Finally got the mistress to the point were I feel reasonably safe taking her on the freeway. vroom vroom Up to threw the gears to ----- no 5th !!!!! arg Back to the garage. A little reading, a linkage adjustment. Presto! 5th gear ----- and a shifter that wants to go from 1st to 4th!!! Worked fine before!!! Before you askl , all the linkage bushings are BRAND NEW. Less than a month old, slathered in antisieze. And my adjustment was only sliding the connection maybe an 1/8 of an inch ,essentially shortening it by that much.
I've owned this car 15? yrs. It was my daily for awhile before it started acting like a finicky woman. I am aware of the "vagueness" of the 914 shifter. It's a 72. Tail shifter.
What am I missing here? The trans has been apart some time ago. The beginning of the frustration. My son,(a factory trained Porsche Tech) replaced a main bearing in the trans that literally fell apart. The plastic cage gave up the ghost. Could this be something he missed? It was his first teener trans. But he's not a shade tree mech like me.
I really don't want to pull the trans AGAIN. I'm hoping it is some sort of adjustment thing I missed. I have rotated the shaft a spline or 2 at the connection because I was getting a lot of grinding going into 1st and that helped, as did the new bushings. ( ya think???they were trashed) . And the ball connection behind the bulkhead is new too. What am I missing???? Everything worked fine before I shortened the linkage. I had just never driven it anywhere I need 5th because of a lot of other things falling apart. Hell I've hardly driven it all for the past 10 yrs. I was elated to hit 80 with the top off again. THanks in advance for your help.

Whoever foxed my mistake in posting ,Thanks!!!

if you get if fixed drive it down one hour and visit me in Arizona city, NO 914s down here.

The Tangerine precision shift kit is helpful for getting those final adjustments. Also, make sure to mark a reference point (white out) once you are close. Makes it easier to remember which way and how far you are adjusting.

If your bushings are new it REALLY tightens things up.

Ummm yah.

I guess there could be an internal gearbox problem but it sounds like to me that you are close, just need that very last final tweak.

Keep track of where you are (mark the current position) and make very small adjustments ( one spline +/-). The correct spot is in there somewhere, just gotta find it!

Good luck, be persistent

Thanks. It was close. Fartin around with the rear , had the connection loose ,and the damn thing fell apart!! arg Back to zero!! or maybe -4.
Gotten too used to american junk. Throw it in, drive it. About as subtle as a sledgehammer.

VICTORY. I had forgotten how delicate European cars are. Got the linkage adjusted finally. all 5 gears and it goes into second instead of 4th!!!! Yeaaa!! Thanks for the encouraging words. Had to get in a different mindset.