1999 Porsche 996 C4 Pinion bearing replacement my DIY

Here it is. In this thread I'll write how I did the disassembly and reassembly of my manual tranny for pinion bearing change. I began with Nick Hends DIY who did the same but for a C2 which is different from a Carrera 4 transmission. Unlike Nick I did the complete disassembly myself You can find Nick's thread here : https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ement-diy.html I took plenty of photos that I'll post and I'll write the dimensions of the bearings I changed. I got some tricks that I will explain too. At the time of writing the beginning of this thread the complete tear down of the secondary shaft was done and I was waiting for new bearings. Please keep in mind that some sentences may sound odd or strange it's because I'm french native. I'll do my best. Also I don't necessairly recommend what I did to anybody. I know that the method I used to separate the 2 shafts is discutable but I took the decision to do that in MY transmission. I'll write this thread a bit at a time since this requires a certain amount of time that I don't necessarly have. I hope this will help others at least as much as I got help on forums in the past.

Awesome... really looking forward to seeing this.

First nose cone removal. I removed the 12 bolts that attached the nose cone to the housing but I was'nt able to remove the cone. When I was moving the biggest shifter lever the cone seemed to move out a bit but I could'nt lift it more than 3/4th of an inch. Then I removed the bolt that we see in the middle of next photo. It has liberated the cone but I've put the assembly that the bolt held at it's place in the cone for the time of reassembling. Be careful for the threaded hole in the shaft vs the bolt

To be continued

Thank you for writing this up.

Here is how I disassembled the fork Shifts. I gave them numbers from 1 to 5, #1 beeing the nearest to the magnetic washer. First I punched out pin #1 on shaft #1. Then I had to pull the shaft up while holding the fork and lock plate. A good idea is to clean the shaft and use nitrile gloves cause its hard to handle the shaft when it's oily. It came up a little bit at a time until free. Second I punched out pin #2 to remove shaft #2. The pin went out but not completely. I punched it as far as possible and between 2 teeth of the reverse gear. After that I have been able to remove shaft #2 like the previous shaft holding the fork and the lock plate at the bottom. Third step, I punched out pin #3 on fork shaft #4, I punched out pin #4 and pin #5 on fork shaft #5 and I had no choice to remove them together. Take care to check how the ''lever'' that pin #4 holds goes to be sure to put it back the same way when reassembling. Forth I removed shaft #3 easily but like Nick Hends mentioned in his DIY take care not to lose the 4 little guides or rollers at the bottom of the fork shaft #3 That's it for the fork shafts removal.

When all fork shafts were removed I took off the Torx bolts holding the steel plate against the casing. For this part my procedure was the same than Nick but I heated the case with a heatgun not a torch. I never heat aluminum with a torch. Then I pried with pry bars protecting the aluminum casing. The shafts came out slowly and one of the half of outside race of main shaft bearing stayed in the tranny casing. (see photo)

OK Here's the interesting part. It's for this step that I've been a naughty boy. I did'nt want to work with a puller to disassemble the secondary shaft. I hate pullers. They bent, they slip they have a pretty small holding surface at the tip of the gear teeth. I prefered to press everything out. It would have been pretty hard to press out the gears with both shafts attached together cause they weight aroung 70 lbs. I checked with Nick's DIY and I don't believe that I would have been able to separate the shafts after the removal of reverse, first, second gear and cutting the main shaft bearing. So I cut the bearing.

Then after checking the uses of the steel plate, 1- reinforcing the aluminum casing between the 2 shafts 2- holding the bearings in place in the aluminum casing 3- the shape of it around the main shaft that helps splashing o�l for the bearing. I decided to cut a little piece of the steel plate from each side around the main shaft so I could remove and put it back freely. I used an air tool, a cutter with 2 inch disc and finished with a dremel. I don't think I did anything taht bad or dangerous for the tranny and remember I took the risk for myself. If I weakened the plate it's not significant. It will still hold the bearings strongly and the splash o�l function won't be much affected. Now i can work my way on the press and disassemble everything from the secondary shafts. To come...

Very creative ! I hope it works well !

