[Jazzbass]

I just bought my first Porsche - a '85 Carrera coupe. Since I can't drive it because it snows every other day, I'm working out all of the "projects" I have planned for the car - tie rods, lowering, H4s, etc. The one thing I'm not real sure about is the transmission. The 1st gear synchros are gone, although the rest of the gears shift fine (yeah sloppy, but hopefully some adjustmens and new shift bushings will help).

I want to rebuild the 915 at some point in the future, and am debating on doing it myself or paying to have it done. It looks straight forward enough, but I haven't been able to find any real deailed info on the rebuild process. I have the Bently book, but their coverage is a little more sparse than I'd like. Has anyone done such a rebuild? Anyone know of a good technical info source (other than the $1000 factory service manual that I can't afford )? Thanks!

-- Chris

[Marc A]

Not sure how good the factory manual is as I have not looked at that part of the manual, but I will. If it sheads any decsent light on the project I'll let you know.

The other alternative is to send it to Vertex in Fla, and get one of thier rebuilt units (about 900 as I recall) as I'm not sure what the parts cost to rebuild one.

Congrats on your first, we have a lot of 911 virgins on this board, and Welcome to the board.

[Charlie Stylianos]

Chris,

The Bently manual has decent instructions and many have used it for their 915 rebuild. When I researched this topic on Pelican, the consensus was it looked intimidating but was pretty straight forward....its bark is worse than its bite. John Walker actually lists the parts, with numbers (I think), for a routine 915 rebuild. Also the Bently mentions various special tools, again there were many suggestion/ ways around using some of the special tools, but there are few they you will need. Do some research on Pelican, there are lots of good tips there.

As my hands are quite full right now, the 915 is on the back burner. I'm going to try Swepco and bushing refresh as well.

...welcome to the board

[Jazzbass]

Thanks guys. I really like the technical how-to orientation of this board. I figure I'll be able to contribute more after I've really started tearing into the 911.

I should mention that for the most part my Carrera is in pretty good shape, and the 915 will probably wait until next fall/winter. Gears 2-5 seem ok and I've learned to double clutch into first to help stop the grinding. Since I just bought the car, I plan the Swepco/bushing install with the rest of the new car replacement items I need to take care of (oil, air filter, spark plugs, brake fluid, etc, etc). I'm just trying to get the background info on the project for now.

I am surprised at how little info there is on the subject, based on the need (from what I understand most 915s loose 1st and 2nd syncros at around 100k) and the relative complexity (it seems a lot easier than rebuilding the 911 engine, thats for sure). However, it seems that while a lot of 911 owners have little fear of tearing their engine down, the tranny seems to be a myterious piece of machinery whos repair should be left to experts only. Lots of books, websites ann BBS forums for engine rebuilding, but little for the ol' 915. Even Wayne from Pelican, who wrote a book so people like us could attempt to rebuild our 911 engines, tells people on his BBS to just have an expert do the 915 rebuild!

I did, however, find some really good threads on Pelicans BBS on the process - listed here for archival and posterity:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...threadid=64307
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...threadid=55921
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...threadid=55700
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...threadid=57952

-- Chris

[Marc A]

Chris:

If you are only having problems down shifting into 1st, keep driving that thing.

Don't know many people who can put a 915 into first while rolling once there is miliage on it.

I will be rebuilding my 915 next winter. This year with 4 track events my 1-2 and 2-1 problems will only get worse, but I want to wear them out good before I go in.

If you want to wait until next year we can do a double.