Reviving an old thread for a reason. Old Porsches often times end up in the hands of enthusiastic folks that are on a budget. Such is the case of my 26 year old '97
986
, with 57K. When things happen, old Porsches need a less expensive and better solution than factory parts. So to cut to the chase: couple of weekends ago, the
Boxster
comes out of hibernation in the garage, fixed the windshield washer, the oversensitive horn (teflon washers under the air bag), and replaced the ignition switch (
Audi
part), all for under $20, couple of hours in the sun. Took it for a spin and 8 miles from the house left me with just 3rd and 4th gears (good thing I did not need reverse). Got it home, though starting in 3rd was not fun. Sure enough, the side-to-side portion of the shift linkage fell off at the bottom 8mm ball of the transmission ('97, '98+ have 10mm). So, options were a new
Porsche
linkage with the same plastic/rubber ball sockets ($200+), or a metal replacement for $125. And NEITHER comes with the 8mm ball socket needed for a '97. Solution, as someone posted somewhere (can't find it again), was two metal ball sockets, an 8mm for the bottom and 10mm for the top, a 304 stainless M6x1.0 threaded rod, 304 stainless nuts. See pix if I can upload. Had a heck of a time finding 8mm metal ball socket. Altogether $20 and an hour of work duplicating the factory linkage. Exactly 126mm center-to-center of the ball sockets. A good glob of bearing lube in each ball socket and the linkage was installed in minutes, without taking off the triangular aluminum underbelly. The side-to-side motion is more precise with the metal ball sockets, with plenty of freedom for the linkage to move. Thus begins the endurance test. The factory linkage WILL leave you stranded sooner or later. Mine had a retainer clip on top but nor on the bottom 8mm ball. Anyway, if anyone is interested in a linkage for a '97 (8mm and 10mm balls) or a later model (10mmx2), I can precision make them for about $60, including the above materials and an hour or so of my time. If you are not driving like a grandma (that's how I drive) or are racing your Boxter, you got to have a metal linkage. I may eventually post a dozen of my frugal fixes that have stood the test of time, have this
Boxster
going on 10 years. BTW the top 10mm side of the old factory socket is also toast.
Welcome
@oldie986
! Glad to see you here and that you signed up to be a member.
Welcome to Planet-9, the friendly Porsche forum. How about visiting
New Member Introductions
and telling us about you and your Porsche. Photos are welcomed as well!
This was a great post. We particularly appreciate info for fixing cars in a more cost effective way, especially since parts are expensive and get harder and harder to find!
I'm curious, where did you get the ball end sockets? Seems like something that should be easy enough to find, but I wasn't able to find it quickly (I didn't spend too much time, since my car is a 987.2). I often need similar parts in other applications, so if you have a special source that would be great to know!
Any other details you can provide would be great... having this info recorded helps everyone, which what we're al about!
Thanks for the great post, and welcome, again!
I'll do the self-intro in a bit. As far as sourcing the above, the stainless threaded rod/nuts are a commodity, got them from
Amazon
. They also have some of the 10mm ball sockets with an M8x1.25 thread if all you need is 10mm. Plenty on ebay also, though ebay seemed pricier. Found the 8mm ball socket on McMaster-Carr, but had to rethread the M5x0.8 to M6x1.0 (no big deal), cause all of the 8mm seem to come with M5 threads. Yeah, it was a pain to find them. However, there seems to be available plastic ones, which I definitely would not use or recommend. But I have no data to support being negative on Nylon. The 8mm availability appears better in the UK, but shipping costs kill you. I can understand why
Numeric
charges $125 for essentially the same link which I made, cause they have to pay someone to source materials and make them, and they need to make a profit to stay in business. I don't. But if I was to make a bunch of them, I'd have to look for alternative source of the 8mm for the '97s. When I'll be in Europe in the fall, I'll try to pick up a few, just in case. Hope this helps someone.
Still need to fing the original post where I got the idea, there were ebay sources listed, but I think it was an old post and I could not find what I needed on ebay anymore.
