Andre Roodnat

My ’89 is stuck in first gear. Moving the shifter is like stirring a bowl of soup. It only moves forwards and backwards and slightly to the right, but it won’t engage any other gears. Could this be simple and just be the shifter, or is it the transmission?

Any thoughts where to begin looking?

Mongo

Maybe the linkage has come loose? It happened on my 944 one day on the freeway at 65 and scared the bejesus outta me

I immediately pulled over and pulled the shift boot up (since I knew that the linkage was most likely the case). Pull your shift boot up and start from there. Then, work your way toward the back of the transmission following your shift rod until you see it connects to the rear linkage on the transmission.

Your problem should be either of those two. Hopefully

Andre Roodnat

Hi Andy, that's what I'm hoping for as well. I forgot to mention that this happend about 2 weeks ago as well. But after some stirring it cought gears again, so that makes it a little less likely that there's just someting loose. I already pulled the shiftboot up, but saw an other rubber seal. Thought I'd gain some more info first.

Mark Anderson

Sounds like your forward ball cup came off. Here is a link that describes the repair.
http://www.928intl.com/tips/artcl_04.html

GlenL

Grab the sfiter with two hands and force it forwards and back in a vertical position. If it shifts it's the forward shifter cup. If it tilts on you and doesn't shift then it's something towards the rear.

Andre Roodnat

It's loose (engaging) again. I raised the boot and seal, but saw nothing loose. When moving the shifter to the rignt and forth a couple of times, I felt a "clunck" and it was OK again. It seemed the "clunck" came from the front of the shifter, not from the rear, but it was hard to hear.Seems like when putting it to second it pushes the shifter out of the ??? whatever. Does this sound the forward ball cup?

Jim bailey - 928 International

It is possible to pop the socket back down on the ball working from under the car and wire it in place with a coathanger so it will not pop off as a VERY VERY temporary FIX to gently shift it to get home.

Andre Roodnat

I put the car up and did some close examining. When I did some hard shifting, it popped out again. The shifter line at the back wasn’t moving. I unbolted the heatshield over the cats and was able to see the shifter cup, which had come off the ball joint. I did a very temporary fix (had to get it out from where it was) by putting it back on and putting an electrical cable around it, twisting the end so it keeps the cup in place.

Some questions:
Do I need to replace the cup AND the ball? I looked it up on the PET CD and found the cup quite easily (see drawing). The ball is attached to the torque tube housing and as far as I can see, isn’t numbered in the catalogue. There is a ball mentioned (number 3) but that doesn’t seem to be it. I think its the one I circled on the attached image. Is it one part with the torque tube housing? Anyone know the partnumber?

I was able to get one hand between the bottom of the car and the cats to put the cup back on. Changing it however will be a lot harder. Anyone ever did it? Do I need to get the cats off? Even then it still seems to be quite hard, as it is situated on top of the torque tube housing.

Any help appreciated.

Andre Roodnat

Here's a good pic from the manual. No articleno's though.

GlenL

Andre,

This is a very common repair for 928s. Check www.nichols.nu for how-to. Maybe there are others. (anyone?)

The ball stud on the torque tube doesn't fail. It's the liner on the cup and the cup itself. These are sold as a unit.

Andre Roodnat

Ok, thanks for all help. Marks link and yours from nichols provided all the info I need. Time to get dirty.

jon928se

Andre

I think you already understand it but No.3 in the Pet illustration is not the ball you need to get intimate with.

If time is against you wrap some large cable ties (zip ties) over the top of the forwards shifter rod and under the torque tube - that will keep the cup on the ball for a couple of the thousand miles.

Andre Roodnat

I got it fixed. Partially removing the heat shield above the cats by shifting it to the side and backwards, proved to provide adequate space to exchange the forward ball cup. You have to make sure to give the cat-sensor cable some slack though, as the wiring goes through the shield. I disconnected the shifter stick from the push rod and the shifter rod. This way the push rod can be lowered a bit and with some patience can be reached.

This probably is not the fastest way, but I didn’t want to remove the cat or exhaust systems, as these thing tend to backfire on me like with broken bolts or damaging other parts. I had a friend holding the rod in the shifter console with pliers so he could make the twist to unlock the lock bolt while I held it with a spanner.

There’s just this one thing that’s bothering me though. When assembling the shifter stick again, there was no way I could get the ring and the lock ring back on, on the lower connection. There just wasn’t any room for the ring, whatever I tried. Frustrating, because it was on before disassembly. I had to just leave the ring out and only go with the lock ring. (is it called rivet in English?). Could this cause any harm in future?

In the pic is the friend who provided the necessary pair of hands and company. Thanks again mate!

m21sniper

Beautiful Shark bro.

Andre Roodnat

Thanks!