996.2 - Lost Upper Gears Briefly and Now Something Still Not Right

Hello 996 Family - Reaching out for some input to see if I'm on the right vibe and track here. Appreciate any input from our little club! !!!! SITUATION COFFEE RUN !!!! Heading down the hill to traffic lights. Lights were GREEN... excellent luck I think as always when that happens as it makes a fun left turn onto the flats. Currently in Third Gear. Low RPM 3300+ cruising down hill Brake a little to slow down, Gear DOWN into second before starting my left turn Make committed hard left turn as you do and while coming out at the end of my turn under some solid G force and amazing 996 grip and ability .... shifted into THIRD... and it was GONE.. . just Jello/Air... nothing there! I try 4th gear and it works no problem so keep it in 4th for 1km to my right turn onto Beach Ave and coffee shop. Coast into angle parking. Sad gutting feeling all the way through Parked - Clutch IN - Try 1rst Gear and it is the Same just JELLO/AIR NO 1rst GEAR THERE AT ALL . TRY 3rd AGAIN and nothing there at all either . Confused now.... still even more worried. Wiggle the shifter a little as you do to make sure neutral is neutral. Check 2nd again and fourth to make sure they are there and both are good.....Take foot off Clutch and then think what if I don't have reverse... so put Clutch back in and try Reverse and it is there! Ok good... I can back out I think at least if needed. Turn CAR OFF... might as well get a coffee and ciny bun right. Get back into Car....Reverse out and figure I can start in second and make it home in 2nd and 4th.... HOWEVER after reversing out... I just Try 1rst gear again to feel the sad jello air feeling....but what... VOILA it is there again now... ... so I move down Beach ave... GO to 2nd... and it is there as it always was... Try 3RD ... and VOILA it is there again now also and Shifter is feeling sort of normal again ... pretty sure. Maybe a little loose or something... not sure. Made it home... driving carefully but normally using all gears, parked Butters back into her bed.....feeling sad. Note: Brand new Clutch, Flywheel, IMS, RMS - 1000KM ago. 65K Total on the my 2003 996 C2 (Also put in Semi Solid Mounts - Wish I didn't as per Jake and his recent confirmation and wisdom) SUMMARY: I lost all my upper gears after a hard left turn... and now they are all back after a slow careful drive around the corner once I lost them, A clutch in cycle through the gears and a wiggle on the shifter a bit when all upper gears were just gone... and then magically they all came back after I got out, got a coffee and got back in. Have only driven one light drive around the block to test if they are still good and they are but something is not right. DID RESEARCH ALL DAY: I think maybe Linkage cable for the 1,3 and 5th gear ( Guessing Reverse is on that cable also ) Research shows two cable linkages to transmission. Possible loose clip maybe on linkage cable... but if this is the case how did the gears come back! ? Popped out of place and then back in... or partly in.... (EDIT: Just learned the two linkage cables are for forward and aft and left to right - pondering this new learn ) Possibly maybe something loose in my actual shifter. I think this is the best place to start maybe as I can't get under my car yet until I can get it on shop hoist or find friend with one. ? Weird as I geared down from third into second and can't seem to understand how a sharp left turn would effect all those uppers gears vanishing unless the Linkage cable moved from the turn or something came out of the shifter and then popped back in when I was checking Reverse. ? Confused ? But Maybe on the right Track ? Drove it the other day and all gears were there but not feeling tight and something seems wrong with the shifter and responsiveness and firmness ? ( Will be removing center console right away to investigate actual shifter and cables - Can't get under car yet to check linkage cable and clips but will check asap )

I�m going with shifter linkages, transmission mounts, and engine mounts are the areas to check and report back.

Quotes source post: 17533178

Echo... My vote is the cable mount at the transmission. When you push the cable, the jacket squirms out of place and doesn't push the lever. Working other gears pulls the cable and with the luck puts the guide back into place, for the moment. Even if you know nothing, like me, you can make it sound like you know something. Good luck! Please report back. The value of this forum are the completed little problems and resolutions.

