Jim Chambers

Slope is getting slippery. Is there a measurement to check clutch? Car has 134,000 miles with no record of clutch replacement. It works very well with no bearing noise.

Mrmerlin

see the WSM use the hole at the bottom of the bell housing to measure

Carl Fausett

Jim,

You will get the torque tube away from the floor pan if you lower the engine just a little.

This is why i recommend that you service the shifter ball cup when you service the oil pan gasket and motor mounts. Withe the motor mounts out to replace them, you lower the motor a bit and the shifter ball cup becomes much easier to service. You can even get at it from the top then by removing the air filter box and diving over the fender :-)

Jim Chambers

Carl, hoping you see this belated question. I am finally ready to tackle replacement of the cup.
Am I correct in assuming the bearing support for the front shift rod must be removed from the tunnel before lowering the engine? It appears it would destroy the bearing or prevent the tube from dropping if left in place.
Also, should the front rod be disconnected at the shift lever as well?

AirtekHVAC

Sorry, I am late to the party, as usual.....I did the front ball cup on my 78 without taking anything apart. All I did was remove the exhaust heat shield ( left the exhaust pipes all attached). Used a long pry bar and a hammer to pop the cup and holder off, and used a ratchet strap to pull the new one on. It took a little wiggling but I think I used a screwdriver to get the new cup into the holder. I did this on my back with the car on jackstands.

Did the same thing with my 82....it was not as easy, for some reason, and I gave up after about 3 hours of trying. Tried again the next evening, and got it on the first try.

It's do-able. One of these days I'll drop out everything to refresh the motor, and put Carl's stuff in.

Jim Chambers

Ron, I dropped my heat shield and exhaust. Found my ball cup to be extremely loose, probably no bushing left. I still could not remove the rod from the ball. It hit the tunnel well before it could be removed. Was yours that tight? If so I will try the pry bar approach.

Carl Fausett

The reason that some owners report they have enough room to get the old ball cup off the ball, and others report that the ball cup hits the body before it comes off the ball, is the type and condition of their motor mounts. If the motor mounts are tallish (in good shape) the amount of room between the top of the ball cup and the floor pan is reduced. Lowering the motor a little will help that.

On the very early cars (78-79) the bracket you speak of (Porsche calls it the Body Mounted Bracket and Guide for the Forward Shift Linkage) is attached to the bottom of the belly pan. It is described in the WSM on page 34-8-i. That was moved to the torque tube later so that removing and installing the TT was made easier. See picture, page 34-8 of WSM. It seems to me that change came in about the middle of 1980, about the time they revised the concentric clutch to the pinned clutch.

So you are right, lowering the motor to get room to work is complicated on your '78 by the fact that the darn forward rod is attached to the body. I am usually able to use a 10mm swivel-socket on a long extension and get the nuts off of that mount so it can drop with the TTube. The foamy-type insulation blanket will be hiding those nuts, you may want to cut it around that mount to get access to the nuts.

AirtekHVAC

I am sure my mounts are a little compressed, but both of mine were very tight, and would not have ever come off going straight up. Using the long pry bar on one side of the cup holder, I was able to tap the end of the pry bar with a hammer and "roll" the holder off the ball mount. Putting it back with a cup in was more of a bitch, but I got it. I'm not saying the tunnel didn't get scratched up or dinged a bit, but I did it successfully on both cars.

Jim Chambers

Ron, did you disconnect the front rod at the shift lever first? Thinking the pry bar method, which I may try, might stress the support bearing and break it. I'm told it is a very expensive part and difficult to replace.
My cup is so loose it rattles (bushing may be totally gone) but the cup housing firmly contacts the tunnel when lifted straight up. I dropped the front heat shield and the exhaust for access. Gave up and put things back together. Ready to try again.

AirtekHVAC

I did not remove the linkage. I might have a pic or two somewhere.....lemme do some digging. On the 78, the cup insert was gone completely, on the 82, it was badly worn...hard to explain, but I just kept whacking it around the lip of the cup on one side until it "spun" over the mount and popped off. Was not hard at all on the 78, took a little work on the 82. Putting it back on was very frustrating, as I recall..took a lot of patience, as you have even less clearance squeezing it all back together. I did the same thing though, started at an angle and then "rolled" it partially back on, using the pry bar to compress it on just enough to get the clearance to get the ratchet strap in place.....I am not saying it was all easy...did the first one in an evening, he 82 in a couple evenings, as I lost patience, invented some new curse word combinations, and threw some stuff. Attacked it the second evening, and it popped right on. Oh, lubed it up with some WD for the install....I think it helped.

kiwiokie

^ glad someone else finds that wrenching brings out the sailor in them.