Time to press! The first steps are the same than in Nick Hend's DIY. I removed the C clip from the tip of the secondary shaft and the spacers. I took great care to classify every action and put parts in order for reassembly. Like I wrote earlier I did'nt use a puller but a press. I did'nt need the special tool to put in the shaft cause the auxiliary shaft of the Carrera 4 is not hollow. I just made a special tool to keep the tip of the shaft at the right place under the piston of the press. It made my work very safe. I began like Nick by removing everything before the first gear. I went slowly and when I saw the needle bearing appear right Under that assembly I've put a tie-rap around not to loose anything just in case. Then I presse everything before the second gear and did the same thing with needle bearing right Under as soon as it appeared. I did'nt have the 3 ball with springs like Nick had on his C2. Those 2 steps came out easily with not much pressure (Under 2 tons). On the 3rd photo you can see the tool I've made on top of the shaft.

The next pressing step was the most impressive. The removal of these 2 gears required 25 tons of pressure. Note that for the previous steps I heated the parts with a heat gun and for this step and the next one with a propane torch. I did'nt had the choice to remove them at the same time. Then the last one required much less pressure (around 10 tons). I pressed pushing on the steel plate. Then I pressed out THE bearing who was very easy to get out. Last photos show all the parts classified and the pinion bearing. I opened only one side and saw at least one problems immediatly. Voil� !! I hope it will help. Next i'll post the part numbers I used and dimensions of the bearings just for everybody to find everything at one place. I don't think these bearings can be substituted with anything though. Because there was a mistake in my order about the pinion bearing I'm not ready to press everything back yet. I'll do that soon. I'll take many photos of the reassembly and if ever there is something more interesting than : ''Use the reverse order to reassemble'' I'll put photos here. Cheers

Here are the bearings I will change in this job. On the left is the Pinion bearing with Porsche part number and on the right is the Main shaft bearing that we have to cut to separate the shafts with it's part number. The next photo shows the pinion bearing with Porsche part number and the number engraved on the bearing. It's the same for the last photo but it's for the main or primary shaft. The dimensions of the pininion bearing are : 48mm ID, 93mm OD and 37mm thickness (34.5mm to the knotch) sorry we don't see the what I called a knotch. I could post a better photo later. The dimensions of the main shaft bearing are : 35mm ID, 72mm OD and 34mm thick. Both are double ball bearings separate in half.

The '808'- 996 302 808 00 bearing is here: https://www.123bearing.com/bearing-801641E-***.php 48x93x37mm The '807'- 996 302 807 00 bearing has already been searched and is difficult to find.I tried "Bearing 8055519383" and got nothing.be careful just searching by size 35x72x34mm -you may be mislead by items like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NTN-BEARING-...-/221191814266 As the Op = am wrote :"Both are double ball bearings separate in half. " If you look at his photos, the inner race is a single piece. The outer race is split ! Here is a link to a good photo & a bad price: https://www.carpartsdiscount.com/man...ml?3593=525997 Please confirm with your own research before buying! And please correct this post if it is incorrect !

Here is a photo of my pinion bearing installed where we can see the ''notch'' I was talking about previously. I just finished the first part of reassembly and I have a couple of good infos. I decided to leave the seals of the pinion bearing in place cause I said to myself '' the original Porsche bearing with magic grease had last 100 000 miles so if I leave it like that I will be sure to drive it a very long time before worrying'' Wrong, I opened the split pinion bearing and saw that there was only a bit of yellowish grease Inside. The bearing was in place but I have been able to remove both seals (first and second photo). Also I attached the steel plate to the steel bar I used to sit the shaft on. It assured the steel plate and the shim to stay in place while pressing the first gear to go back on (third photo). I'm halfway done, I've put back separately the gears that needed 25 tons to be remove together. The worst has needed around 15 tons to go back in place. Here where I stopped tonight (fourth photo) Last photo shows the 1 inch X 2 inch steel bar I used to sit the shaft. It bent a little bit

" I opened the split pinion bearing and saw that there was only a bit of yellowish grease Inside." Regardless of the quantity of grease (which may or may not be insufficient?) ,you could do no harm by removing the seals imho. Why? Because eventually those seals deteriorate .Just like the IMSB seal problem, the deteriorated seals allow the grease to drip out but prevent enough oil entering to replace it. While driving there must be a huge oil shower/mist atmosphere in the gearbox and that will never change - unlike the seals/grease. So hopefully that shower of oil flung up by the rotating gears will lubricate the bearings.

