Gearshift improvement?

[zcacogp]

Guys, 

 

At 120,000 miles the gearshift in my 987.1C is not the best. There is quite a lot of play in the side-to-side direction, although it is quite good in the fore-and-aft direction. I've taken the boot off and it seems that the play is in the point where the sideways-pointing ball goes into the white nylon bar, and possibly where the white nylon bar connects onto whatever it connects onto. (Get me - that's a cracking technical description, right there! 😀) It seems to have become quite a lot worse quite recently and I'd like to improve things.

The question is what to do about it. 

The number 1 answer is a new gearshift mechanism. Take the old one out and put a new one in. 997 GT3 ones get good reviews, as do Numeric ones. But they are 'spensive and I don't have that much money flapping around in the kitty to try this route yet. 

The number 2 answer is one of the (many) short-shift kits you see on eBay. But they are not meant to be much good (who was the guy who re-aligned one on a lathe and actually made it half-decent?) and I'm not after a shorter shift; I am after some better precision in the existing shift and I am not sure that they offer that. 

Number 3 answer? I suspect that there is mileage in taking the existing shifter out and re-bushing it. That's to say, working out where the wear has occurred and putting in some additional nylon or copper bushings before reassembly. Has anyone gone down this route before and is it possible? Is it worth it? Is it difficult? 

All input welcomed, thanks. 

Oli. 

 

[Pothole]

Don't think it's the actual shifter that will be at fault. 

I replaced the shifter on a 987.1 previously. Car had about 70-80k miles at the time. I fitted a shifter where all the bearings / bushes / joints had been not just refreshed but replaced by metal parts for zero play (the factory shifter has a lot of plastic).

It made absolutely ZERO difference. To remove play I think you want the numeric cables with the metal cups on the ends. Then add the factory short shift and I think that will give you the best overall solution.

[½cwt]

Checking there is no play in the system at the gearbox end will also help reduce any sloppiness.  Factory short shift assembly part number is 997 424 983 00, cost is around £400 from an OPC, but you can offset this by selling your original to a 986 owner, as the 987 standard shift is notably shorter than the 986 and makes a good improvement - I've done it.

[phazed]

I replaced my gearshift and cables at about 85K to improve sloppiness. Gave me some improvement. Disappointing.

Saw a vid on YouTube regarding adjusting cables, did that recently and that improved shifting even more.

Secret is to pull the outer cable really tight while the shifter is locked in position and then clip it in its retainer. A good improvement over just replacing the cables.

[zcacogp]

Guys, 

Thanks for the replies. All very helpful. 

FWIW I've not taken the shifter out of my car yet but I think that there is play in it; I've taken the gearstick gaiter off and by putting my fingers on bits of the mechanism while moving the gearstick around I am pretty sure that I can feel play in different parts. I hope to take it all the way out this week so will know more then. 

Pothole - thanks. I have heard people raving about the Numeric cables but didn't know how they achieved their magic; lighter clips on the ends would be a good move. Is there not a way to re-engineer the existing clips to take some slop out? 

0.5CWT - that's helpful, I didn't know that there was a factory-fit short shift kit. What's the difference between it and the standard offering? It seems that a google for that part number throws up various different things; some look like new shifters and some look like the gubbins from a shifter. 

Phazed - that's helpful. I wonder if it's worth loosening the existing cables and pulling the outer bits tight and then re-tightening them? Do you happen to remember the YouTube video you watched? 

Thanks for your help chaps. I'll keep this thread updated. 

 

[phazed]

I will have a look later.

[½cwt]

2 hours ago, zcacogp said:

Guys, 

Thanks for the replies. All very helpful. 

FWIW I've not taken the shifter out of my car yet but I think that there is play in it; I've taken the gearstick gaiter off and by putting my fingers on bits of the mechanism while moving the gearstick around I am pretty sure that I can feel play in different parts. I hope to take it all the way out this week so will know more then. 

