Can't shift into reverse/5th - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

ChefCarnivore · 08-16-2009, 09:00 AM

Jaay,

It is not clear to me where the access panel is located on the passenger side. Is this on the consul or the back panel by the firewall?

JAAY · 08-16-2009, 10:35 AM

Sorry about that. It is under the car in the rear on the passanger side. You have to Jack up the rear passanger side and then look fo a triangular shaped piece of aluminum. That is the panel I am talking about. Your linkage hides just beyond that. If I were home I would Jack up my car and take a photo for you. You can email me your number if you want me to walk you through it. Djmanjay@yahoo.com

clickman · 08-17-2009, 08:52 AM

Was the shifter really floppy after it happened? I had that happen in my '01 after a few too many hard pushes into reverse.

I found the left shift cable had come off right at the shifter. The cheesy little black retainer had broken allowing the end assembly to slip off. See pics. You may be able to see this just by pulling up the shifter boot.

At the time I took off the console (using the great B&M shifter installation instructions) and pushed the female piece back on. I assumed there was a retainer but couldn't find it. I didn't find it until a couple weeks ago when I replaced the shifter with the 9x7 short shifter.

If this has happened to you, here are your options:
1. Push it back on like I did without the retainer and shift carefully (normally) into reverse. Mine worked that way for years.
2. You may be able to replace the retainer, if you can get one from Porsche, but the shifter would have to be disassembled to do it.
2. Replace the shifter, likely very sloppy anyways, with the 9x7 normal shifter or short shifter. The normal one is pretty cheap, and I got my short shifter for under $300.

ChefCarnivore · 08-20-2009, 07:03 AM

Thanks for the help. I do not Understand the 2nd pic. Where are we looking? The boxster is a '97 with a manufacturing date of 2/97. So the Bentley Manual shows a more complicated attachment to the tranny. Q1) how many cables are there? I forgot to say that 1st and 2nd as well as 5th and reverse are not working.

This is the first day I can even look at the job but it's going to be 95F today so I'm not working on it till Friday or Saturday in the morning when it's reasonably cool. The humidity here in Raleigh is a killer. Wish I had an air conditioned Wrench Garage. (see post)

Q2) What gets replaced with the short shifter?

ChefCarnivore · 08-20-2009, 07:06 AM

B&M to me sounds like a can of baked beans. What is the "great B&M installation instructions"? Where can I find them?

yimmy149 · 08-20-2009, 11:09 AM

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=b%26m

Brad Roberts · 08-21-2009, 10:59 AM

Chef,

It sounds like the cable that runs closest to the driver at the shifter has come out of the rear cable support that is mounted to the passenger side of the tranny. The drivers side cable handles the left to right motion of the shifter and translates it to the tranny. The part above he is showing you can also fail and give you the issue you are reporting. The part above he is showing us is at the base of the shifter and on the driver side of the shifter. That coupler goes to the cable that handles the side to side translation from shifter to cable. Typically I see the front to rear motion cable connector break!! Not the one he posted... BUT... two times this week now people have shown me pics of this side to side motion piece broken.

My suggestion? After determining it is a shifter problem or a cable problem? If it is the shifter? Buy a new shifter. New 997 stock shifter retails for $175 and I can barely keep them on the shelf!!

The rear plate: It is a heat shield to keep the heat off the shifters cables. Heat from the muffler/cats. It is just in front of the muffler behind the passenger side wheel.

Item 11 fails 2x more often than item 10 and both run about $15 retail.

Then the cables pop out of item 12 (it bolts to the transmission)