Shifter Cable Replacement

[justjeff]

I encountered a problem with my '97 Boxster while driving down the road about a month ago. As I was shifting from second to third gear, my shifter when "limp". After this I could only shift from 3rd to 4th gears. All other gears were inaccesssable. After I limped the car back home, I was able to get underneath the rear of the car and determined that a bushing in one of the shift linkages at the rear of the car, adjacent to the transmission, had failed. After much searching I was able to find a used shifter cable assembly that included the necessary linkage part that I needed to do the job. This part, however, was different from the part on my car in that it looks like the design was modified to correct the weak plastic joints in the linkage system. My original cables had a plastic socket with a metal retaining clip joint, connecting the cables to the rear linkage. The new cables have metal socket joints housing what appears to be a white teflon sleeve. I fitted all of the pieces together and everything fit fine, without modification. When it was time to test the installation for proper function, all forward gears operated correctly and went into gear without a problem, however, my car would not shift into reverse. I went back underneath the car and found that I could shift the car into reverse by manually operating the linkage attached to the rear transmission shaft. So the transmission does go into reverse. It's as though the linkage controls are not pulling down the rear transmission linkage far enough to shift the transmission into reverese gear. My question is this. Is there an adjustment that can be made in the linkage to correct this problem?

[RFM]

Cable adjustment can be done on the shifter in the cabin.

[Loren]

Or... one of the ball sockets on the shifter may be worn out.

I think Tool pants has posted some pics of those here... somewhere.

[Stefan]

It sounds like the left-right cable just needs to be adjusted as the new pieces are not identical to the old.