palmxp3

Just picked up my '93 C2 and love how it drives but want to improve the steering and shifter mostly. I'd like to keep the car 100% streetable.

The steering feels tight and direct but a little too light and I want to improve feel. I plan to buy the Rothsport brace and bushings. What other upgrades can be done to improve the steering without going too crazy and affecting reliability/street use?

The shifter assembly feels pretty loose and the travel too long. I suspect the bushings are pretty worn out. Few questions regarding that:

- Debating between the FD SSK w/ RS shifter vs FD SSK w/Rothsport billet shifter. Is there big improvement going with the Rothsport? Does going with a full single billet unit introduce too much NVH?

- Is the FD Golden rod upgrade worth while?

- What else would I need to replace while I'm in there?

Lastly, there is a slight resistance shifting out of gear when coming to a stop. No problem shifting while accelerating or if I give it a little throttle while slowing down. Also no problem if the car is almost completely stopped. Could the motor mounts be sagging and causing this?

911Jetta

I recently upgraded both the steering and the shifting on my 964.

The brace and upgraded bushings definitely gives the steering a little heavier feel, but it's subtle. I like it though.

On to the rear. I got the FD ssk with billet shifter. BUT I also had a Function First trans mount installed at the same time, so I can't fully address whether NVH is increased on the billet version, but my feeling is most likely not much if at all. I just liked the look and that it was a single, solid piece. The first to second shift is just awesome.

My favorite mod after this latest round of mods was the function first orange 60a transmission mount though. It really tightens up the car (on/off throttle is super tight now!), but there is a slight buzz in my seat (not annoying, just very RS feeling). Two weeks later I barely can feel the buzz, but I definitely love the throttle response.

mystert

These made a huge improvement in mine-




http://www.tarett.com/items/993-964-...rtr-detail.htm

boostedt0y

I recently installed a Rothsport billet short shifter, FD golden rod, and FD forward rod in my C2. The shifting is buttery smooth and very mechanical in feel. No increase in NVH at all going from the stock shifter to the Rothsport setup. I'm still on OEM trans mount and engine mounts.

I think the Rothsport setup may be better than if not as good as the cup shifter and cup cable setup I have in my 997.2 GT3 track car. My GT3 shifter setup has a shorter throw than the Rothsport setup in my C2, but the Rothsport setup is very smooth compared to the clunky shifting in my GT3.

As for steering, I recently installed a smaller diameter steering wheel (Momo mod 07) and that made a huge difference in steering feel. With the OEM steering wheel, the steering felt a bit lazy especially coming from my GT3. But adding the smaller diameter wheel made the car feel much more reactive to steering inputs imo. If the steering effort is too light for you, adding more caster will increase steering effort.

I have the Rothsport steering rack brace with poly bushings, new OEM outer tie rods, and ERP RSR inner tie rods to install. I'm sure that combined with an aggressive alignment should further improve steering feel.

Spyerx

dont read my build thread :-)
if you do the shifter do it all (rothsport good) and also do the motor mounts
on the steering, minimum is get rid of the rubber mess that is the inner tie rod mounts. ERP / Tarrett have them. Rack brace and bushings good.
And an alignment
And agree on the steering wheel. The OEM wheel is like school bus size.

Marine Blue

Being new to 964 ownership I can’t offer much feedback for the suspension as I’m about to go through the same upgrades you’re considering.

But I did recently try a friends 993 with the goldenrod and I immediately noted the mechanical, smooth and direct shifting. After trying it I’m thinking of going in the same direction.

palmxp3

Thanks Jetta, I think I may just go with the billet version. I too was looking at the FF 60a trans mount. I don't mind a little buzzing as description on the throttle would be a great trade-off.

The outer tie rods, ball joints, and stabilizer supports were just replaced but I don't think the inners were addressed yet so I'll add these to the list. Does an alignment need to be done when these are changed? The car recently had an expensive corner balance done so these may have to wait if so.

I was looking at the same Momo steering wheel as well but had concerns of running a street car with no air bags. I mainly wanted it to improve the driving position but what you described seems to fix a lot of what I feel could be better too.

