986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post

jakeru · 03-28-2016, 08:24 PM

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement, guys!

I took it for a test drive and found an immediately noticeable improvement to shifting, and joy of shifting. Although still not completely perfect, it makes it noticeably more enjoyable to shift, especially on any gear change that involves lateral movement.

I'd say subjectively, this change removed 33% of the lateral movement play at the knob. Another 33% improvement I think I can remove by fixing some remaining play I still know about and haven't fixed yet in the shift console mechanism, and I think the last 33% if it could be removed at all, would be inside the transmission itself (so I will live with that, and not expect to remove that last bit.)

I've already removed quite a bit of play in the original shift console by freshening the shift console to a low-miles, 997 version with basically zero-play gt3 aluminum bushings, so this is definitely all going in the right direction.

I made a video showing the zero "contraption" play:
trim.27F274F5-B282-4608-8093-0279573704D5.MOV - Video - VideoSprout

I bought a couple 10mm all-metal ball socket joints, and tried sticking those on the factory ~10mm ball studs, but found them to relatively sloppy fit (perhaps with 0.005" or play or so) compared to the factory plastic ballsockets which had no noticeable play, it seemed like a step backwards. (check out the video... You can see that the tiniest movement at the shift cable is now being immediately translated through the contraption to rotational movement at the transmission input shaft.)

And also, attached is a different view I took of the contraption. This shows after being cleaned up and reassembled. There was a bit of motor oil (or perhaps tranny fluid) on the transmission input shaft and connecting bracket, which I cleaned up, and which I initially was concerned about possibly could have degraded the rubber around the ballsockets, but after inspecting them all (three of the four by removing them and cleaning them up in the process) I think they are all fine and are not contributing any play on my particular transmission.

As far as I could tell, front-back movement was being translated relatively immediately (through the single, rubber-isolated balljoint fitting) to in-out movement of at the transmission input shaft.

03-28-2016, 08:24 PM	#26
jakeru Registered User Join Date: May 2015 Location: Greater Seattle, WA Posts: 534	Thanks for the feedback and encouragement, guys! I took it for a test drive and found an immediately noticeable improvement to shifting, and joy of shifting. Although still not completely perfect, it makes it noticeably more enjoyable to shift, especially on any gear change that involves lateral movement. I'd say subjectively, this change removed 33% of the lateral movement play at the knob. Another 33% improvement I think I can remove by fixing some remaining play I still know about and haven't fixed yet in the shift console mechanism, and I think the last 33% if it could be removed at all, would be inside the transmission itself (so I will live with that, and not expect to remove that last bit.) I've already removed quite a bit of play in the original shift console by freshening the shift console to a low-miles, 997 version with basically zero-play gt3 aluminum bushings, so this is definitely all going in the right direction. I made a video showing the zero "contraption" play: trim.27F274F5-B282-4608-8093-0279573704D5.MOV - Video - VideoSprout I bought a couple 10mm all-metal ball socket joints, and tried sticking those on the factory ~10mm ball studs, but found them to relatively sloppy fit (perhaps with 0.005" or play or so) compared to the factory plastic ballsockets which had no noticeable play, it seemed like a step backwards. (check out the video... You can see that the tiniest movement at the shift cable is now being immediately translated through the contraption to rotational movement at the transmission input shaft.) And also, attached is a different view I took of the contraption. This shows after being cleaned up and reassembled. There was a bit of motor oil (or perhaps tranny fluid) on the transmission input shaft and connecting bracket, which I cleaned up, and which I initially was concerned about possibly could have degraded the rubber around the ballsockets, but after inspecting them all (three of the four by removing them and cleaning them up in the process) I think they are all fine and are not contributing any play on my particular transmission. As far as I could tell, front-back movement was being translated relatively immediately (through the single, rubber-isolated balljoint fitting) to in-out movement of at the transmission input shaft. Attached Images __________________ 2001 Boxster Last edited by jakeru; 03-28-2016 at 09:16 PM.