I also think it will be ok with seals out. I was surprised when I opened the bearing. I was sure that I would see Porsche's magic grease like they used to put in the original bearing. Instead there was just a bit of kind of assembling grease. I'm very glad I removed the seals. I will do the same with the main shaft bearing seals

Tonight I continued the reassembling and I found the 3 little springs and ball that Nick Hend was talking about in his DIY When I pressed back the second gear assembly I probably did'nt hold everything well and a fraction of a second one of the springs went out and broke 3 sprungs. I hope it won't be a too long delay to get a new spring. I released the needle bearing and cut the tie wraps cause it's not dangerous to loose the needles out. They can only fall from the inside. So it's to be handled with care and don't remove the Inside race. The second gear assy has been too hard to put back in place. Around 12 tons of pressure for the pressed gear. For the rest it was just to align the splines and tap in slowly and it is a good suggestion not to do that step alone like I did. At this point I'm not completely sure of the depth of the green needle bearing but I'll have the answer when I'll continue.

Here is the secondary shaft totally reassembled. I found a spring and fixed my problem. I'm not sur I caused that problem. Maybe it was like that before. I was very nervous that I did'nt presse everything deep enough on the shaft but at the end it was a perfect fit with the C clip Here are the specs of the pipes I used to press everything. First a pipe of 53mm ID X 16 inch long. It takes a thick enough pipe like 1/8 of an inch. Second a pipe of 47mm ID X 11 inch long. And third and last a pipe of 36mm ID X 5 inch long. I'm done with this shaft. Everything works well on it. There are still a couple of difficult steps to come like to put back the two shaft assemblies in the tranny case and to put back the nose cone correctly.

Well done ! The dimensions of the pipes you used for pressing are very useful. For those south of the border I'll try to convert .I do not know how critical the i.d. measurements given by am are so got as close as possible and went a little larger if necessary. 1/8" wall thickness = 1/4"i.d./o.d. = 6.35mm difference i.d./o.d. 1, The first pipe is 53mm i.d. pipe +7mm is 60mm o.d. An N.P.S. 2" pipe Sch. 30 is 53.9mm i.d. x 60.3mm o.d. 2.The second pipe is 47mm i.d. pipe + 7mm is 54mm o.d. An N.P.S. 2" Sch. 120 (beefy!) is 47+mm i.d . x 60.33mm o.d. 3. The third pipe is 36mm i.d. pipe +7mm is 43mm o.d. An N.P.S. 1-1/4" Sch, 30 pipe is 36.16 mm i.d . x 42.16 mm o.d. This wall is less than 1/8" so the beffier alternative would be : An N.P.S. 1-1/2" Sch 80 is 38mm i.d . x 48mm o.d. Check some tables and do your own math before you order !! I suspect that some of the pipes that am used were old U.S. standard sizes?

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I can't tell you. I took what I found at work that would do the job. The longest and the shortest pipes had the same thickness. I did'nt mention the thickness of the middle one cause I used a stainless pipe that was an outside ramp before. It was thin but been stainless it was very strong. The first pipe is the most important for the thickness. I began with a thin pipe and it soon turned as a trumpet I forgot to mention that like Nick mentioned in his DIY I removed the reverse and first gear assy in one shot then the second gear assy in another step. I had to press the parts of these assemblies one by one to know well what I was doing. The trickiest part was the needle bearings. We must take care not to separate them from the center ring or the needles will fall apart.

Here's the main shaft bearing back on the shaft. Pretty easy to put back. I used a 12 inch pipe. 42.5 mm OD (1 5/8'') 36.5 mm ID (1 7/16)

This is a link to the related discussion about alternative (cheaper) sourcing of the bearings: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post13985434

Heres is the tranny case with the shafts back in. I heated the case with a heater and I've put the shafts outside during that time (cause it's around 15f outside) As soon as I have been able to thread the torx bolts in I used them to press the bearings In slowly. I cleaned the threads of the case and torx bolts and put blue Loctite in. Torqued at 22 nm. Then I've put back the fork shafts.

