I wouldn't call it a severe case. Would happen maybe once every few days. I had this work done last Friday and yesterday experienced my first pop out post install.

 

It will get worse the problem is you will start to ruin other stuff in the tranny. It's not severe yet but will get worse. I have never had it happen to me but others I know said it cost 2500.00 the gear will wear out every time it pops out.

 

That would seem to be the prescribed course of action? And what I did... Twice grrr.. But for those who have tried timnyc's fix it seems to be working which is great and I'm astonished and wish I had known about it 6yrs ago. Would've saved me a ton of grief and warranty work.

That said, nothing beats a gbox refresh with the proper shim tolerances and fresh parts with FREQUENT delvac flush(es).

Still sounds like an incredible fix even if opening the box for making/repairs is a foregone conclusion.. Which it is. Not "if", but rather, "when".

Add: it ain't the 2nd gear per se...its the dogring/syncro that gets rounded. Has to do ( I'm told ) by using triple cone ( wtf?!) Synchros and the dogring gets rounded due to wrong original tolerances of the gear stack placement coupled with a good missed shift or two.

 

That sucks. I live in 2nd/3rd and I couldn't live with that. Sorry to hear.

 

Fortunately it's something that I would call a very uncommon occurrence.

 

You're lucky perhaps that ball bearing has lessened it? But the general consensus is that once rounded? The dogring can't help itself. I wonder why for some it
works flawlessly and others only intermittently? If I had to guess I'd venture that how rounded or not the synchro parts were at time of the ball bearing install factored.

All I remember is that the pop out was directly proportional in occurrence to downhill load or any real load on 2nd.

Mine popped once going uphill ! Really.

 

I've had my gear box rebuilt by a clown 3 years ago. My main shaft bearings failed. This is standard on tuned cars. After the rebuild I've developed second gear pop out which I never had on the original gear box. Damn! The clown then fited the detent (upon my research) and the pop out went away. However, after 15k miles my gear box was screwed again due to incorrect tolerances used by my clown rebuilder. Bearings were noisy again. I've then taken my car to the Porsche racing specialist in Munich / Germany who is "God" in gearboxes rebuilds and is closely linked to the factory. The workshop rebuilt my gearbox and handed me back the gbox modified detent. I was surprised and asked him why? He told me that the modified detent is absolutely NOT the way to go. It places a tension onto something (forgot what) and causes wear of that item which on the long run ruins it and makes next rebuild substantially more expensive. The key is a proper rebuild of the gearbox with proper tolerances. If workshop is clueless your gearbox won't last modified detent or not. Just telling my story. So, no detent for me just a solid workshop who will from now on change my main shaft bearings every 100k miles. ;-). Ps. I've done 25k miles since the second rebuild and have zero pop outs or issues.

 

My mechanic has built hundreds of these gearboxes over the years and told me the same thing, literally verbatim. I think he tossed the Gbox detent in the garbage when he did my rebuild last year. No pop outs here..

 

^ agree. i think everyone that "knows", whether they know the inner workings of these boxes or not. knows that detent thing is a dubious and temporary "fix" at best, and as terminator suggests, might not be as benign as the purveyors of it would have you believe. the folks i go to also would never deign to use one either.

though i can understand why some people would hope for a solution other than a rebuild. the problem with that is, there really isn't one. though i wonder sometimes how long term users of an 8mm ball bearing are faring with it.

 

Band-Aids are never the cure, I haven't had the 2nd gear pop-out issue but if I do it will be sent out for pro rebuild.

 

the gbox and the 8mm ball detent have 1 important thing in common. its NOT meant to fix or cure anything. the purpose is to keep aid a non issue trans from becoming a trans with an issue. if you have the pop out neither of these mods will fix or help it

 

of course i would know that hows a detent going to "fix" anything? it cant, and i certainly understand 2nd gear popout chapter and verse.

but the "detent" as originally came from G box ..thats how eric at gbox used to attempt to sell it. it was sold as a "preventative" fpr those that already had symptoms of 2nd gear pop. this he told me himself, albeit years ago. not that i believed him. some other shop makes one that is "sturdier" in design, but i cant remember who just now.but of course, they don't "fix" anything lol

i know far less about the 8mm ball bearing, the subject of this thread, as I've never really looked into it.

i found it. http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/...pg3.htm#item10 it's from ca motorsports ( IIRC? ) and it's supposed to work pretty well, though I've known only one person that used it...and only then as a "preventative".. NOT a FIX for 2nd pop

 

Would this help if your 3rd gear pops out. I have never had a 2nd gear popout but my 3rd pops out all the time.

 

As per previous posts, mine popped out all the time.

installed ball April 2014, provided update March 2015.

Drove the car all summer, made several 500 km trips to the lake. Approx 10,000km since the mod. it is still holding up with no pops.

I'd like it to hang in there a bit longer. I plan to have it built by one of the "gurus" with LSD and cooler.

It would be more fun to spend $ on Proefi, fuel sys and turbos.

 

probably because the 3rd gear bearing on the mainshaft is toast ( 3rd is prone to wearing out too ) and can be replaced with a 997 mainshaft which has a stronger and wider 3rd gear from 996. this from a rebuilder:

This will require the 997TT mainshaft, 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears and the 3rd gear bearing. This change will improve the 1st through 3rd gear ratios

not a bad idea at all.

yeah, this 8mm ball bearing, I've never heard of anyone not finding that it really does "work"!