Pothole - thanks. I have heard people raving about the Numeric cables but didn't know how they achieved their magic; lighter clips on the ends would be a good move. Is there not a way to re-engineer the existing clips to take some slop out? 

0.5CWT - that's helpful, I didn't know that there was a factory-fit short shift kit. What's the difference between it and the standard offering? It seems that a google for that part number throws up various different things; some look like new shifters and some look like the gubbins from a shifter. 

Phazed - that's helpful. I wonder if it's worth loosening the existing cables and pulling the outer bits tight and then re-tightening them? Do you happen to remember the YouTube video you watched? 

Thanks for your help chaps. I'll keep this thread updated. 

 

The part that goes with the number is the complete assembly including housing, mechanism and gear shift handle.  I don't know how much shorter the factory kit is, but if the change is like going 986 to 987 shifter it will be a good shortening but just short of a complete rifle bolt kind of action.  Aftermarket sellers grab the Porsche part number to promote their short shift kit.  There is also a workshop tool that is a green bracket that clips into the housing to locate the shifter in the correct place whilst you connect the cables.  Borrowed mine from @bally4563 when I bought his old shifter, but they are about £11 from Porsche.

[edc]

There's a few parts where wear can cause a sloppy shift. The aftermarket shortshifters focus on the large round fore and aft bearings. There is also the oblong block referred to. There are some aftermarket metal replacements but @jimk04 kit catered for some shims. I didn't need them in the end. Then you have the cable ends themselves. 

[phazed]

Just thought I’d experiment after watching a few YouTube vids about removing gearshift play. Very successful actually.

it seems the majority of the play is the side to side movement. If you look at an exposed gear change mechanism, you can see the nylon slider moving front to back in the rectangular block.. This does the side to side movement of the gearchange. Problem is, the slider has play in an up and down plane resulting in exaggerated play at the stick.

My solution, (aided by YouTube) is to take up the slack fitting a spacer on the top surface where the nylon slider moves.

.I measured the gap, which was 0.20 mm. People on YouTube use very thin aluminium sheet to form a strip to fill the gap. I had this brilliant idea of using an old set of feeler gauges, which are spring steel, (more hard wearing) and cut a length of one of the feeler gauge fingers at 0.20 mm thickness. I cut this to length accurately, so it was a tight fit in the aperture, greased up all surfaces and joints on the gearchange unit and hey presto, ended up with zero sideways movement in the gearstick.

I would like to put some photographs up but will need to work out how this is done later. I hope you get my drift!

[½cwt]

1 hour ago, phazed said:

Just thought I’d experiment after watching a few YouTube vids about removing gearshift play. Very successful actually.

it seems the majority of the play is the side to side movement. If you look at an exposed gear change mechanism, you can see the nylon slider moving front to back in the rectangular block.. This does the side to side movement of the gearchange. Problem is, the slider has play in an up and down plane resulting in exaggerated play at the stick.

My solution, (aided by YouTube) is to take up the slack fitting a spacer on the top surface where the nylon slider moves.

.I measured the gap, which was 0.20 mm. People on YouTube use very thin aluminium sheet to form a strip to fill the gap. I had this brilliant idea of using an old set of feeler gauges, which are spring steel, (more hard wearing) and cut a length of one of the feeler gauge fingers at 0.20 mm thickness. I cut this to length accurately, so it was a tight fit in the aperture, greased up all surfaces and joints on the gearchange unit and hey presto, ended up with zero sideways movement in the gearstick.

I would like to put some photographs up but will need to work out how this is done later. I hope you get my drift!

I'll give this ago on the 987 shifter I've fitted to my 986.

This might help re pictures:

 

[phazed]

Will have a go a bit later. I did fit a new genuine shifter assembly and cables about three years ago which improved matters but still had play. If I realised at the time then I would’ve done this modification as well as the tightening of the cables by pulling the outers tight towards the shifter before clipping the cables into their retainers. 

[phazed]

https://ibb.co/pnq711f

It says that I have reached my attachment limit. How do I delete /amend that? That's a really low limit. None on PH afaik.

