[smdubovsky]

Originally Posted by pjalexandre

Which 986 tip do you have? It is an Audi/VW FWD trans turned around, at least that is the case for the 5 speed 986 gearbox. 99-02 Passat for example, bolt on, move the shifting mechanism over and flip the ring/pinion so you have 5 forward gears instead of 5 reverse. 3-500 any day of the week.

All 986/996 use the ZF 5HP19. Also used by BMW 3/5, VW, and Audi by the zillions (in comparison). The automatic stack is the same but cases & R&P are all different. Can't flip a hypoid R&P anyway.

Vertex is giving me the line that the valve bodies are different between otherwise identical boxsters so they want to get my trans back first so they can rebuild my valve body into their already rebuilt trans. I have the BMW ZF manual for the umpteen different varieties and while there are suble differences in some of the other parts they only list one valve body. Vertex hasn't provided proof that porsche uses different bodies. I have a hard time believeing that a modern auto thats completely controlled by computer would use a different bodies (and the bmw docs seem to support that fact).

Yanking the guts out of an audi trans and swapping is a good idea but a ZF gasket/repair kit is something like $800. So by the time you factor in the slightly different parts, hassle of swapping, and the (high) risk of it not working right the first time you put it back in and having to do it all over again (for a 3rd time!), and buying a new torque converter... No thanks, I'll buy a remanufactured or used one. Im sure the rebuild guys are getting the donor rebuild parts from bmw/vw/audi trans. I don't have the time or desire to figure it out though.