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  1. #1
    Senior Member NorthernThrux's Avatar
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    Converting to a gated shifter

    We all know that the 915 gearbox is hardly a paragon of smooth shifting. And its easy for people like me who drive enthusiastically, but who are still getting used to the gearbox, to miss a shift amd overrev because of the imprecision in the shifter.

    There are a bunch of solutions from Wevo and others out there that purport to improve the experience. They all require you to bin your original parts to one extent or another. One such example is the Seine Sytems upgrade https://www.seinesystems.com/GateShift-1.htm which requires a change of the dowel pin that the gear lever pivots on, some holes to be drilled and you have to cut your boot to allow for the tension spring that keeps the shifter in the 3-4 plane unless you apply a bit of force to move it over into the 1-2 plane. It essentially recapituales what Porsche did on the 5-R side, but one has to make a number of undesirable modifications.

    One bonus of the Seine system is that it has tabs on the 1-2 side and a tab on the gear lever that engages those gate tabs which removes the tension on the gearbox selector mechanism when you are in 1 or 2, just like the tabs on the 5 and R gears do on the stock shifter.

    Well a few months ago, I noticed on Pelican that a guy in Germany named Karsten was making a spring that piggybacked over the stock dowel pin in the shifter and did much the same as the Seine spring system but with no modifications to the shifter assembly. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...nt-spring.html

    Clever idea, but it does place tension on the selector mechanism in the gearbox. Whether that matters or not, who knows? But its not ideal, especially if you do any city driving.

    But what if you combined the gate tab system of the Seine system with Karsten’s spring? Then you have a completely invisible, reversible modification that might improve the shifting experience and will certainly reduce the chance of a missed shift.

    So today I did exactly that. I had gotten the spring from Karsten several months ago and today I went into the shop at work and made a gate with tabs and a piece for the gear lever to engage those tabs.

    Here’s the spring, installed. It keeps the gear in the 3-4 plane and you have to apply a litte pressure to the left to take the gear lever over to the 1-2 plane. To give you a sense. it is a bit less pressure than you apply to get over to 5-R, but it gives you a secure tactile feel of where you are in the shift pattern. No 5-2 shifts with this thing!

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    Here’s the gate with tabs on 1-2.

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    And here’s the inverted tab that holds the sprung lever on the gate tabs. Currently held on with a gear clamp but eventually I’ll tack weld it in place.

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    Here is the whole thing in the car.

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    And for good measure I replaced the almost new bushings in the coupler at the rear of the tunnel with more precise ones from our own JimmyT. https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...=1#post1066363. These have a round hole on the internal part of the bushing unlike the Porsche ones that have an oval, but they are made of a material that has some compliance unlike some of the metal bushings out there. All my bushings were new anyways, replaced during restoration, including the selector rod bushing and the cup bushing under the shifter tower. But the coupler always had some slop, by design I imagine, so vibration didn’t get tranmitted to the gear lever.

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    Net result? Well, it’s still a 915 and so it just doesn’t want to be hurried, no matter what. But shifting is more of a pleasure and I feel much more secure on rapid downshifts than I did before. I don’t feel the need to double clutch anymore.

    Ravi
    Early 911S Registry # 2395
    1973 Porsche 911S in ivory white 5sp MT
    2015 Porsche Macan S in agate grey 7sp PDK

  2. #2
    Serial old car rescuer Arne's Avatar
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    I had a Seine kit in my '84 Carrera, paired with similar Delrin coupler bushings. On the '84 I hid the Seine with a letter shift boot in brown to match the interior. It was a pretty nice shifting package.

    So I like what what you did here. Unfortunately, I don't have a similar option for the '72 shift tower. More's the pity.
    - Arne
    Current - 2018 718 Cayman, Rhodium Silver, PDK

    Sold - 1972 911T coupe, Silver Metallic; 1984 911 Carrera coupe, Chiffon white; 1973 914 2.0, Saturn Yellow; 1984 944, Silver Metallic

  3. #3
    I installed a RENNSHIFT shifter housing and STROMSKI coupler in my 72 and it transformed the shifting experience. Transmission is also freshly rebuilt, so the combination of these three things add up to a very enjoyable car to drive and shift.

  4. #4
    Senior Member ejboyd5's Avatar
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    All that work and you used a worm gear clamp to hold it together - shame!

  5. #5
    Senior Member NorthernThrux's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ejboyd5 View Post
    All that work and you used a worm gear clamp to hold it together - shame!
    If you read my post, you would have seen that I plan to tack weld it after I'm sure it's in the right position. Sorry, maybe the post was too long. That line was sandwiched between the photos. TL;DR as the kids say.

    I am also interested in people's opinions as to whether those tension relief tabs on 1-2 are needed. Some controversy on this. When I learned to drive, I was told not to rest my hand on the gear lever because that would put undue pressure on the selector fork.
    Early 911S Registry # 2395
    1973 Porsche 911S in ivory white 5sp MT
    2015 Porsche Macan S in agate grey 7sp PDK

  6. #6
    Senior Member frederik's Avatar
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    I’ve always wondered why there is no springing towards the 1/2 plane. An accidental 5-2 shift is bad, but 2-1 when you want 2-3 isn’t great either. My shifting did improve massively when I figured out that you can lean against the 5/R spring to find the 3/4 plane.

    A bigger issue for me is that occasionally on a 5-4 downshift, the gearbox somehow stays in the 5/R plane with massive crunching as a result. I’ve learned to first move the shifter all the way to the 1/2 plane first a few times to make sure it is “loose” before engaging 4th. Luckily I mainly use 5th gear for occasional highway cruising and usually stay in 4th on country roads.
    1970 2.2S Elfenbeinweiss
    1972 2.4T Targa Aubergine (MFI) [For sale]
    2002 996 TT Midnight Blue
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  7. #7
    Senior Member NorthernThrux's Avatar
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    LOL. It’s a lost art and good exercise Jim.

    Yes, we all love these old cars and love mastering their quirks. But some quirks detract from the fun. I went out on a coffee bean run today and came back almost 2 hours and 100 miles later even though the coffee shop was 14 minutes away. It was a nice crisp morning, but the shifter was a big crisp improvement too.
    Early 911S Registry # 2395
    1973 Porsche 911S in ivory white 5sp MT
    2015 Porsche Macan S in agate grey 7sp PDK

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