Edited November 7, 2022 by phazed

[phazed]

https://ibb.co/pnq711f

https://ibb.co/1Kz3X3r

https://ibb.co/2hBQ3Cm

https://ibb.co/HB2wqWr

 

[iborguk]

 

 

 

 

[phazed]

Ta...

[edc]

Yours is very worn if it needs a piece that thick. I could barely get a sheet of tin foil in mine. 

[edc]

I think I posted before but you can look at the Function First shift right kit. 

[zcacogp]

Phazed, 

Thanks - that's a very helpful write-up and some great photos thanks to iborguk. 

I found this YouTube video which suggests something very similar: 

However he also removed the stick from the yoke it sits in and put some washers as shims down the side, although that seems to be less of an issue than the play between the ball and the nylon side part. 

I've still to remove the mechanism from my car but that nylon side part seems to have quite a lot of play from the bearing where it hinges at the other end to the sliding joint. I wonder if something has broken or come adrift there. 

I'll keep this thread updated. Thanks for the input chaps. 

[phazed]

Washers not required. Further stripping down not necessary.

There is absolutely no play on this unit which is the original 2008 unit that I removed.

i plan to remove the new unit that I fitted and do the same mod.

Will try and do it this week as have a track day on Saturday…

Will keep the newly modded shifter as a spare.

[Pagey]

6 hours ago, edc said:

I think I posted before but you can look at the Function First shift right kit. 

I went the Function First shift right kit as well. Big difference 

[phazed]

10 hours ago, zcacogp said:

Phazed, 

Thanks - that's a very helpful write-up and some great photos thanks to iborguk. 

I found this YouTube video which suggests something very similar: 

However he also removed the stick from the yoke it sits in and put some washers as shims down the side, although that seems to be less of an issue than the play between the ball and the nylon side part. 

I've still to remove the mechanism from my car but that nylon side part seems to have quite a lot of play from the bearing where it hinges at the other end to the sliding joint. I wonder if something has broken or come adrift there. 

I'll keep this thread updated. Thanks for the input chaps. 

I saw this video last week which came in the idea to do my modification. I didn’t strip the gearstick from its mounting is surprisingly it didn’t have any play in it. You can do the modification that I did just by pulling out the plastic pivot pin from the white plastic block which moves in and up and down plane. You have enough movement to insert a shim. I will put up a video of my modified shifter later.

[Jonners]

Mine was a little sloppy, changed to a factory short shifter and it made a bit difference.

There is still a little side to side play but tighter than before and the shorter shift is much improved. 

Would definitely recommend if you have the budget (was approx £250 from porsche 2 years ago)

[zcacogp]

Update: I took the shifter out of the car yesterday afternoon and looked at it in detail. In short: I did pretty much exactly as Phazed described, finding that there was enough play between the side pin and the white plastic block pictured to fit in a sliver cut from a drinks can. I also put quite a lot of grease on all the moving parts. 

Has it made much difference? I don't think so. I've yet to drive it but moving the shifter while stationary hasn't made me think that there is a dramatic change. I did notice that there was quite a lot of play in the pivot where the white plastic block moves but it's not possible to remove the block from the shifter without removing the two main bearings, which seemed a bit tricky (they clip in and I couldn't make either of them unclip). Were this possible then I'd think about sleeving the white plastic block but without removing the block this can't be done. 

So .... not huge progress. 

One closing question, for Phazed: you mentioned pulling the outer parts of the cables tight before clipping them in. What did you mean by this? The outer parts of the cables clip into the rear edge of the shifter but there is no adjustment for them; they will only clip in one position (as far as I can tell). Can you elaborate on this a little? Thanks. 

[phazed]

There is a video somewhere on YouTube. He pulls the inner cable tight, (towards the front of the car) before clipping them in. This seemed to take up a bit of slack.

 

As to the improvement, there was definitely less play with the 0.20 shim and the throw was better through greasing it all!

[Roddy]

What is the best grease to use to lubricate the shift?