08-21-2018, 08:40 PM
Just have to share that I completed the SECOND MOST MISERABLE job I have done on any car (first is the R&R on the late 914 airbox assembly) - replacing the intermediate shift linkage.
Why and how did I need to do this? I made the decidedly unwise decision to attempt to restore my vehicle's shifting characteristics to new. Finding that my shifter pin had ovaled, I replaced the shifter and bushings which resolved about 80% of my shifter's side-to-side slop. But I couldn't leave good enough alone. Looking at the PET diagram, I figured that I could get it to stock tolerances by tightening down the rear transverse link on the intermediate shift linkage (which is above the transmission and completely out of sight, and almost out of reach).
I get it - almost - tight enough. Big mistake. BANG - my 13mm box end wrench shears the rusted bolt straight off the stud.
For obvious reasons, I now lose whatever improvement in shifter slack I've made, along with any use of the shifter in a horizontal plane. I then make the second poor decision of the night - to blindly weld a washer to the sheared bolt, to regain side-to-side action in the shifter, which would at least be a temporary fix. It takes multiple hours of literally blind MIG welding (the linkage is above the trans and out of sight), in the dark, while holding the washer with bare fingers - along with liberal application of JB Weld to my hideously pathetic bead (which I can't see, only feel), before I get a washer on that doesn't pop off every time I try to shift out of 2nd.
In the process I set fire to the nylon coupler of the linkage. But I don't know it's a nylon coupler at the time. I've got an extremely ominous glow coming from above the transmission. I put my mirror up there and something's burning green-orange. So I figure I must have set the magnesium trans case on fire. I'm more than a little panicked. I run to the garden hose and spray the transmission for a solid 5 minutes. Lying under the car competely soaked, with weld burns on my arms and chest, acrid smoke in the air - I decide it's a good time to call it quits.
New intermediate shift linkage takes 2 weeks to arrive from Germany. It takes three separate unbolting-pulling-failing-rebolting cycles before I finally got the linkage arm off the transmission's shift rod. That mother was completely corroded on. There's almost no working room. The exhaust heat shield (which, granted, I eventually did unbolt) punishes me by repeatedly lacerating my forearms. Every puller I tried failed until finally a solid 19mm tie rod puller did the trick (in about 10 minutes, no less).
So it took a month but it's finally replaced. And, can I just say, the shifter in this car is now GLORIOUS. Zero slop, in any axis, whatsoever - just firm positive shifting goodness. Worth it? No. But an experience not entirely without its lessons.
Why and how did I need to do this? I made the decidedly unwise decision to attempt to restore my vehicle's shifting characteristics to new. Finding that my shifter pin had ovaled, I replaced the shifter and bushings which resolved about 80% of my shifter's side-to-side slop. But I couldn't leave good enough alone. Looking at the PET diagram, I figured that I could get it to stock tolerances by tightening down the rear transverse link on the intermediate shift linkage (which is above the transmission and completely out of sight, and almost out of reach).
I get it - almost - tight enough. Big mistake. BANG - my 13mm box end wrench shears the rusted bolt straight off the stud.
For obvious reasons, I now lose whatever improvement in shifter slack I've made, along with any use of the shifter in a horizontal plane. I then make the second poor decision of the night - to blindly weld a washer to the sheared bolt, to regain side-to-side action in the shifter, which would at least be a temporary fix. It takes multiple hours of literally blind MIG welding (the linkage is above the trans and out of sight), in the dark, while holding the washer with bare fingers - along with liberal application of JB Weld to my hideously pathetic bead (which I can't see, only feel), before I get a washer on that doesn't pop off every time I try to shift out of 2nd.
In the process I set fire to the nylon coupler of the linkage. But I don't know it's a nylon coupler at the time. I've got an extremely ominous glow coming from above the transmission. I put my mirror up there and something's burning green-orange. So I figure I must have set the magnesium trans case on fire. I'm more than a little panicked. I run to the garden hose and spray the transmission for a solid 5 minutes. Lying under the car competely soaked, with weld burns on my arms and chest, acrid smoke in the air - I decide it's a good time to call it quits.
New intermediate shift linkage takes 2 weeks to arrive from Germany. It takes three separate unbolting-pulling-failing-rebolting cycles before I finally got the linkage arm off the transmission's shift rod. That mother was completely corroded on. There's almost no working room. The exhaust heat shield (which, granted, I eventually did unbolt) punishes me by repeatedly lacerating my forearms. Every puller I tried failed until finally a solid 19mm tie rod puller did the trick (in about 10 minutes, no less).
So it took a month but it's finally replaced. And, can I just say, the shifter in this car is now GLORIOUS. Zero slop, in any axis, whatsoever - just firm positive shifting goodness. Worth it? No. But an experience not entirely without its lessons.
(This post was last modified: 08-21-2018, 08:43 PM by pdxmike.)
