I'm afraid of my sideshift tranny. I don't like the idea of opening it up to see what's up - special tools and all. Here is my situation.

I have a sideshift tranny on a early 914. I replaced the bushings in firewall and at end of linkage. The linkage seems pretty rigid and first through third are pretty good (I think, no other 914 to compare, but with a little hesitation between 1 and 2, no gind). My problem is NO FOURTH. If I hold the shift lever in fourth it engages, otherwise it just pops out. I am not confident that I set the shifter up right based on the Haynes manual. If there are any suggestions, let them fly.

ok, did it have fourth before you replaced the bushings???

I would say you might need to adjust the shifter again.

Take out the carpet on the shifter tunnel
Take out the center tray/basket or console

Take all tools with you

Drive and adjust...
Takes a few times to get it right, but you can adjust for length (this will either eliminate all gears on top or all on bottom)
then you can twist the shifter on the shaft....this prevents you from getting into the 4-5 gate or the r-1 gate...

You should be able to get it with a couple of tries.

Good luck
Rich

I did not drive it before replacing the bushings. The PO had mounted the engine mount bar backwards and the shift linkage over the engine mount. Having never seen the underside of a 914 - I did not know what was up. I finally found a few good pics and set things straight.

Thanks for the advice, It sounds like a twist ajustment since I've got 1,2,3,and 5.

i doubt this is the problem but it can make the shifting funny... how are the motor mounts and tranny mounts

and what i think can also do this is if you shifter bar is bent or tweeked it can hit the engine bar when it tries to go to forth ( or any gear depending on bend ). look under the car and have some body go throught the gears and make sure its not hitting anything