Shift Rod R&R

[jaudette3]

The '68 SWT that I'm working on had sat for a long time before I acquired it. It ran when I got it, but very, very roughly. It was obvious that the fuel had turned to what modern fuel turns to when it sits for a long time - a combination of shellac and corn starch.

Up until now though the mechanical part of the project had been going well: carbs disassembled and boiled out, reassembled, set up and adjusted, new plugs, replaced fuel tank (I had one on hand), replaced fuel lines, adjusted valves, set timing. Fired it up and Walla! (we Porsche guys say Walla! instead of Voila!) - it runs great.

But shifting on the short test drive required careful hunting for gears. Back to the garage to redo the shift linkage. Sure enough, coupler was totaled (held together by a hose clamp - haven't seen that before). Nylon cup was missing, as was nylon ring. Installed new coupler, cup and ring and shifting was positive and smooth. But during a few short test drives I had a hard time keeping things adjusted. I would fool with the coupler, it would work well for a short time, then it felt like the settings had changed.

Removed the shifter assembly again and discovered that the shift rod was broken right at where the metal cup that holds the nyon cup is mounted. So the shift rod needs to be replaced. Which looks impossible given its length. I've searched here and at Pelican and find that the most common recommendation is to drop the engine and transmission. What a bummer - is that really necessary?

The shift rod is somewhat bowed and it looks like it might be possible to slide it out of the front hole in the top of the tunnel if the hole is enlarged just a bit. Has anyone tried this? Any other ways other than engine/trans R&R?

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
JohnA

[edmayo]

John, there's no other way that I know of I'd be removing the power train, would rather do that than screw something up trying to short cut.

[mike curnow]

You can have the engine and trans out in 2 hours. Its a drag, but not hard.

[sithot]

The shift rod is somewhat bowed and it looks like it might be possible to slide it out of the front hole in the top of the tunnel if the hole is enlarged just a bit. Has anyone tried this? Any other ways other than engine/trans R&R?

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
JohnA

John:

Cannot happen. Engine and tranny out.

I've thought of a 2 piece rod but the things rarely break so why bother?
Until one breaks on you...


Good luck!

Tom

[jaudette3]

Thanks for the input (informed as always). OK, I'm gonna drop the engine and tranny. I've never done it myself with a 911, but I've R&R'ed 356 engines so many times that I can do those quickly by myself. A SWB 2.0 is more complicated than a 356, but it's not in the same league as a 964 or somesuch.

It *will* give me a great opportunity to look things over, upgrade things as needed, clean things up, and have some parts powder coated. Plus the car currently has headers and I have a set of stock heat exchangers that I will be installing. I imagine it's a lot easier to do that on an engine stand.

I have a hydraulic table and my thought is to drop it on that which should make it easy to transfer it to the engine stand. I shouldn't have any problem getting the car high enough as I could always remove the carbs if need be. Make sense?

Thanks again.

Cheers,
JohnA

[jaudette3]

This is morphing into an engine removal thread...

It seems like the most efficient thing for me to do, since I have to remove both the engine and the transmission, is to take them out together. Correct?

Since I will probably be doing this by myself, I really like the idea of the adaptor plate that fits between the jack and the engine/transmission that balances things as you lower it down.

As I mentioned earlier, I would like to mount the engine on an engine stand, Do I need some kind of heavy duty stand in order to do this with the transmission attached? Or should I just remove the transmission once it and the engine are out of the car?

Thanks!

Cheers,
JohnA

[edmayo]

That's right John, engine and trans out as a unit, I put the jack pad as far forward on the engine case as I can without getting it under the engine trans split. I have 2 1/2 ton jacks with large pads, test your balance point as you start to let down. You can always lift back up , rest the unit on some jack stands and reposition if necessary. Then I put the engine on jack stands and remove the trans. We have a engine lift crane to get the unit up to engine stand height. By the way, you will need the 4 arm engine yoke, don't try to use a 356 2 arm yoke.

[sithot]

And "IF" you had a car lift this would be even easier!

Good luck.

Tom

[304065]

SWB engine drop checklist- feel free to add your own comments or suggestions for modification of the sequence to be more efficient.

[jaudette3]

Problem resolved. Still not real eager to drop the engine and transmission, I went ahead and MIG welded the piece back on. It looks to be at least as strong as it was originally. Thanks to everyone for the input and help.

Cheers,
JohnA