Looks great .The large outdoor freezer was a creative move ! How long before other Rennlisters start sending you their gearboxes ? You could have a side business based on this thread.

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Lol I don't think I would do that in someone else car. Too much responsabilities but so funny work to do By the way the tranny job has cost me around $900 including the 2 bearings, one shim, and all new seals.

A few more tricks to close this thread for the last part : Nose cone reassembly. I attached the short shifter lever with a wire (photo1) and inclined the tranny like on photo 2. I've put a little bit of grease on the kind or round washer (guide) that is held only with gravity at this point. I 've droped the nose cone slowly while taking care not to loose the round washer and that it places well on the middle fork shaft lever. I also took care that this fork shaft stays at it's place during the operation. It is much tricky and took me around 30 minutes to succeed. Once well placed I lifted the nose cone about 1/2 inch to clean again and put Permatex 51813 and closed. I torqued the nose cone bolts to 25 nm. At this time the engine and tranny are back in the car with almost everything connected back. The next step will be the test drive but not before at least five more weeks of winter I hope this thread will help many peoples. If ever more informations are needed feel free to contact me.

Forgot to mention that after the rebuilt, my transmission feels fine and sounds good. It shifts (by hand of course) great in all gears.

What a great thread and contribution to the community! I'm sure it will be very helpful to a lot of people me included. My tranny has some intermittent rattle at idle. It will go away if I press in the clutch or if I put it in neutral and pull the shifter slightly toward the rear of the car. I can reproduce the rattle if I rock the long shift arm under the car (when engine is off). Seems a lot of free-play. I can imagine how difficult to align everything to install the nose cone. Makes you wonder how they do that in the factory. Maybe some kind of alignment tool to stabilize the shift rods?

Ok today was THE DAY. I finally made my first road test and my transmission is quiet like a brand new one It shifts perfectly well like before the rebuild. Good luck to all who will use this DIY and contact me if You need help I'll do my best to help.

Great Job! Certainly not for the faint of heart...

Thank's. I must admit that I have had a few moments of high anxiety

I do have a question, How did you reinstall the Input shaft to the bearing retainer with the Input shaft bearing installed on the shaft, I have never been able to do it

We had discussed the possibility of buying a generic 'Truck" bearing for this job. I had emailed a supplier in China with all the bearing specs,part number and dimensions several months ago. I finally got a generic reply copied below.Not encouraging. "This is chris from YTG Industrial Bearing Co.,Ltd.(China)which is specializing in bearings for many years. According to your information , we'd like to introduce those items for you. Item price/pcs CSB213 $4.17 sH2334 $18.33 H216 $1.67 H316 $1.83 MT215 $5.83 NA203 $1.17 NA211 $3.67 NEL206 $1.17 We will be happy to give you a quotation upon receipt of your detailed requirements. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Best Regards, Chris. skype: bearings22 Email: [email removed] Cell&Whatsapp:+8615209863012 facebook：[email removed] "

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Check this thread post #9. I 've cut the bearing retainer

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Is it a list of the bearing components??

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Great write up, I'm in the middle of replacing the same bearings too. How is the trimmed bearing retaining plate holding up so far?

I think I did the job around 12000 kms and it still runs fine and quiet. Like new I changed the tranny oil before the last season and the oil was fine without any significant debris.

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Perfect! I'm doing the same then.

Cool... let us know how it went

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I've built a bearing puller that grabs the input shaft bearing inner race and pulls it off the shaft without any damage. The contact part of the puller is bronze and the rest is steel. The entire contraption looks sort of like this ( https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...or/A-p2990103e ) Then two long threaded rods are connected to the puller and a plate with some nuts and a centre bolt pulled the bearing off the input shaft. Wish Rennlist would allow non members to post pictures as that would make this write up a lot easier to understand. Anyways, this way now I can re use this bearing, only need to replace the damaged pinion bearing and save a bunch of this repair. After all this is just a repair not a rebuild. If all this works out the way things are going then, the pinion bearing replacement will be $140CDN (for the *** pinion bearing) and then add to this is the cost of gear oil and flange sealant. Also I've trimmed the bearing retaining plate yesterday and the main shaft gear stack slid out, just like it did for you. Thanks for figuring this out, this is going to save a ton of work for anyone that does this.

