TTJunkie

My shifter's "soft stops" (the left spring must be pushed thru to select 1st and 2nd gear, the right must be pushed thru to select 5th and 6th) disappear when I'm racing? Even the firmer spring for reverse is lost.
I suspect it's because I have water-to-air intercooler lines routed next to the shifter, since the problem only occurrs when I'm racing.
Maybe it's just an old part?
Maybe I need a heat shield?
Does anyone have a clue what could cause this problem?

ivangene

thats strange....

I had a high school buddy that bought too long of hearter hoses once, and instead of just cutting them to length, he thought it was best to keep them long incase they broke, he could just remove the section with the hole and keep right on going. So where did he put the extra hose lengths.... he wrapped them around his electric fuel pump......


if your soft stops are not there when racinig, I would ask Tippy (Cory) what he thinks you should do.....my guess is fix it and fix it quick - you can pick up a new (pre-owned) shift assy for under $100 and the swap is a walk in the park.....

Tippy

Thanks Ed. Although I am ignorant to the manual shifter of the 996, I had a Tip afterall.

Can you reroute the lines and do a simple test like your hypothesis suggest?

ivangene

I dont race - so I thought I would leave this one for you

Tippy

Well, we all saw what happened when I ran my car down the 1/4 the last time...

The Porsche Gods came down on me for drag racing a 911.

Tippy

TT - we need pics of your beast, sounds like a bad ****.....

htny

sounds like combination of heat and wear (or adrenaline), your intuition is probably right. not sure if heat shield will be effective.

send a Private Message to Rick DeMan (or post this in the Racing/DE forum).

And Cory is right, we need pics!

Best,
Hans

Tippy

Good mental analysis Hans

I think your on to the reasoning.

TTJunkie

I'm usually pretty cool about racing; heartbeat below 60 and no tension. I seem to "sink into speed" rather than build from it. Then again, there was the time my brake pedal went all the way to the floor approaching a turn at 130 MPH... I race with Motul or Super Blue now.

ivangene

are we talking DE's or race

not that it matters

htny

Lacking a degree in thermodynamics, the best I can do is assume something is overwhelming the springs! Me, sometimes I'm just happy the tip shifts up at redline

I remember telling a kid last year who was remarking at how fast the car can get up and go "The motor only gets you in trouble, it's the brakes that save you". No worse feeling than losing em!

With the above caveat regarding my qualifications or lack thereof, if it's heat, there's very little on a racecar cheaper than a little heatshield to try out, but be careful as it can also keep heat inside what you're trying to shield. So shielding the assembly itself would probably work, but I wouldn't wrap the lines. I wouldn't attempt it during a race, but if you can get some practice time in it's worth a test.

Cory's original suggestion to attempt to reroute the lines is better but I'm sure if you're running past the shifter you don't have enough slack to really try running around the side of the car. As Ed mentioned a new assembly isn't going to break the bank either, might be worth opening up the assembly to see if something's off.

I have a feeling that heat would make those springs tighter due to expansion, but hey it could also make them less tensile and therefore easier to compress regardless of expansion.

Let us know if you figure anything out, and definitely PM Rick, if anybody would know off the top of their head it would be him, he's seen a ton of modified cars in racing conditions and will be able to tell you if it's something common and easy.