This is a great tutorial. One minor extra is that on my shifter there was quite a bit of side-to-side play in the plastic selector arm. The selector arm is the piece that sits on the left side of the shifter housing and pivots up and down. It has a plastic pin pushed through it that it pivots around. After pushing the plastic pin out you can remove that arm, then cut a small piece of shim stock with a hole drilled in it and use that shim stock washer to tighten up the slop between the selector arm and the body of the shifter housing. As far as what thickness of washer to use, my recommendation is to use feeler gauges. I found that the "cap" needed to be 0.008" shim stock, the washer for the shifter stick wanted to be 0.012" and the selector arm shim wanted to be 0.006". Go to Amazon and buy a set of shim stock, which can be had for less than $20. You can then use a uni-bit on a drill to cut the appropriately sized hole, and a scissors or tin snips to make the rest of the pieces. You don't want your shims to be too tight or the shifter will bind up and not want to re-center.

@VisioRacer

3 жыл бұрын

This is true with my shifter too. I did as this tutorial suggests and still a bit of side-to-side play. Interesting that Alex did not address it... or did not have this play in the side-to-side piece.

At the dealer atm picking up a 987.2 Boxster and first thing I noticed was the ridiculous play of the shifter. Thank you for the informative video now I can rest easy.

Who else has a lathe in the home garage but Paul! Great job guys!

@scottyb6765

3 жыл бұрын

You don't have a drill press ? OKAY put a drill in the vice - make it happen ~ sheesh kids today ???

Nice, good job, thanks for a great video! I'll be doing this very soon.

excellent tutorial! Thanks for sharing;

Food information, I just shimmed the lever on a 986 that already had the short shift kit and now shifting gears feels precise and smooth.

I recently installed an ebay ss n i didnt like so i went a replaced it with the much better oem ssk. Then i modded the old oem shifter assembly with this mod n so far its seems a light tighter BUT im still enjoying the oem ssk so i probably wont test for a while. Glad to know i hv both of these n can go back to oem modded shifter if needed.

my mr. coffee coffee maker has a couple of pointy things that pierce the top and bottom of the plastic k-cup that holds the coffee. the bottom one (made of plastic) wears out, but not the top one (made of metal) after a few hundred cups of coffee and forces the water pumped from the reservoir and grounds from the cup to backup into the innards of mr. coffee (a just end i think). few will try to fix it and end up buying a new one. built-in obsolescence. personally, i'll get the oh-so-expensive all metal shifting mechanism (i won't mention any brand names). plastic has no place in any part, especially the base, of a sports car's shifting mechanism, IMO. that plastic base will contribute to premature wear everywhere in the assembly. BTW, how many of us have a metal lathe around the house? :) alex is resourceful, i'll give him that. kudos.

Great tutorial! but I think a lot of people would say that there is no play in the "new stock shifter" you showed. As a perfectionist in mind, I prefer your modded one.

I have play and my shifter is a bit clunky in 1st and 2nd. Will this mod fix the clunky, or should I replace the entire shifter?

Does installing the short throw kit also resolve this? I don't mind the stock throw, but I also wouldn't mind it if it was shorter. It just looks like the whole kit is AL or something, which should hopefully have little slop in it.

Hi Alex, great video. I have the same amount of play in my shifter as you did before you did the procedure and it is driving me crazy. I have two questions i was hoping you could answer for me before i try and do the same job on my Boxster's shifter. 1) I noticed in your photo posed at 1:02 that you have two cable ends in a little ziplock baggie. Are those cable ends original to your assembly, or did you end up ordering replacements when you did this mod. 2) how long did you have to sand the ebay bushings and with what grit? Im trying to gauge how many thousandths i need to remove and if i can do it without a lathe. Thanks again for a helpful video.

@icin235

6 жыл бұрын

Hi Wogin. 1. The two cable ends were the original ones. 2. We had to sand the Ebay bushings quite a bit. A lathe will make your life much easier. We didn't measure, we just went bit by bit until they would just barely fit, so that freezing them would make them fit.

Great Video, what also called my attention was the holder on top of the radio, is it for your cell, I have mines on one of the vents , suck because I don't get air from it since the cell holder is in front of it... please let me know the brand of that holder?... Thanks

@icin235

6 жыл бұрын

The phone holder slides into the CD slot. It was a Mountek brand.

Anyone know the approx inside diameter of washer needed?

Thank you for sharing your expertise. I've got the OEM short shift kit on my Cayman and the play is just as bad as the stock shifter in your video. Will this modification work on the OEM SSK as well? And did you cut the original plastic bushings in half to disassemble the unit?

