Rob Roy

I was able to source most of the components from a junkyard for an auto to manual swap for my 88. They came from a 87 with 57k miles. Anything I should do to the tranny before installation other than fluid change?

Thanks

RyanPerrella

replace the top cover gasket with the updated one that includes a paper cover over the breather hole to prevent oil shooting out the breather which is very common

Mrmerlin

replace the input shaft seal and the shifter seal. With the top cover open inspect the gears and see if there are any broken parts inside, usually the reverse lockout spring snaps, this could be laying in the bottom of the trans

Rob Roy

Thanks Guys!

blown 87

Rob, could you make a list of the parts needed for that?
I plan on doing the conversion next winter.

Hilton

Bump with a question..

How to get the shifter seal around the selector shaft out? I had a look at it and worry that getting it out might damage the bore and cause a leak.

I just had to order some huge circlip pliers to take the input shaft seal and cap out (to replace the o-ring too).. so looking at how to use up the rest of the gasket kit while the trans is on my bench

Mike Frye

Hilton,

I can't help with the seal removal although whenever there's something like that my rule is to use something softer than the surface you're going to be working with. Can you make a hook or pick out of brass or aluminum to get it out? That shouldn't scratch the bore, should it?

For anyone else doing a search here I would add to the original advice to check the reverse lock out spring as well. It has a two-step failure mode. First one side of the spring goes and it gives less resistance, then it finally lets go on the other side and you have a piece of spring steel sitting in your box (hopefully stuck to the plug magnet) and the shifter has no 'feel' whatsoever. These are (AFAIK) NLA from Porsche for now so good luck if it's broken, but it's something you'll want to know if it's going.

Mrmerlin

drill a small hole in the face of the seal closer to the outer edge then put a sheet metal screw in the the hole use this to pry the seal out

Hilton

Thanks Stan - this is what I did for my crank's front main seal.. was just concerned that in this case the selector shaft seal is very small and not much clearance for a screw or a drill (angle is tight due to the shaft).

Here's a couple of pics of the seal - one in place, and the new one for size.

Wondering if I should just leave it well alone, and only replace the input shaft seal (which leaks slightly.. surprise surprise ).

Hilton

The bore the selector shaft seal is in looks to be brass - its pressed into the casing. I don't want to deal with getting it out - it looks like I'd need to empty the casing and drive it out with a mandrel

The reverse lockout spring is a good point.. see attached pic

It failed and was drained out of the gearbox before I took ownership of the car. Thankfully, the shifter centering spring looks to be fine, no cracks and its all intact.. so I can afford to wait until the factory produces another run of them and takes them off the NLA list.

Hilton

One more pic for the interested.. this is the HUGE circlip holding in the cap for the input shaft bearing.

You can see scratch marks on the circlip - my pliers aren't big enough for the job, so I've ordered some large industrial circlip pliers for it.

Behind the cap is an o-ring, and the seal is in the cap, so I can press out/in the seal on the press (same as doing differential side plates).

I'm doing all this as I had the gearbox out anyway to upgrade the transaxle to a limited slip differential (was open diff from factory).

Mrmerlin

yes you would need a long drillbit to make a small hole in the shifter seal so this may not be the best solution .
Of course its much easier to replace the shifter seal when the rod is out of the way

Hilton

Yep, I've decided to leave that seal alone.. I don't want to risk causing a leak where there was none.

So I just need to replace the remaining two o-rings (counter shaft, and input shaft bearing cap), input shaft bearing seal, and the top gasket.. then fill with oil and put it back in the car.

Getting closer to driving my '89 again...

Vilhuer

Just take selector shaft out and change that last seal while at it. You can check small shaft bearings at same time if box is '87-95 version.