Zip tie fix after this ended a track day early.

Thank you Gents. I really appreciate your input and time! Makes me feel like I am on the right track as this all makes sense. Took it out for a short 8 block drive last night to get a feel for the shifting and such prior to investigation and to make sure it was actually still shifting correctly. I am planning to get to the linkage underneath today. Will take pictures and report back as soon as possible. Cheers and appreciate the feedback and support! James

Same happened to me, seems like one link is attached to 1st, 3rd, and 5th and one to 2nd, 4th, and 6th. Rolled through a lot of stop signs on that ride home. I used zip ties and safety wire to hold in place, no problems since.

Just want to revisit as my zip tie fix got unfixed during my last track event. Below is my next attempt, hopefully the last attempt.

Hey Guys, Sorry for delay. Wanted to update this right away as I finally got underneath my car. The shop that I use to do the difficult things out of my league was so busy and couldn't get me in and I wanted to investigate and do this myself anyway. Took me a bit to sort out as I didn't have a car Jack and or Jack Stands in my current shop. I do now, finally and if I had room for a lift I would have got one of those instead! Anyway onwards. Confirmed 100% the issue was that the shifter cable popped out as suspected. As soon as I got under there I could see right away. Very obvious and pic below. I have been driving it like this for the last while since I posted originally but really only took it out a few times and very carefully out of necessity. It did pop out/move again ( to loose upper gears again ) enough the other day again to trigger me to get on this! Finally had time to Investigate correctly, verify and repair. Will update further but am planning on fixing tomorrow. ZBOMB planning on fixing the same way you did as that looks pretty great with cable wire twist. We will see. Thanks again for the help gents. On another note I ordered a 997 shifter also as I figured after all the trouble and just in case my current OG shifter was causing some issues I should upgrade it. Pretty excited about fixing this cable and getting that new 997 shifter in. ( A little shorter shift as you all our likely aware and as I am not on the track I figured this was a good choice. We will see and Onwards we go. Cheers to all.

Thanks for posting the fix. It�s always helpful to those with the same problem. Glad the fix was easy!

FINAL UPDATE BY OP - - ISSUE RESOLVED AND ALL IS EXCELLENT AGAIN ! -- Thank you guys for the assist and help pointing me in the right direction. Nice to be a part of this family. Cheers to all of you! NOTES: What makes me a bit sad is that I am 100% sure this was caused by the shop that I took my car to that did my IMS / RMS / Clutch / Flywheel and a whack of other preventive maintenance. My car had never had the transmission dropped before so I am certain that when this cable was taken out to remove the transmission the metal clip ring was pinched instead of leveraged/pried out and this is what deformed the ring that stops it clipping in correctly now. Very likely the same thing that has happened to all these other folks with this issue. Sad really as it is preventable. I ran with the zip tie fix for now but will likely adjust to ZBOMB's fix as that really is the way to go in my opinion. Next time I have "Butters" up on a lift I will drill out two holes and put in a wire cable fix. The good news is I now have a low profile car jack and jack stands! Decided on getting those and sorting this myself once my shop told me they could get me into the shop in three weeks and immediately their solution was to order and replace the shifter cables... without even looking at the problem. Anyway that is a different issue and they are good guys there and I sent them an email as I think this should have been warrantied and resolved by them after my 17K maintenance service I did with them. Will not name the shop as I do really think this could happen accidentally but one like to thing that these types of things are checked and verified when being re-installed but top rated great mechanics and such. Moving on! PICS BELOW OF MY ISSUE:::: #1BEFORE - -#2ONCE I HAD PUSHED THE CABLE BACK INTO PLACE - - #3AFTER WITH ZIP TIE FIX -- #4After wonderful successful Test Drive !

While the zip ties will work and last a fair amount of time, the safety wire (as shown by zbomb) is the right/best way to go