jeff968

Years ago there was a guy in the UK that tracked 968s that had the pinion bearing issue. His name was Martin and he actually built a database of impacted cars. His intention was to show the problem was large enough to pressure Porsche into doing a factory recall. It ended up not being that large and he was not successful.

I'm curious about his data as I was recently told that this PB issue is confined to the 92 and 93 968s and largely addressed on the later cars. I had never heard that before so I wondered if Martin's data was still around to support the statement?

Anybody remember it and know if it is still out there?

Thanks
Jeff

thomasmryan

This one?

jeff968

You are good! Honest, I did google looking for it first.

Interesting results, across all years

thomasmryan

I plan on using 'testing for pinion whine' the next time I go in front of a judge.

Jay Wellwood

chudson

Several people have recited the story (hearsay - speculation - urban myth - bar talk?) that due to some calibration issue with some piece of equipment, something got over-torqued during the assembly of the transmission and for this reason, the pinion bearings tend to fail prematurely. And the story goes on to claim that this was discovered, corrected, and a later production can may not experience the same issue. I have certainly heard of more '92 and '93 failures, but more '92 and '93 cars were built, so that may be the reason for the disparity in the numbers.

Perhaps one of our transmission builders can shed some light. I know that the PO of my '93 had the pinion bearing replaced and my '92 trans needs it now...

jeff968

If you look at Martin's data it looks like 94s are the most prevalent.

odurandina

my 1st transmission went 199 k miles w/ no problems. my car is a '94.

2nd transmission built by Kevin Gross works perfectly.... w/ shimmed pinion bearing set to K-Gross spec.

KevinGross

Chudson, alas I can't confirm your information as to model years, it could indeed be correct but I haven't seen enough to say one way or another. Yes, it appears to have been an issue with the set up done by the factory. I measure and reset both pinion depth and pinion bearing preload, always, 'cause you just never know. This problem also existed for some of the 944S2 transmissions.

Odur, glad to hear you're happy with the work! Cheers,

odurandina

Thanks Kevin. 27 k miles on her already!!

thems long 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gears have her skipping along the clouds in supercar heaven.