New to the 914 world as of last week...bought a 73 2.1 with a new rebuilt motor and duel webers...
all is great but it always grinds a bit going into 2nd gear and downshifting is not possible
into second..

It appeared one of the previous owners altered the rear shift linkage with some welds
and we messed with that a bit ... all the other gears are shifting fine...

Question is .... what is the best way to trouble shoot it to find out if it is the linkage,
the clutch or the tranny...?

John

jminer@tributarymusic.com

Grinding is caused by a bad synchro, which is a very common problem, esp. on first and second. When you say it's not possible to downshift into second, do you mean it's impossible w/o grinding, or it's impossible to find the gear, or impossible to move the lever into position?

If it always grinds, you need to learn how to double-clutch, and you need to replace the synchros on second. If you can't find the gear, it's very probably from a sloppy or misadjusted linkage. There are MANY posts on this board and tech articles on adjusting and rebuilding the shift linkage. Do a search here.

If it shifts into the other gears fine, esp. if you can get into reverse and first when stopped, it's not the clutch.

It will never shift like a Honda, so don't expect it to.