@melp1088

4 жыл бұрын

Just finished installing an oem my shifter n u should be able to do it to it as well. The procedure should be exactly the same.

@metalguyn

4 жыл бұрын

I don't get where he puts the washer.If he Puts it over the pin he knocked out, it wont fit back in the hole. He literally doesn't demonstrate in the video where the washer goes.

@944Tomcat

2 жыл бұрын

@@metalguyn lol...you must be kidding.

How long did it work that way? Any problems in the following years?

Can I ask where you buy shim stock and thin washers? The vendors I'm finding that sell either of them online only sell them in large quantities.

@icin235

6 жыл бұрын

Most of that were spare parts we had sitting in our garages. I would go to your local machine shop and ask them.

By chance did you experience any play in the mechanism at the transmission itself? Is there slop located at the transmission that cannot be improved with the shifter itself or cables? If so, any experiencing with improving the transmission mech?

@icin235

5 жыл бұрын

The play at the transmission was negligible. The shifter is the main culprit.

Alex, what is the diameter of the level pin? I found some shim washers but i don't know the ID dimension of the washer.

@davidbrown3184

Жыл бұрын

I'm also curious about the diameter of the pin and thickness of the shims. I'm going to take some measurements when I do my modification and post back here.

Alright, i bought a new one instead..the cost of the short shifter and the alignment tool together are about 85 Euros, the complete new shifter 250,- ...but you can sell the old shifter for about 100 Euros on Ebay...so its almost the same.

Go to www.Function-first.com to buy a kit that achieves the same thing.

Will this same tool work on a 996 shifter?

@icin235

7 жыл бұрын

Yes, I think it's the same shifter.

can you tell me more about sanding the bushing? I'm having the same issue. how much did you have to sand and how much force did you have to use to install them?

@icin235

7 жыл бұрын

I had to sand the bushing quite a bit. Another thing I did was freeze the bushing for 30 mins before installation, to shrink it.

@boostted

7 жыл бұрын

+Alex Ranarivelo did it just slide in after that? Or did you have to really try and force it in.

@icin235

7 жыл бұрын

No, it still takes a little bit of force. I would advise sanding it a little more if you are having a tough time.

.005mm or .005"?

Where can I get the alignment tool?

@icin235

7 жыл бұрын

TurboFo_Oil_Changer Porsche_Light_Saver you can buy the tool online from many Porsche vendors.

I tried the new GT4 Cayman and that has a very short shift and no play in the gates too. Wonder what they did to it.

@icin235

6 жыл бұрын

I believe it has a different transmission with better internal shift action.

Just bought a 997.2. It is sloppy! Thanks for sharing this mod. I'm going for it!

Nothing to do with your vid but...are you originally from Madagascar? i've noticed your name ^^ .

@icin235

7 жыл бұрын

Part of my family is. I am French.

Really motivated until seeing all the tools needed to make this happen. Now a bit sad.

The way the shiter gets looser with age is one of many car OEMs tricks to make the car seem "old".... built-in obsolescence Porsche style :)

@deep6thisdeep6this92

2 жыл бұрын

right on! nobody likes a loose shiter.

@johnpoo1662

2 жыл бұрын

@@deep6thisdeep6this92 the looser the shitier amiright? :p

great video and thank you. but if it was like that from the factory and countless other things as well then all of us technicians would be out of a job. they design to fail mate! haha cheers

do you know the internal and external diameter of the washer needed please Alex?

@pbedrosi

4 жыл бұрын

Does anyone know? I'm about to order some thin shim washers but I don't have tools to enlarge if washer id is small

Installing a Numeric Racing Shifter and Cables will eliminate all the play. The shifter and cables are also so much more rigid than the stock. Billet aluminum housing and bearings for all the movements making the action so much more rigid a direct. There is no comparison to the stock unit. They also have a lifetime guarantee on there products. www.numericracing.com

@dpav7994

5 жыл бұрын

$450 for cables and $700 for the shifter? Seems a little extreme if you're just trying to get rid of a little play. That's clearly a pro racing mod.

@greencapella

5 жыл бұрын

Would the agency power shift linkage fix any sloppyness? I also have the numeric racing cables but haven't installed them yet.

This is not a "Mod", this would be a repair,.. a half ass one at that. do the job correctly or buy a different brand of car.

@icin235

6 жыл бұрын

This is a modification of the factory shifter and it works PERFECTLY. There is no OEM or aftermarket part available that will achieve what this mod does. If you disagree, please let us all know how you would "correctly" do this.