The car I bought this summer came with a Rennshift in it with a Tangerine Racing precision shift adjuster installed. I know people don't like them, but it was in already. So I was going through some adjustments with that and found I had a clutch problem caused by a pedal board adjustment. That led me to a clutch cable issue in the back. Got that all sorted and that is where the chasing my tail started.

I cannot tell if my current shift problems are clutch or shifter adjustment issues. I have not found any definitive clutch adjustment specs, seems like you do it by feel and pedal travel. And I try to go to the shifter adjustments and it feels like clutch issues. Back and forth

Need help isolating the two and and getting things worked out. Where to start? I am only one set of hands and eyes and that makes things a little harder too.

Suggestions appreciated.

Yeah, the Rennshift and Tangerine adjuster are horrible. You should remove them and just send them to me for disposal. I'll happily pay shipping.

Seriously though, I've only read fantastic things about both products. There's probably a specific adjustment for the Rennshit, so I'll let others comment on that, but here are the 2 reference points for adjusting the clutch and stock shifter that should also mostly apply to your setup.

Clutch Adjustment Instructions

Shifter Adjustment Instructions

I vaguely recall the haynes manual having clutch adjust instructions also
something like a measurement of top free pedal travel ... and inch or something....

I don't recall and apologize.
I do mine mostly by feel also
but there was a measurement I think in the Haynes...

brant

I stumbled on those a while ago, I will reread them, thanks.

The only thing I found in Haynes was about pedal travel. Kind of frustrating really...

I had a shift link adjust problem after installing a new Renshifter. Turned out, a previous owner had installed a driver right hand safety belt anchor bolt that was too long - protruded into the tunnel too far, which was limiting the free movement of the shifter to the 4th and 5th gates. Also, the tunnel support cross brace located in the tunnel behind the shifter mounting hole (hard to see without a mirror) had the smaller round hole for the shifter rod for a rear shifter (Early tranny). If you have a side shift tranny in an early car, you will have to cut the cross brace hole from round to oval, biased to the driver side of the tunnel.

I must have read your post somewhere talking about that. I will get in the tunnel and look at clearance for the rod just to clear that up. Thanks

The problem with the threads mentioned is that they had tons of activity for the first day or so, then lots of questions and no answers, and that was 10 years ago. i have read these a couple of times and decided they are not any real help to me. I did also find this one, I will give it a try.

The racerChris approach for the shift adjustment.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=91028

Stills seems odd to me that with all this German precision design and machining there is no real spec on clutch adjustment.

I can stumble through with the shift rod stuff and just go too far and back it up a bit to get it better.

I can't get the same feel for the clutch. I can't measure engage and disengage when I am the one pushing the pedal up and down and can't look down to see where the pedal is? Am I overthinking this? What am I missing?

Clutch free play is measured with the clutch pedal pulled backwards. There is a spring on the pedal assembly that pushes the pedal toward the floor. That basically takes up all of the free play in the pedal, so you pull up on the pedal to get the free play.

I don't remember the spec now, something like 1/2", but measured by pulling the pedal up and aft.

--DD

Did you get copies of the instructions for those upgraded components?
The precision adjuster requires a specific approach to initial setup. After that it's quite simple.

The clutch free-play measurement (3/4-1") referenced above is checked by pulling back on the pedal. Which is opposite to the way brake pedal free-play is measured.
I like to adjust my clutch cable length so the clutch bites at around 1/3 of the full travel.


edit: dave beat me to it.

If you don't have a friend to help, can you set up your camera to record the clutch arm movement under the car while you go operate the pedal?

Not sure where "don't like them" comes from. I searched for "RennShift sucks" on the forum and didn't find the thread.

Please don't group "RennShift" with "short shift" - very different when applied to these cars.

Anyway - I do have some videos on adjustment, might worth your while to check out:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCehZ25kfRB8F8uL3A7t3y0g

James

I do have your 2 page set of info. I guess I need to go through it again. I was working through it when the clutch cable problem came up and I have been focusing on that.

I will go through the vids again. They seem to be focused on the 911 from a demo purpose. There is a very little access window on the 914 for adjusting things. And being by myself I need to figure ways to keep things secure while I adjust and tighten. Trial and error, mostly error right now but I will keep at it until I find the magic approach.