bott63

Yikes!!

A new noise I've never heard before, that is giving me a very sick feeling...

Let me preface this by saying this '85 Carrera OEM 915 tranny has never been worked on, and has 136k miles. Clutch, while it has 70k miles since replacement, does not slip. Yes of course it has normal wear of a tranny this old. I don't speed shift, and never slip it in to first without being completely stopped. The noise it makes is not the typical "grind" you would hear when attempting to shift too quickly, or if dumb enough to attempt to shft into first while rolling at 10 mph... When shifting from 1st to 2nd, at ~3k rpm, with clutch still engaged attempting to go to 2nd, I heard a sound that was like a Skill Saw cutting through 3/4" plywood. Very high pitched and high rpm... It did go into gear with only slightly more effort required... I tried again, and the same thing happened... I then avoided 2nd gear for the rest of my commute... As I neared the end of my drive, it started to do the same thing going into 4th gear... After I parked the car, I left the engine running, clutch engaged, and was able to go through all the gears with NO noise or trouble... I still have no problem getting into 1st, and reverse... For now...

whirring noise only occurs when car is moving, and any attempt is made to put into 2nd or 4th gear. Clutch pedal in and car moving, as soon as I move towards 2nd, the whirring starts.. If I hold that position, and slowly stop the car, the whirring slows down and stops when the car stops moving forward. I can put the car in 2nd gear when the car is stopped, and move forward with no clutch slippage... As soon as I attempt to move out of 2nd, the whirring noise starts again, and ceases as soon as the shifter is in nuetral position, moving into 3rd with no noise or problem. Moving into 4th, is a repeat of the problem shifting into 2nd...

I know I'm probably running on borrowed time for the clutch, but is my tranny done too?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Peter Zimmermann

bott: Has anything changed with your shift linkage? Over many years I found that transmission noises are very difficult to diagnose based on owner dialog. However, because the problem is in 2nd and 4th, those gears share a directional position in the shift pattern, the first thing that I would look at is your shifter. Open your drivers door, put a blanket/pad on the ground, kneel down and lean into the car so your head is in front of the bottom of your driver's seat. Look across at the shifter, with it in the neutral position. You will have to move the shifter boot as necessary to expose the bottom few inches of the lever, where it comes out of the tower. That part of the lever should be vertical, if it isn't corrective adjustment must be made at the coupler, which is located under a metal plate at the rear, top of the center tunnel. Sometimes, to assess if the lever is vertical, it helps to open the passenger door and place something in your sight line to help. Also, there is always fore/aft motion in the lever, the middle of the travel is when the lever should be vertical. No promises, but this is the best place to start!
Pete

bott63

Thanks Pete!

I'm a bit star struck having you respond to my post... Your book is one of the MAIN reasons I purchased this Carrera after a year long search in 1999.

I will take a look as you suggested. It makes more sense to me that this might be linkage related. I just have a feeling if I had someone with your experience take the car for a 30 second test drive, they would probably know exactly what it was. While I do perform a fair amount of maintanence on this car, I'm a little hesitant to work on the transmission. This due to the fact that it is nearing the end of its useful life, I don 't want to push it over the edge by doing something wrong... My goal was to get to 150k, and then replace the clutch & have the tranny rebuilt. Original clutch was replaced at about 65k miles.

I just got off the phone with my independent mechanic, and he thinks it might be either the coupler or the bushings in the coupler have gone bad? I will look in the access port that is just in front of the rear seats for a little look-see... I was told that there should be no more than maybe 1/16th inch of play? I will get back to you...

Thanks again!

Patrick