Date:         Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:04:22 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: 1989-only 911 Turbo model designation & airshift kit?
In-Reply-To:  <772342.81812.qm@web56808.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

>Scott has it right on. Your concern about losing leverage if you
>lengthen the bottom section isn't valid if you increase the top
>section by a proportional amount. Say the vanagon shifter is 3 feet
>long. Say the porsche shifter is 2 feet long. You want to make the
>porsche shifter 50% longer to get the same length.  So to maintain
>the leverage ratio, feel, and the general porsche goodness, you
>would lengthen the sections above and below the porsche shifter
>pivot point each by 50%.  A little more math - let's say your stock
>2' porsche shifter has 6" below the pivot and 18" above the pivot.
>To make it work in the van by being 50% longer, the bottom bit would
>need to be 9" and the top bit would need to be 27".  The shift knob
>will now move just as far between the gears as it did in the porche,
>but it is now raised up and suited to fit the van. Good luck with
>your conversion, -Damon

I've had a good play with drawings and the shifter tower and cannot
see how it can be modified for a short shift; the juxtaposition of
pivot points and shift rod just doesn't seem to allow it. Which I
imagine is why the somewhat-less-than-honest Martin Schneider (MSDS
Road Panzer) didn't sell modified shifters but had his own made for
his G50 kits (if Marty had kept his word I wouldn't be having these
problems).

Googling brings up shortshift kits for 986 and later models, but none
older than 1991, and the shifters are totally different to mine.

My shifter has no stop plate, reverse detente or gate. The shifter
lever just flops around loosely in the open-topped aluminum
baseplate; it is pivoted right at the bottom, in a downhanging
extension of the baseplate. The shift rod comes in horizontally just
below the baseplate and is attached to a coupling which hangs by a
vertical lever ball-&-socket jointed at its top into an overhanging
rearward extension of the shift lever, the extension being about
level with the baseplate. The design obviously gives a very short
shift as standard, as it can only move a small amount forward &
backward before the hanging arm starts to try to bend the end of the
shift rod (so I assume that Sportswagenservice Jacobi didn't send me
a complete shifter) and can only rotate the rod a few degrees.

Maybe I will be able to adapt an AE90 Corolla cable-shifter after
all, as I was thinking of doing... mounted well off the floor
(Hiace-style) to position the knob ergonomically close to the wheel.
It should have sufficient amount of rotation to engage the 4 planes
of the G50. Mounted back-to-front on the AE90 baseplate, the shift
lever should put the reverse detente in the right position too. I'll
have to look at it again.

There are 911 nuts on this list; doe NOBODY know what model the 1989
Turbo was??