Socal_Tom

Good morning - thanks in advance for humoring what I am sure will be a bunch of 928-newbie questions.

I am in the process of waking up a 1984 that has sat for 17 years, and yes I am expecting to have my hands full.

The brake and clutch have come up (but need a full service obviously) and I have all 5 forward gears. Reverse is there but is almost impossible to find. Replacing the shift coupler on my 911 made a huge difference, and I am expecting to have to replace both shift couplers on the 928.

My question is if there are some shifting improvements / things to check I can pursue short of replacing the couplers just to make it easier to find reverse so I can move her around?

Thanks!

worf928

1) Plastic ball cup on forward shift rod: yours is likely a source of slop.
2) Replace the 4 plastic bushings that connect shift lever to the rods (save the old ones)
3) Rear coupler has OE slop. A new one will have 80% of the slop of a very old one. To remedy, take one of the old bushings from step #2 above, cut it in half, stuff one half of the bushing into each side of the rear coupler's pivot pin. (I'll try to find a picture of this later.)

Socal_Tom

Thanks Dave.

Sorry for the newbie question, but can I get to any of those from inside the car? Don't think so from doing some searching here, but seems worth asking.

Wisconsin Joe

No. You can get to the rear coupler from underneath without removing anything. You can get to the front ball cup sort of. It's a pain without dropping the Torque Tube, but it can be done.

If you don't have access to a lift, get a set of liftbars. They make getting the car up in the air a lot easier, and give you an extra inch or two when it's up. It's amazing how much difference that extra little bit makes.

No worries on the "newbie questions", as a friend of mine once said:

"There's no need to apologize for your ignorance, unless you do nothing to correct it."

Socal_Tom

Thanks Joe - so get her in the air and do a visual inspection of the rear coupler and go from there as a decent first step?

Socal_Tom

Does this look like a stock shifter rod linkage that is attached to the shifter ?

worf928

... as W.Joe writes:

Exactly.

Yup. The front cup is much easier to do if you have the exhaust and heat shields partially out of the way. It can be done quickly if you have made/bought special tools for the occasion (or so I'm led to believe.)

Yup. Also 'fun' to do with the torque tube in the car.

Here's a picture of how to 'fix' the slop in the rear coupler. You are seeing 1/2 of one of the old bushings you'll remove (in order to replace with new) from the shift rod coupling. You'll stick 1/2 of a bushing on each side if the coupler into the gap between the pivot pin and the surrounding bushing.

AirtekHVAC

I did the front ball cup on the 78 and the 82 by just removing the heat shield. Replaced the rear coupling on the 78 in less than 30 mins. I think I am going to try a lizard shifter on the 79 and eliminate the front ball cup altogether.