Gint made it by my house today. He check out alot of things like my rust problem is not that bad. That on one side my car some one flared out my fender so it makes my wheels look of alinment. Help me put in the supports on my gas tanks. Told me how to fix my doors. Told me how to put new transmission fluid in. Found out why my car is idleing high. Plus answered all my questions. Im stick stuck on fixing my gears cause he said he's never messed with that stuff before. Now when I try to switch it into reverise it goes into second gear. I just need to adjustest it. But anyways Thanks GINT (MIKE).

Good to hear you are making some progress! Little steps at a time makes the journey worthwhile, grasshopper.

It makes life so much better when you have someone who knows what's what take a look at the car. Now you got at least a weeks worth of projects.
Glad there's guys like Gint out there helpin' out the next generation 914 owner.

Yep he is a good guy. I probley have another couple weeks of projects. Im not sure but for me everything takes 3x as long cause it never comes off how its suppose to haha.

WAY TO GO, GUYS!



sounds like you're about to have a driver, mr. cacti!

So is it the shifter linkage or the trans that's wonky? Or both?

Im not sure cause before I had it shifting into second gear everytime I tried to shift into reverse that was when I was messing with the linkage. But as soon as I started the car reverise started to work again and it didn't want to go into second gear. But now I changed 2 of the bushings reverse and first gear go in really smooth now. Im going to mess around with it tomarrow. The only place I know were to adjust it at is by the shifter and thats just to adjust the lenght of the shift linkage rod. Mike was telling me there was another place to adjust it under the center compart ment so I took that out and it was all sealed up. I just hope its not my transmission. theres another bushing that I didn't know were to replace that rich sent me its called special shift housing bushing.

first, make sure that little allen screw on the shitfer coupler right behind the firewall is tight.

then, get inside the car and remove the square cover from the center tuneel right before the firewall.
then, loosen the nut that holds the shiftrod to the shifter (through the little opening behind the shifter).
then, use one hand to SLOWLY rotate the shiftrod (through the hole near the rear firewall) and use the other hand to tighten the nut back in the front.
try shifting through the gears and repeat as needed until all gears work fine ...

Andy

There are splines where the rod enters the connector under the shift lever. You only want to rotate it one spline at a time, then test before changing again.

Dang, he's making good time in that rent car... He left Glens in Riverside around noon... made it to St. George and fixed 914 stuff and back on the road... he's a mad-man when it comes to road trips...

I know Mike pretty well, any advice he gave you is solid.

sm

i was afraid you were going to tell us "mike said the car is so rusty it's unsafe to drive". you are going to figure out the shifter issue and then you will be .

kevin

Stop and go traffic on the 15 east of Baker. 3 accidents. One 4 cars in front of me. But I cranked that auto-stick in the beater Mazda. I still made it to St. George in 5.5 hours. I was already east of Vegas in 3:50.

Yo cactus.....415PB has a sawzall candidate in the garage,,,,,he is only like 4 hours away being in Palm Desert. Might wanna get in touch with him.

It's a 70 but has good panels in EVERY area but the hellhole/suspension console. The trans is a tail shifter but you can convert it using the external parts on your trans....a lot of the FI parts off of the 1.7 can be used as well.....

I will be out there with my trailer on the 17th to help move my mom from Palm Springs to Orange County....maybe something can happen....

Check the "shifting improvements" tech article on the Pelican site for some illustrated instructions on messing with the shifter. On a 75, that one adjustment you know about also adjusts the whole pattern side-to-side, which may be how the 2nd/reverse thing changed.

--DD

Okay, I'm confused

'Gint' lives in Denver, and 'weird looking cactus' lives in Utah....Some sort of road trip(WCC)?

P.S. - I'm originally from Arvada, CO. I know the I-70 area like the back of my hand, Family still lives there (Bro in Westminster, Mom off of Jewell [Kunsmiller JHS area] in Denver). Where's your shop at Gint? When I go out for a visit, I'll have to swing by and say 'hey'.

Im making some progress on the gears. Cause now it will go into second and won't pop out but when Im driving it and I and switch into second gear I have to hold the clutch half way in when in second or if I let it out all the way into second gear then it just drops so a super low idle. Its kinda weird if I try to go into third gear it does the same thing I can still go in it but I have to sit there and balance the clutch so its no to far down or all the way out.

Ginter finds it enjoyable to drive from Colorado to So Cal and back for a two day weekends on occasion just to see a bunch of knuckleheads he knows on the left coast and do a couple errands on the way...

I've met his wife, it's not her...

sm

Man Cactus, that is weird.

Just a thought, I would not drive with the clutch partially engaged. That will cause lots of ware on the disk and throw-out bearing. It sounds to me (and this is a wild guess), like you are not actually shifting into second or third, but fourth and fifth. If that were the case it might explain the drop in RPMs. Just some thing to consider.

