james - You're right; I don't have any spring echo on any of the gears. I wonder why you feel this on the 1-2 shift??

 

That could be the ShiftLink tapping the housing as you shift. I had that before I adjusted the cable lengths.

 

I have the Porsche SSK (from Brandywine Porsche) AND the Evo shiftlink. I had previoulsy bought a B&M, but it just seemed like a better idea to replace the whole shift unit and still have the stock unit to put back in if I ever needed it.

The factory SSK works, very, very well. I had the local Dallas tech guru, from Boardwalk Porsche, drive my car. His opinion is that the shifter is now "right" and perfect.

 

Since we're talking about plastic OEM pieces, I thought I'd share my own experiences of 'failure'. No, not on the shifter, not on the shift link... but the assembly in the attached pictures. Not sure how to describe it... I'll let the pictures tell the story. Let me know if you have questions. But essentially, the front part of the assembly, was missing 'a tooth', but the back part, completely broke into pieces, so that all the 'teeth' of the piece essentially fell-apart.








Thanks,

Andy

 

Andy, those get replaced when you buy the B&M SSK. Of course, the replacement parts are metal and will not break like the plastic housing did on your unit:

 

That's the thing the under car SSK won't get rid of, the plastic parts.

 

Hmmm.. .that's encouraging, so the two end pieces (oem=white plastic), gets replaced with metal pieces. NOW... I have to ask, what about the whole 'plastic assembly' that these pieces sit in ? Although, it appears more 'sturdy' than the two white end-caps... I wonder if anyone has had experience about "it" breaking. btw.. thanks for the pix!!

 

Those OEM plastic bushings/bearings rarely fail - it's the cable end pieces that go - that's what the EVO pieces replace . The in tunnel SSKs don't address that "problem", either.
OTOH, some have stated the OEM cable end pieces ( cheap ) are designed to sacrifice themselves in bad/ hurried shifting so as to spare the tranny ( expensive ). I'm sure Porsche does it that way on purpose for warranty cost containment purposes as the owner would never fess up that he blew a shift while driving aggressively.

 

Brandywine has the B&M on sale for $199. Not sure where to get the Evo other than EVO.

 

I haven't personally heard of the centerhousing breaking, but perhaps that is too naive to think. Maybe some others can chime in, but it seems to be a rather solide piece in all respects.

 

Neat pictures. I have put in a lot of short shifts and never seen a broken tab on the oem bushings. I have never seen any cracks in the black plastic shift tower.

For Andy, show up at the next work on cars days in San Jose and we will help you fix it. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showforum=41

If you want to keep the oem shift then buy the metal bearings from EVO as already suggested. Porsche does not sell replacement bushings.

You could also buy the entire oem shift tower, or put in a B&M if you like the feel. You can use the B&M bushings with the oem shift, but you have to buy the entire kit to get the bushings.

For other local owners, I would like to see if I can put in the new 997 Porsche short shift in a 996/986.

 

Thanks, I'll look for the 'next' (looks like I just missed one) tech day.

I've already fixed my situation with complete OEM stuff... but thinking about re-changing it to something a little 'sturdier'.

Not only was one tooth missing from the front bushing, but ALL the teeth got busted up in the back bushing :-)

Andy

 

The shift link is available at Brandywine as well for $129.95.