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Thank you for the feedback and for shearing the improvement of the method. You could try to send me a photo of the stting you used by private message and I could place them here for you. Did you unseal the new pinion bearing before installation?

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Sent you a PM. Haven't got to the point of pulling the pinion bearing yet but in the next few days, I'm going to start pulling the gears off the pinion shaft to get to the failed bearing. Haven't decided yet about the keeping or removing the seals. You have removed them right?

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I got your pm. Yes you should remove the seals. I bought my bearings from Porsche and unlike the original ones in the tranny, there was just a bit of grease inside them. I can imagine what would happened after a few thousand miles

Here are 4 interesting photos of the puller Imo000 made and used to remove the auxiliary shaft bearing. Looks very well made

Got the new VW pinion bearing on yesterday and all the first 4 pressed on gears on the same shaft. 20t was enough to press them back on. BUT when I was first removing them, the double gear that needs to come off at the same time, needed more than 20t. When I reached that point during disassembly, I had to take it to another shop that had a bigger press to push them off. Then inner race of the damaged pinion bearing was cut off with a Dremell. Made too longitudinal cuts, opposite of each other and went as deep as possible without cutting into the pinion shaft. This is a nerve wrecking process but is doable if you go slow and keep watching your progress. Once the two cuts were about 1mm away from the shaft, I stopped and tried using a chisel to crack the race ope but that didn't work. What worked was to keep very slowly cutting a little deeper until I heard a cracking sound. This was when the bearing race split open at the cut from the pressure of the pinion shaft and then, I just inserted a flathead screwdriver into the cut to pry the bearing open and then, the race just slid off the shaft. In the next few days I'll get the rest of the gears onto the pinon shaft and then I will re install the input shaft bearing that I removed with the custom bearing puller. After all that, it should be a simple re assembly of the gear case. So far the cost is $140CDN for the pinion bearing from VW and I had to buy a 20t bottle jack for $60CDN.

Brilliant work, generously shared,thank you ! Seems like we need a less nerve wracking method of splitting the bearing to get it off the shaft. Hopefully others will contribute. Amazing that after all these years we are still inventing repair methods and discovering cross-over parts.

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I think making a bearing puller like I used for the input shaft would work but since the pinion bearing has a larger diameter, a completely new tool needs to be made and I didn't feel like making one since this bearing was shot anyways. However, just yesterday I came across this You Tube Next time, if there ever will be one, I will give this a shot for sure. It might work.

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I'm not sure I would use that method with transmission parts. Ouch the guy is a bit hard, Induction is way softer

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Excellent work. I removed the two gears from the shaft myself and it was quite impressive. It took around 35 tons of pressure and it made quite a noise

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Well done! My 20t even with the handle extended another 2 feet with a pry bar want's enough. Since mine is a 2WD transmission, I had to make a plug that goes on the end of the pinion shaft. It was nothing fancy, just mild steel that went a few inches into the shaft and then flared out to be a little smaller than the OD of the pinion shaft. The plug then extended a couple of inches and that's it. Worked really well. By the way, in case others in the future come across this post, the shaft plug drawing in the other thread that has the pinon bearing write up is completely wrong.

I wonder would you be interested in drawing up a set of instructions of the procedure you followed along with instructions how to make the necessary tools needed , I would pay for something like this , obviously you have done a lot of thinking and trial and error, now you got it nailed just get it down on paper , screenshot it or photo copy instructions to post out, there's quite a lot of info about engines but I feel this is the next thing, and you don't hear of many places if any fixing 996 gearboxes , just a though ??

I know you have explained a lot on the thread which is great but it would be good to have it ina proper manual with some engineering drawings of the tools, just adding to my previous post before everyone says , he's done that already !!

That's not a bad idea. When it's all done and the transmission is back together I'll try to make some sort of a drawing that shows dimensions of the bearing puller. My father's buddy and I never make a drawing, we just talked it out and made the puller. Eyeball engineering at its best!

