QuestionMy sister has asked me to look @ her yearly 60's 356b. I will nolonger shift into 2 or 4th. 1st and 3rd fine. Could you give me a starting point for diagnosis? I am guessing that it is linkage related rather than inside the tranny. Is there a notorious weak spot in the linkage system?
AnswerHi Ron,
We 356 lovers really never admit that any area of our "babies" is notorious or weak! The 914's are notorious for linkage problems, but usually the 356's are quite reliable. But...since you ask...
I suspect your inclination is correct, that since two gears seem fine it would be the linkage rather than the synchros.
Where you need to get to and see is the location on the floor behind the seats: find the tunnel or hump as it passes through to the trans/engine compartment. Covering this pass-through is a carpet-covered half dome, that when removed will yield your target: the linkage.
The work you need to do is on the linkage you have exposed. This is absolutely going to be harder to explain than to do. So let me try to explain it the simple way...and you'll have to use your imagination and a flashlight to see what needs to be done.
Assume you are standing in the driver's doorway looking down at the linkage. You'll want to be able to reach the gearshift with your left hand. If you move the knob left to right in neutral you can watch the action of the shift rod leading from the shifter as it joins the linkage. The concept is that when staring at the linkage and moving the knob left to right you should see equal amounts of travel at the linkage. When your sister's problem occurs it is usually reflected in movement more restricted one way compared to the other.
I will suggest at this point we evaluate how much you want to undo to correct the problem. I'd like to get some feedback from you after you look at the problem. Then we will have a better chance of talking the same language as we describe what we're looking at.
Let me know what you find. OK?
Dave