-Pete

You sure you don't have the linkage out far enough that you are hitting 4th and 5th?

sm

I drove from Poway, CA (the old digs) to Denver a couple of times in the early '80s. The first time was a bitch. Had a '73 Vega GT (okay, you can quit laughing now), and just outside of Las Vegas (Spanish for: The Vega's ) it started running HOT. I had to drive the rest of the way to Denver (in July) with the heater on full blast to keep it from overheating . Back then, I-70 and I-15 didn't connect and it took a full 20 hours non-stop to get there, beautiful drive through the mountains though.

Yep Im sure cause I can look under the car and tell its in second gear..

So im thinking I need a new transmission now. I have spent the whole day messing around with it and got the same results. So Im guessing I need a new transmission Im not sure how hard it would be to install or anything. But I was looking at this one on ebay. If it was somthing I know I couldn't do then I would bring it to my mechanic.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...&category=33733

Guarantee is good, and they have good feedback. If they say it "probably needs some seals", and they do a lot of 914s, you can pretty much count on it needing new seals. You also have no idea what the reserve is.

Too bad if you do need a tranny, I have one sitting here and could have sent it w/ Mike for cheap...

Your symptoms still don't sound like a typical transmission problem to me though. You need to have somebody that is used to adjusting and playing with these things a bit more take a look at it.

sm

PS. So what did you family say when you told them some 40 year old dude you met off the Internet was going to come over to take a look at your car... LOL.

Haha I said that someone might be stoping by today to take a look at 914 the same day he came. And told them a little bit about what I new about him from you guys. Before I met mike (GINT) I didn't know really anything about him. But Im glad he came. O ya Gint I took off the back panel like you said and hit it hard as I could with a screw driver and its still hard as a rock. I just need to clean off the surfess rust. I will probley take my 914 to the shop and have them look at. I know they have put a couple carbs on 914 but not sure how much they know about the shifter and transmission. If it looks anything like the beetles then I should be alright cause they know tons about vw bettles.

Kris's dad seems to be retty supportive of his recently acquired addiction.

Damn. I have a side shifter also. Kris, make a call to the sherriff o rlocal police in the town that guy lives in that you heard has several 914s. If you can find him he might have a trans you could get locally. Alternatively, you might even be able to find someone in the Vegas area and make the drive out to pick it up. Why don't you post a list of evrything you need in the Classifiedssection of the board? You could probably get parts cheaper than ebay that way.

Good idea Gint as lots of us have garages full of parts we are dying to get rid of.

Make a list Catus.


Geoff

You're not that from from Salt Lake either. There a couple of guys on the board up that way as well. In fact, the side shifter I have came form Eric Shea in Sandy.

Good point. He may also be able to get one from Renegade cheap... Dunno, worth asking.

sm

There is at least a possibility the shift fork inside the side cover is adjusted wrong - or loose. You could drain the tranny and pull the cover to find out.
If that's not it the slider is probably beat - requiring a rebuild.

The ebay auction...read the shipping information before you bid....

"Buyer to pay actual shipping and handling(almost always a little under $100 in the 48 states). Kentucky residents add 6% state sales tax. "

$100 to ship it to you on top of the bid price.

I know of a guy who has 3-4 teeners and he's only a couple hours away from you. Not sure what he has to sell (or if he wants to), but I can send him a email and ask if your interested or can't find one from the board members.

That could very well be the guy Kris heard about in a nearby town that had several including a V8 car?

The guy thats suppose to have a couple 914s should only live about 20 mins from me its part of the same city just differnet area (THE RICH PART OF St GEORGE). Im going to try and find him tomarrow. the weird thing is I have never seen another 914 in my life but mine. I have lived here all my life to. So Im not sure its jsut a story that was fake or if its for real. But I stuck a list of all the parts I need in the classifieds.

How did you find your 914?

The guy down the street from me had it parked out in front of his house it had to be there for a good 2 years. But told me 6 months. He said it came from california. But i just asked if he was saleing it. But I found out that he lied to me a lot. Like never told me the hole was under the seat cause someone had it covered up with a peace of fome. Plus said to fix second gear theres just a screw to adjust under the car to make it work. Said the starter was out. (Which it was almost out but it still turned over_ I lator found out its the wiring to the ignition switch. But some unplugged the wire to the starter. But the engine was really good in it now I have cleaned everything up its runs perfect. I guess I just really wanted the car really bad so didn't care what he said. But Im still happy with my buy. It cost me $700 plus everything works in it but it won't switchs gears. Plus it came with really nice rims and really nice yokohama tires

He may have a V8 car now. (not sure) He's sort of reclusive. I asked him to join us here. He does have one from Spain and a sort of rare car that needs lots of work.