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Yes it's a good idea but a tutorial is much more time consuming than the repair itself

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After you got the new spring, hiw did you put the springs and ***** back into the shifter ring?

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Ouch, it's a long time ago. I'm not sure but I think I used an ordinary collar like we use for ducts on dryer machines or a simple wire around the gear. Sorry my friens I can't be more precise than that

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That's plenty of help. I was thing along the same lines too but wanted to ask you. Going to make something that resembles a ghetto piston ring compressor (a strip of metal with a hose clamp) and give that a go.

Could make you $$$ these gearboxes will be the next to add to the list, as if worrying about the bloody engine isn't enough!!

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There are enough expensive parts in these transmission that if one would want to do a full and proper rebuild, it could get near the cost of a shortblock. BUT just repairing individual issues usually isn't too expensive. What I'm doing here is ONLY a REPAIR. There are parts in my transmission that could use a "while you are in there" replacement but that would drive the cost way up and also, I have to draw the line somewhere. Also, I don't like fixing cars for people that I don't personally know. It's not personal, I'm just trying to avoid the headache of when something goes wrong (eventually it always does). I have no problem sharing as much information as I know and help others but, to do the work on their car, I'm not interested in it. As far as doing a full, step by step, write up on how to replace this bearing, well that will be a ton of work. When it comes to complex things like this, better if someone with some previous knowledge of working on engines/transmissions tackle this than someone that only did brakes and suspension work. I'm not saying it isn't possible but it's easier if you already did stuff like this. If you never did more than a brake job then find someone that knows a little more and have them help you with a job like this. This thread and the other one that describes the same thing, has more than enough information to help out those DIY'ers that know what they are doing.

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Are you sure that's how you did it? I still can't figure out how to keep the 3 spring loaded ***** in place to slide the shifter ring over it. There has to be a special tool and procedure to get this done. You didn't take this to a transmission shop to get it done did you?

Never mind, figured it out. Did slightly differently than in this clip (procedure start at the 5:25 mark) You Tube but at the end it all went together.

Having torn my transmission apart and reassembled it, I'd agree with Imo000. I'd say you need LOTS of hands on mechanic experience and a very good set of tools to do this job. The skill level is similar to what is necessary to rebuild an engine, and you need a ton of patience if you end up having to put that shift selector assembly back together.

Some update on my end. The $140CAD VW pinion bearing went into the case without any problems. Both gears stacks are in the transmission case now. Heated up the pinion bearing opening to around 50C and the gear stack just slid in. Before heating the case it would not go in. One of the gear rods are installed too. The next step is to install the rest of the shifter forks and then slide on the tail housing. Took longer than planned to get the last two gears pressed on because of the social distancing. My oldman took a day off from going to his shop so finally had a chance to go and press them on. This included the input shaft bearing that I've reused, which by the was pressed on without much drama. I have to replace one of the shifter rod linear bearing that sits in the transmission case because I've damaged it but this is only a $10 part so won't add too much to the total of the pinion bearing replacement.

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Great work I can't wait to hear how it goes when back on track.

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Did you leave the gear assembly back in the case with the bolt holding it from the outside of the case during re installation of the nose cone? I'm at that point right now just have to install the shifter rod detent bolts/spring/***** for each rod and then it's time to try sliding on the nose cone. By the way. That $11 shifter rod bearing that I've damaged and ordered from the dealer took over 2 weeks to arrive from Germany. It was a real PITA to remove the old one from the case, had to use a diamond tip grinding bit on the end of a rotary tool and then, I had to pretend to be a dentist to slowly grind away the outer race of the old bearing but after that, it popped right out.

Just a quick question guys? Sorry I'm not as advanced as you all seem to be on the gearbox side of things, I've got my engine and box out at the moment for clutch and flywheel, was wondering about maybe taking the nosecone off the gearbox to inspect, can you just unbolt the nosecone and slide off or is there other bits to remove , the shift levers etc?? Also what are the common faults , where to I look for trouble , any help really appreciated, I think as our cars get older this will be more and more a common topic ! Thanks in advance ?