Haha, I've definitely seen your build and love what you've done so far. What mounts would you recommend for a street car? I was thinking Wevo black mounts.

If you do wind up upgrading, definitely share your impressions!

Spyerx

Wevo are really nice for mounts. You could do the OEM RS mounts, I think the Wevo are nicer.

Silvertarga

I did the RS shifter and goldenrod and noticed a major improvement (albeit my original shifter bushing literally fell off when I removed the boot). I also did 993 motor mounts at the same time since my originals were pretty well shot. Since then I changed to Wevo Blacks and added the Function First mount reinforcement.
I dont think it can get any better . I know the wevos did a world of good, cant say how much the Function First reinforcement did but it was cheap enough . Note THAT installation of the Function first required dropping the transmission a bit so you have to disconnect the shift linkage and definitely need soapy water to slide that in!

Super90

I'm wondering how much of the "improvements" people notice are due to the upgraded part(s), or just due to the fact that the original is almost fully worn out? If nothing is new, the original parts are almost certainly out of spec on all these cars due to age...

I guess I'm going to have to buy an RS shifter and golden rod to know. : )

I already fully "freshened" the stock set up with new bushings a bit ago, so we have a definite baseline.

boostedt0y

I recently purchased my 964 and it had 33k miles on it when I removed the stock shifter and associated linkage. I did the work myself and all the oem components looked brand new still. The rothsport shifter, fd golden rod and fd forward rod significantly improved shifter feel.

911Jetta

That's true, and in many cases I'm sure just replacing a worn item with a new "stock" part with make a satisfactory improvement.

But as great as the 964 is, I'm sure the factory saved money in lots of little places, and that makes room for lots of cleverly designed aftermarket parts.

That said, I'm looking to make my car "sharper", so I model my replacement parts strategy after the RS. I feel that makes them better, but with a much narrower focus, benefit. I know my parts will be better because of the trade offs usually mentioned at purchase. For example:

Motor mounts:
Wevo/RS motor mounts. Better at keeping the car stable, but more vibrations. Simpler part, maybe lasts longer.

In the case of my Rothsport shifter:
Steering rack brace:

palmxp3

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Have the following parts ordered up so far:

- Wevo (blacks inserts)
- Rothsport steering brace and bushings
- Rothsport billet shifter, FD forward and golden rods
- FF 60A trans mount insert

Still deciding on which inner tie rods to order (Tarrett/FVD) and steering wheel. So far learning towards the Momo heritage prototipo but might want the deeper dish of the Mod 07: https://www.momo.com/en-us/product/prototipo-black/

I wanted to do these in stages to see which part affected what, but with driving season coming to an end here I might have to do them all at once when the car's in storage for the winter.

Goughary

The ff transmission mount is largely useless. You will feel a very very marginal difference, but you will also feel, in terms of the ratio for what you get in performance, relative to the increase in nvh, you get a lot of added noise.

Not that i didn’t like mine- i did. Just sayin, if that part is something that is going to cost you money to install, wait until the trans or trans mount is out for some other reason, clutch, etc, and toss it in then.

I took mine out when looking to track down a noise. So I’ve had it back to back a few times now. I like it. But i wouldn’t spend money to install one. Just throwing that out there to save you a few pennies.

This has been a good thread. There has been a lot of good advice and a lot of pointing to other good advice.

Those tarret inners are going to be great. Don’t put off sport bushings up front. They make an enormous difference. Tightening up our cars was a lot of fun, and hugely transformative.

I think I’m going to make a new dbfd t shirt “stay corrected my friends”....lol

The Greek

So I actually got around to installing the steering bushings and brace from Rothsport last night. I’m worried about that brace. There are 4 hydraulic lines that touch the brace. I was able to bend two out of the way. The other two still touch, so I cut the stock bushings and put them under the lines to protect them from rubbing on the brace. Not sure if the benefit outways the risk. Change was subtle but nice.

For the record, I have a 91 C2. I’ll post pics about the install.