You have to expect that a $700 914 that sat for a while needs a lot of TLC.
If you give it the love it needs you will be rewarded by some of the best driving enjoyment possible.

Cacti...

I may have a side shifter here for ya. What year is your ride? I'll need the nose cone and shifter parts but if you have all that stuff off your old one then you should be fine.

I'm going to put a 911/02 in my 914-6/GT project so the side shifter I have here will be available. It'd be a drive up to SLC but... what the hey?

We're almost getting enough folk here for a serious Utah contingent. I see a Red Rock Ramble in Moab in the clubs future.

Eric....want to expand on that? You re using and 911/02 901 trans? You have flipped the ring gear or what?

I don't have my book in front of me...but isn't that a 67 ish 911 trans?

They came on the 70-71 MY cars. It was when they switched to the the pull clutch assembly before moving to the 915 so it works well on a 914 when flipped around.

901 - 66-69
911 - 70-71
915 - 72-you get the picture

Haven't delved into the procedure however, there are those here on the board who have (can't remember who at the time). Mine's a fresh rebuild and yes, I believe it's a flip-and-go type thing. Bruce Anderson turned me on to it stating that Chuck Stoddard did it and it made a slick conversion with the pull clutch assembly.

I'll get more into that when the time comes but it's on the shelf waiting to go.

Well I have kinda bad news. If my problem is my trannsmission or clutch my mechanic said he dosn't know anything about that stuff just the engine. So I would be on my own to try to fix it. I just hope I don't have to drop the engine. Im going to try and drive it down there so he can test drive it and guide me in the right direction. First gear works great. I get up to about 30 put it into second gear get it up to about 4000 rmp let the clutch out slowly tell it starts to die and keep the clutch in that spot
(if let the clutch out to early the car will will go to a super low idle about 200 rmp)
. Then when I hit 40 mhp I can let the clutch out all the way it stays about 1500 rpms if I try and press on the gas it will not go any faster. So then I repeat the proccess for 3rd gear I havn't tryed 4th or 5th gear yet. Also if Im in second gear I can't put it into 1st with it ginding up the tranny so I have to come to a complete stop and just try again.

This doesn't sound like a transmission problem to me.

Transmissions only fail in a few ways, usually accompanied by lots of unusual noises. You lose a gear entirely, or several gears, or it won't stay in gear, or it won't come out of gear.

I'd venture this is a fuel delivery or maybe an ignition problem. I'm not saying you don't have any gearbox problems, but what you're describing is almost certainly not caused by the gearbox.

It sounds vaguely like it's not running on all cylinders. If you're only running on 2, you'll have a serious power loss that will make it very difficult to exceed about 40 mph. Below that it will run poorly, but then it doesn't sound like you've ever driven a 914 that was running properly, so there's no way for you to know what it's supposed to feel like.

Dooood. You have to be going from 1st to 4th, or 2nd to 5th, your linkage is just misadjusted.

Sorry if this is a dumbass sounding question, but you know first in left and down and behind spring tension, right? 2nd is where 1 would be on any other car.

You need to fully adjust your linkage at the connection under the floor between the seats right behind the shift lever IMHO. pull the slip connector all the way off, start from scratch per the instructions in the manual or on a website. If I remember correctly, you start adjustment in 2nd or 4th.

sm

I know its running on all 4 cylenders cause I check that my unplunging one of the spark plugs wires and hear it die down. But here is some pics of what mine looks like in second gear if this not second gear then that was my problem all the time.

IF you can't tell from the picture its pulled all the way down and towards the rear of the car.

anther pics of second gear

Im not sure how to get to the adjust part between the seats I have everything pulled away but its being covered and theres just a little hole little hole I can't even see the part I need to adjust there. I can only adjust it by the shifter.

At the tranny, it should be in the middle position and towards the back of the car.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this, this is going from memory:
- shaft all the way in and forward = reverse
- shaft all the way in and back = 1st
- shaft mid forward = 2nd
- shaft mid back = 3rd
- shaft all the way out and foward = 4th
- shaft all the way out and back = 5th

Put it in second at the trans.

If the lever inside the car is not in the middle position and towards the front of the car, then:

Go into the car, pull the cover off the access whole in the tunnel right behind the shift lever. Loosen the clamp, remove the bolt. Get the lever loose from the front shift bar. You will need move it to different splines and change the difference of the rod in and out of the clamp in order to get it to adjust properly. Clamp it down and test the rest of the gears. Adjust as necessary.

sm

It's the clamp right behind the shift lever. I forget if there is actually an access panel or not... Don't have one to look at here. You can see the clamp in the linkage picture in the Haynes manual.

sm

sounds like the shifter just needs [major] adjustment.

Haha well then my car is going into 5th gear not second. So when you say second is mid forward is it all the way in or out or half way.

Half way out.

sm