^^ Rennlist greatness.^^


Andreas

 

+1 Chris is so helpful!!

 

Update. Sorry for being so remiss. My German buddy called up last Friday and said he'd told my symptoms to several mechanic buddies and all but one were stumped. The one who said he knew exactly what the problem was, was Bobby from California Motorsports. I called him up, gave my name and his first words were, "Oh yeah. You got problems." My German buddy told me "Unlike most Germans, I know when to surrender." He said I had to take it to Bobby. So I rented a car, as my motorcycle is my main transportation now, and made the 400 mile roundtrip to Lake Havasu City, AZ to drop my tranny off with Bobby. He opened the shop for me on Sunday. We spent about an hour looking around at all the Porsche gearboxes he had apart in his shop (one was even a 2010 997 tranny from Australia), his jigs and fancy machining machines, amazing parts stock and discussing my tranny. He had another tranny just like mine all apart and showed me what he was sure my problem was. He says my 3rd gear shift fork is bent or broken and my differential's needle bearings have all fallen out and are at the bottom of the case. After he showed me up close how the whole tranny goes together with the steel jelly beans and tiny springs in this or that divet, I was relieved I wasn't DIY'ing this. He said lots of folks try it and end up having to redo it as soon as they test drive it. Man, I do not EVER want to do this job again. I'm still fearing reinstall. So Bobby said he'll have a diagnosis this week, but it looks like I'm gonna get away with something short of a full rebuild, but will need a new diff., which he uses older G50's sans needle bearings for and one of his custom-made billet shift forks. If the trauma isn't too horrible and Santa is very good to me, we'll discuss some regearing. Check out his site - www.californiamotorsports.net. His site doesn't do his shop justice. I've never felt better about having a toy in someone's hands than I do with Bobby.

Chris, thanks so much for the tools. I'll hold onto them until Bobby starts work on my tranny, just in case. But will have them back to you soon. Will report back as soon as I know more. Bobby said he'll be sending me photos of everything.

 

You are in good hands with Bobby! Anxious to see what went wrong inside that thing.

 

+1, Chris is being very generous.

Do you have some type of reference manual you are using for the teardown? If I was in your shoes, I would really consider a "trans refresh". I have heard some people mention this, Steve W for one, but not sure what all is involved.

 

I didn't do the teardown beyond pulling the nose cone off and seeing a very loose nut and a chewed up reverse idler gear. I know there are problems deeper down. I have the factory manuals for this, but it's still a daunting task that requires a well trained eye.

 

Standard trans refresh involves replacing synchros (usually w/ steel ones), examining shift forks and the state of all of the gearsets.

If you have a LSD, it probably needs to be refreshed, and if you don't is a good time to go get one.

Its not cheap, as my friend Alex just got his tranny back from one, but its insurace against more catastropic things.

-reiner