage from the gear lever to the transmission? Then it might be that famous shifter cup.

Hopefully you can get everyting resolved soon!

PS: Thanks again for having us -- I'll send you pictures shorty; please tell Malin and Ellin I said "hi"!

Bill Ball

If it's the front ballcup or rear shift coupler, the shifter floats around loosely. How does the clutch operation feel? It may not be fully engaging.

Niels Jørgensen

Brian: I'm sure you're right. The question is how much $ it takes to get there, and if it's worth it. Unfortunately, you won't know untill you're there at which point the answer is somewhat useless

Alan: Thx for the tip, sounds like a simple thing to check...

Shane: Why would there be air in the Master Cylinder?

Nicole: No, I'm not going to drive it into the ocean - it'll probably end up biting me next time I go for a swim, being a shark and all (lame joke courtesy of Dr. Laphroaigh )... Anyway, it was nice having you and you're more than welcome again next time you're in the area.

Niels Jørgensen

Bill, I don't know. The shifter-feel didn't strike me as different from what it used to be, and there was no grinding trying to get it into gear (I suspect there would be if the clutch was not fully engaged). It was more like I had to wiggle it and push/pull real hard to shift (It seemed to be worse when the car was not moving, or maybe this was simply 1st and 2nd being worse than 3rd, dunno...).

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions - I'll check in the morning, it's getting kind of late around here

SharkSkin

Did they bleed the brakes/clutch or change the transaxle grease? If the latter find out what they used. It may be something that is too slippery to let the syncros do their job.

Nicole

I had such a great time there that I hope I'll be able to visit again some day. I don't know when, but I DO know it would have to be summer again...

Mike Frye

Niels,

The forward ball cup and rear coupling would cause the stick to go sloppy and/or completely move around without doing anything. You said it doesn't feel like that, but it grinds when you try to get it into gear.

If it's not the shifter, it's a tranny issue or a burned out clutch. A cheap way to see if there's an issue with the gear oil would be just to change it out with the right stuff (I used Redline after doing searches on here, it's worked great for me).

Is it possible that you got Ferris Buellered? You know, where you drop off the car in good condition and the guy you handed your keys to runs out the back door and jumps in as soon as you pull away?

If you were already having trouble with it, they may have pushed it over the edge with some 'test driving'.

Niels Jørgensen

Dave, no they didn't bleed the brakes or anything of that nature (fluid was changed last year, so there shouldn't be any need to touch it).

Mike, no I said it didn't grind And no, no test drive. I was there all the time, and I really trust these guys, been using them since I got the car and they know what they're doing. If they did something wrong, it would be by mistake, and if they'd noticed, they woud have fixed it, I'm sure...

Nicole, the feeling is mutual and you're right about summer. But even that is no guarantee - right now it's wet cold and windy, you picked a good time to visit .

Shane

When I picked up my second '86.5 from 928 Intl at the '05 Sharktoberfest, it had the same symptoms.

I couldn't engage first or second and sometimes not even third, unless I shut the car off, selected a gear and then I could get her going.

We put it on Marks lift and John Veninger came over and gave us a tech session on adjusting the clutch, which turned out to be adjusted just fine. The only thing that fixed it was when Tom M. bled the master cylinder. After that I was good to go...

Niels Jørgensen

Ok, thx... Still not sure I understand why that would suddenly happen, but I guess I've seen stranger things At least it's a simple (cheap ) thing to try out...

Mike Frye

Sorry, my bad.

So is the shifter sloppy? (even when it's in gear is there a lot of play?) You said it didn't feel different from before, but you didn't say if there was a lot of play in it.
If so, then it could be the ball cup or the rear coupler (front-back play is probably forward shift ball cup, side-side play is more likely rear coupler) bushings/splines. There's also a possibility that it's the clutch release arm bushing I guess.

I know this because in mine I had to replace:
Forward shift ball cup (it popped off and my shifter was just waving around not doing anything) As Alan was first to point out above, if you pull the boot and the part of the shifter that goes forward moves at all, it's this.
Clutch release arm bushing: Mine was gone completely and although it just contributed to the sloppiness, I've seen pictures where it popped off the ball and made it impossible to engage the clutch in other people's cars. This is easy to see at the top of the bell housing behind the airbox.
Rear coupler bushing: I have the bushings on the way for this one and it's (apparently) the easiest of the three to fix.

In my case all three were bad and I had a worn out clutch as well. Ok I may have contributed to that part.

If I'm barking up the wrong tree I apologize. Just wanted to offer other 'weak lnks' to check. (if in fact the '87 has a similar setup to mine).

Good luck and keep us posted on the solution.