Gear lever slop

[jwindwood]

Guys
The gearlever in my 1985 944 has a lot of sideways slop. I would like to tighten it up-what is the best way to go about it?
Many thanks.

 

[sulzeruk]

Drill out the operating rod to 11.4mm, get a new gearlever and bush and put in 968 plastic bushes.
Alasdair

 

[jwindwood]

Thanks for that, but as I'm unfamiliar with the mechanism, where would I find the operating rod on the car?
Replace gearlever and bush with new standard parts? Would the 968 bushes be for the drilled out rod ?
Many thanks.

 

[Lowtimer]

See here:
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=475449

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Jon Mitchell was doing a recon service. I don't know if he still is.

 

[sulzeruk]

I don't know why they centre punch it as the gearlever circlip fits in nicely to the slot with the bushes installed. As long as it is well greased, it will never wear the end of the plastic bush.
Alasdair

 

[jwindwood]

So drill out the rod to 11.4mm, use the 968 bushes and keep the original retaining circlip?

 

[sulzeruk]

Yes, yes and yes. If you remove the gear lever gator, you will find the rod, you may have to loosen the lockwired pinch bolt on the gearbox end to get the rod round far enough to easily drill it.
Alasdair

 

[jwindwood]

Many thanks ! []

 

[robwright]

It is possible to shim the selector linkage at the gearbox. This gets worn and can be the cause of a lot of the side to side slop. I did it just last week with some shims I fashioned from a beer can. I was quite happy with the results and the beer []

 

[Fat Albert]

If you don't fancy all that drillin'n'sh!t then just buy a new gearstick and bearing from OPC for £38 delivered and spend 20 mins replacing it, it reduced my slop by about 75%
see this thread:
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=645003&mpage=1&key=gear%2Clever

 

[robwright]

Albert you may have got lucky with that but as per your post and mike's pics most of the slop comes from the plastic bush on the gear linkage at the transaxle. only 2 or 3 mm slop at that end translates into a lot at the stick end.

 

[jwindwood]

Thanks guys. I'm going to start with a new stick and bottom bearing and see what difference that makes. Rob-do you have any more detail about how you shim the linkage? I haven't been underneath it yet!

 

[Mike_Pollock]

There are a couple of pics in this thread showing the cross piece http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=645003&mpage=1&key=gear%2Clever

Its easy to take the rear assembly off - slide the shafts out, keeping track of the shims, rubbers etc, cut a strip out of a Boddingtons beer can (MUST be Boddingtons []) the correct width bend it round the shaft and cut to length (one I played with needed 2 turns of beer can), repeat for the other shaft and reassemble.

Call me - no below - if you want to talk it through!