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I am sorry my friend but it's been such a long time I can't remember well. Look at my thread #27 of this post. I remember it was tricky. I succeeded putting the tranny at the angle on the photo and attaching the shift lever with a brass wire.

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Did you check if you had Porsche magic grease at the bottom with your finger thru the drain plug? First thing to check. Then read my post step by step from the beginning and you should be ok

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No problem, my memory isn't best either. From the pictures looks like you left that gear set in the case. Just wanted to double check before I try it. Thanks for the replying though.

My suggestion is that if the oil isn't full of glitter and the gears are working well without any noise then leave the transmission alone.

I'll check, I did notice as I was draining the fluid out of the box the last quart or so seemed darker , wondering if that's the grease diluted!!

That's not grease on the magnet. It's metal dust so fine that it looks like grease. The darkness of the oil has not a lot do to with grease. There is no grease to dilute. The amount that's in the bearings is insignificant. If you have limited slip differential then the normal wear of the friction disks will tint the oil. If you see no glitter in the oil and it shifts good then don't worry about it.

Some progress on my side. The nose cone is on. Got lucky, only took 10 minutes and 3 tries to get the shifter rods to slide into the nose cone bearings. The middle rod (3rd one regardless what direction you start counting them) is the one that caused the 3 retries for me. That rod is fairly loose compared to the others and I had to slide my fingers in between the nose cone and the transmission case to wiggle it a bit and then, all of a sudden, the nose cone slid on. After this, I let the case sit about a 1cm away from completely closing up, while the entire transmission is still tilted, so the oil and brake cleaner in the nose cone can drain out over night. I put some rags on the mating surfaces to catch the dripping oil/brake cleaner overnight. Today I'll attempt to put the flange sealant on it, close up the gap and then install all the bolts holding the nosecone to the transmission case. AND THEN, I'll see of the transmission shift as it suppose to.

No metal debris and she shifts ok, sometimes second gear a bit funny going in when cold but it been pretty good , one thing I don't have to worry about maybe !

My transmission case is now sealed. Thanks for all the pointers everyone, it helped a lot. The only thing that was a bit tricky was that, the large gear selector arm on the side of the nose cone had to be wiggled around a bit in order for the nose cone to slide that last 1cm on. I used Loctite 576 flange sealant, it was easy to apply even though the gap was only 1cm. I spread the sealant around with a flathead screwdriver. Did some test shifting of the gears once it was all bolted up and it felt good.

To wrap up part of the pinion gear replacement. The transmission is back in the car, it is quiet and everything is working as designed. The VW pinion bearing is a perfect replacement for the Porsche one. It is after all the same brand, size and intended use as what Porsche sells except at a fraction of the cost. I got it at my local VW dealer for $140 Canadian Dollars.

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Congratulations for your job. You will certainly appreciate it every ride and be proud you did it yourself. Thanks for the infos about the VW bearing it will help to save more 996s which are great cars and real 911s

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Hi am, this is Ivano from Como, Italy. I have read the whole gearbox rebuild process and found it very helpful as I'm doing through the same currently; thanks a lot! I am stuck currently as the pinion shaft bearing I'm replacing is different from the one I had in the car. The difference is about the famous "notch" you also pointed out in some occasions; the bearing I removed and which has failed, is flat on both sides. I am struggling to find the same exact bearing and not sure if the one with the notch will compromise reliability as the portion which makes contact with the case is smaller, therefore I assume will have to withstand much more force per square inch. Did you or anyone here had similar issue/dilemma? Do you think I can safely use the new one with the notch? Attached a picture of the OEM one, showing the flat surface which is tupposed to go Thanks all! Ivano

Ivano, I wouldn't worry about it.

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Hi, Ivano, I would'nt worry either and don't forget to unseal the new bearing. Mine came from Porsche and it was sealed without grease inside. Good luck

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Thanks guys for your feedback, but I believe the contact area between the bearing (with notch) and gearbox housing is very small; see picture below with areas highlighted in red. We are talking about 1, probably 2 mm. I'm not sure it can sustain the stress. The old bearing with flat surface seems impossible to find, Porsche Italy suggest to buy the new gearbox housing matching the new bearing. I think I will have a flat washer machined in order to fill the gap. Keep you posted.

