Porsche Repair: 5 speed manual transmission, porsche mechanic, 5 speed manual transmission

Question
I am new to porsche. I own a 1977 911S Targa.  The trans is difficult to down shift to 1st gear coming to a stop, and 3rd gear scraches most of the time up shifting.  The cluch was severly out of adjustment when I got the car.  The engine was professional rebuilt 14,000 miles ago along with a new cluch. I have the documentation of all work done to the car. Do you think possibly cluch or syncro's  

Answer
Hi Will,

I'm assuming you've owned the car a relatively short time and the engine rebuild was for the prior owner.  If this is true, then I'm a bit surprised the clutch was "professionally" replaced yet it was severly misadjusted when you got the car.  Either I have the sequence wrong or that doesn't make sense.

Your hunches are probably correct...if you don't have any repair history for the transmission, it's highly possible your synchros are terribly tired.  I suspect that an out of adjustment clutch would cause extra fast disc wear, but if the problem was clutch only, you'd likely be "scrunching" in all the gears.  

Scrunching is not a term Porsche owners are normally familiar with, as proved by your use of the term "scraches".  Now, if you let the transmission synchro problem go unresolved, you will become much more familiar with all the bad sounds a transmission can make, including scrunching.  Unfortunately, full on scruching always results in driver grimacing.  And you never want a beautiful woman in your 911 passenger seat to see you grimace.

To prove your hunches, here's the ticket:  find a local and highly regarded independent Porsche mechanic.  For example,  I have one I can't afford to go to, but I trust his 'seat of the pants' implicitly.  My guy can drive the car and quickly assess the significance of a problem...why...because he's been driving new and old Porsches every day all his adult life.  Most are customer cars but nonetheless, he can "feel" the tightness (or not) of the steering, the time when the front or rear shocks are toast, and when a transmission has given its all.

Once you find a guy like this, ask for a diagnosis-only-consultation.  Tell him you've only got limited time and you need to confirm what the problem is and get a ball park repair estimate to factor into whether to keep or sell the car.  Take the info he gives you, take the car and take an aspirin.  Once you get that other opinion, then, you can start sizing up what to do next.  If the guy's that good, you'll probably consider him for the repair work.

But that discussion's for another day.

Dave

PS.  As my doctor says, if it hurts when you do that, STOP doing it.  I'm not sure why you're downshifting into first.  There have been years of arguments as to the wisdom of using the transmission to slow the car vs. the brakes.  I'm of the opinion that the brakes should be #1.  Think how easy it is to change the front pads compared to the 1st gear syncho.