I just acquired a numbers matching stock 1971 914-6 from the original owner. Cosmeticly the car is very nice because he pampered the car so much. It runs extremely well. Sounds beautiful. I plan to take it to a Porsche expert in Atlanta to have it serviced in the next couple of weeks. The PO had driven the car very little during the last 16 years after having the car repainted and the engine gone thru.

My question is concerning the original 901 tailshifter transmission. As I have read, I would describe the shifting as vauge. First can be a little tricky at times, but I am getting the hang of it.

I would welcome comments/feedback & suggestions concerning the transmission. Does geting all the shift bushings replaced and the transmission adjusted improve the shifting enough? I noticed the Patricks Motorsports has what appears to be a tail to side shifter kit. Does anyone have this and are you pleased with your decision?

I would like to keep the car stock, but if there is a tail to side shifter kit that dramaticly improves the shifting.....then I would do it.

Suggestions and ideas please.

I believe the Kit that Patrick has a WEVO, which is for making a 915 into a mid engine/rear tranny set-up

Dr Evil took one of my 914-6 Trannies and made it into a Sideshifter

Check the shifter bushings from the lever to the transmission, worn bushings can contribute to the "search o matic" feel.

I will never be like car that has the shifter on top of the transmssion.

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to a great 914 site. I have a '71 914-6 too, #0372. Unfortunately my car does not have the original engine/transaxle. If my car did I would rebuild that stock linkage replacing all of the bushings, joints, etc. and learn to love the way it shifted.

Please make sure whomever you choose to work on your car knows them very well and is 100% trustworthy. If you have not already figured it out, this is a terrific site for 914 owners past, present and future. You will learn more about these cars on this site than you can imagine and the people here will keep you pointed in the right direction. Please feel free to post your thoughts, plans, questions, and concerns here for feedback. Lots of opinions, especially when it comes to original sixes. Some, (Pat, we love you) believe the cars should remain absolutely factory original and others believe it is your car, do as you wish. I started off in the middle really, and have since kind of migrated towards original restoration in large part because of my long-term exposure to Pat (not complaining BTW).

In short, my car will be restored and remain a stock bodied 914 with essentially slightly improved brakes and suspension with a stock 3.2 Motronic motor and 901 transaxle (from a six if I can find one). Patrick Motorsports is a great place to look and dream of what could and can be. I have personally been to their shops and believe me, their site is an accurate reflection of the work they do. Terrific guys and beautiful work, hands down. They definitely know our cars inside and out with no exceptions. If I hit the lotto (or my wife just said "OK") the first thing I would do is transport my car to Jim to have it completely restored. They are truly one-stop shopping for these cars. However they are not alone and you will find several reputable businesses out there offering complete services for these cars. Information is your best friend and this site has a ton of it.

And, please post pictures of your car and include your VIN. If you have not checked the VIN database on this site: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=membervins to see if your car is listed or not please do. Add it if it is not listed so we have history on these rare cars.

Again, congratulations and welcome. I can't wait to see pictures of your car and learn about it.

Thanks for sharing too.

Your tranny can be converted to a side shift. Requires the shift rod assemblies, shift console, side shifter linkage with rear bar straightened and shortened.

Replace the bushing and live with it.

The original SIX tail shift linkage is 100% different from the the trouble some FOUR tailshifter.

If you dont mind who is the expert in atlanta ? this is the biggest concern.

My priority advice is that you PM sixnotfour on that query...may be way more important than your ultimate decision re changing things up with the shifter

For what it's worth, I have a 1970 6. original tranny etc...it came from back east, from a PO that had the mechanics pretty well sorted out....so when it came into my hands, nothing re the shifting seemed difficult, just a bit peculiar/idiosyncratic....figured it was part of the cars personality.

Regardless, welcome to theworld...great cars, great group

Guys,

Thanks for the welcome, advise and comments.

The Porsche person in Atlanta is Pat Collins of Northeast Foreign Car. He has worked on 356's, 914's and 911's for about 35 years. Extremely knowledgeable and honest.
Based on the comments, think I'll lean towards replacing the bushings and adjust.

Sixnotfour, how is the tailshifter for a six different than a four?

Thanks

Less convoluted as the shifter rod is straighter and less joints etc to make shifting much better. If you have a stock six setup just replace the bushings and it should be fine.

I replaced the bushings in my 914-6 and it was the best shifting 914 I've ever had.

-4 link on top -6 bottom

They work surprisingly well if maintained ...


If your car is numbers matching, you can always stash away the tail shifter and replace it with a later model sideshifter setup. The change is reversible.

Just replace ALL the shift bushings. Seems like every car that comes into the shop complaining of shifting problems has a few bad bushings. Had one customer ready to spend $500 on fancy shift components and instead I found every shift bushing along the shaft was bad in some way.

Do a complete and thorough job of replacing the shift bushings and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Get the stock setup working first and then decided if it doesn't work well enough.

Same here, bought a bunch of the parts for a sideshift conversion but after replacing the bushings and spending some time adjusting, I decided to stick with the stock tail shifter

-Justin

A differing opinion here. My 70 914-6 shifted very nicely with new bushings in the transmission, but then I had the opportunity to pick up a nice 73 side shifter, and converted the car to the side shifter (of course, keeping all the original -6 parts).

It is a bolt on conversion to convert the shift linkage, and I think it does shift even better than the original -6 linkage. My other car has a 915 transmission, and it's much heavier feeling, so I would not recommend that if you have a stock engine.

Click on my 31 pages link below and read up on fixing some of the shifting ailments

When you get it sorted out & time for a fun drive, do a new topic post with pix of the new baby!