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That's dumb. If they don't find the new gearbox housing they will tel you to buy a new Porsche? What year is your 911? Just to know

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It's from 1998. They produce only the new housing now, that's the point. Old housing and old bearing are discontinued.

There are "select fit" shims that are suppose to fit into the "notch" area of the pinion bearing...There is an adjustment procedure in the gearbox repair manual for fitting these shims.

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Ok, that might just strengthen any stereotype about Italians... is it possible no one in Porsche Italy knows? Do you have more details to share? Thanks!

To be fair Porschetech3 (skip) has been in the p-car machanic game for a long time. Our cars r over 20yrs old and im sure there is a lot of lost knowledge. I have to be nice to Italy (good karma)... hoping to actually re-plan my coastal vacation for next year.

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Well if you reach Lake Como, ping me

Adjusting shim 85.5mm x 93mm available in thickness from 0.5 to 1.6... There are two shims, one for inner race, one for outer race, the adjustment procedure is for setting the pinion gear depth and bearing pre-load , and is complex.. http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...section=303-07

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Thanks for sharing! I see those shims are supposed to go on the opposite side of the bearing, my issue is between the bearing and the gearbox case. Tomorrow will check anyhow and hope those would sort the problem!

Hi all, quick update about my issue with the bearing. Porsche Germany has confirmed that in case the car is equipped with old bearing (the one without notch), gearbox case must be swapped with the new one. Old one has three teeth where the bearing is sitting, the new one has one entire circular "bottom part". I've seen people swapping old with new in some cases, not sure about longevity but the contact surface is minimal (will try to post pictures if I can go to the shop before they put it back together). The shims suggested some posts above are not the same size or I didn't get which are the right ones. At the end my mechanic made a shim in CNC in order for it to fill the gap of the new bearing, the one with notch. In this way the contact surface is as intended.

Another option would be to grind down the face of the bearing until the edge radius is gone and then, make a shim to bring the bearing dimension back to original size.

Confucius says, " a shim is a shim, IF the shim fits, wear it" or something like that. The 93mm Porsche shims will fit on either side of the bearing , can be used to "fill the notch" or to position the bearing or to pre-load the bearing, but they are not cheap, you custom shim is probably a good frugal alternative.

Porschetech3, I know this is an old thread. I currently have a customer with a 1999 911. Pinion bearing is noisy in this unit. Do you have any recommendations for parts suppliers? And would you also know if it being a 1999 in the states, could be a 1998 in Germany? The reason being, I've found information regarding the older case does not have the correct bearing available, as in this thread. Would the 1999 have the newer case? I know I'm pretty new here, but I've always loved these machines. However, they are few and far between in western SD. Thank you.

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Hi, yes this is an old thread but it has been done to help over the time. When I did this DIY I used Porsche genuine bearings cause I wanted to be sure not to have any fitment to do. I knew they were expensive but I was saving so much doing that job myself ! Don't forget to unseal the bearings before installing them in. Unfortunately I don't have the answer to your other questions but maybe someone else will comment. Good luck

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Thank you very much for the information. And I'd agree, I'm not sure why they had a sealed bearing internal to the transmission? Anyway, I do appreciate the reply. I'm doing my best as far as research goes. There are some questions that a technician would know, whereas internet searching only goes so far.

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Check the build date on the VIN tag in the door jam. 996 models that were built in 97-98 were still titled and considered as '99 models in the US...

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In any case you will get the new bearing, the old one is not available anymore unless you find any old stock. I have CNC'd a shim which fits on the bearing's notch and now everything works well. For the record, it fits also without the shim but considering the contact surface between the two components I feel way more relaxed with this mod. Ciao!

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Perfect I'll check that and verify. Was there a cut off build date for the older case and bearing?

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That's a fantastic idea. Would you happen to have made two of those shims? I'd imagine I'll have to measure before hand to know what thickness I would need. But a legitimate shim that would fit in the older case, would be much simpler.

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Build date on the door jam is 10/98. I'd imagine that it is a 1999 Year Model. Which would confirm the bearing available will fit correctly, correct?

Wow, very impressive. Congratulations.

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Thank's