924Board.org

[friggin]

Hey guys, I'm here planning my next upgrades for my 79 924, I was wondering if anyone makes a short shifter for it. If so will i still be able to use it when I do the AAN swap I have planned in the future? I've read that you need the 944 torque tube to do the swap and was wondering if that would make a 924 shifter not work. Any help is appreciated! Thanks again!
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1979 924 stocker soon to be autocross beast

[fiat22turbo]

Technically the smaller spline in the 924NA will handle a decent amount of power, provided you don't do a lot of drag racing.

Unfortunately, putting together a decent clutch solution that can transmit that power to the drivetrain is almost as expensive as converting to a larger spline torque tube which has a more commonly available clutch spline and off-the-shelf clutch options.

That said, the direct upgrade for your 79 NA is the torque tube and transaxle from the 79-80 924 turbo. They had the same basic Porsche based transaxle as you have now (with the "dogleg" shift pattern). It would bolt right in without any modifications, including the shifter. They are pretty rare here in the states though and unless you find one locally going to be expensive to ship. Also the Snailshell or dogleg boxes all seem to suffer from weak or damaged 1st and 2nd gear syncro's, whether through poor driving habits of owners, wear in the linkage or an inherent design flaw. So plan on at least replacing the syncro's on any donors you might find.

The more commonly available upgrade is the torque tube and transaxle from a later 924 Turbo (81-82) or a 944 (83+). That requires cutting the transaxle mounting arms off your rear suspension or replacing the rear torsion bar carrier. Then you have to fabricate mounts for the Audi-style transaxle (whether dual side mounts, or single upper mount). This type of upgrade tends to work best with a donor car.

When shopping for donors, the 944 Turbo and 944 S2's have the strongest factory transaxles as well as a greater chance of having a limited slip, oil cooler, etc. They use the slightly weaker single rail upper mount, but there are solutions to make that better. The Torque tubes are all the same from 83-on until you get to the 6-speeds on the 968. The bearings internal to them do wear out and need to be replaced from time to time, so try to find one in good shape or plan on replacing those.

The Audi gearbox has a more standard H-pattern shifter and lots of shifter improvement options, including those from http://only944.com and many others.

For the Dogleg or Snailshell Porsche transaxle, I believe Ideola was the only one offering a better shifter solution, but I don't know if he's brought them back to market yet.

For my 79 NA, I'm building a hybrid shifter solution that uses an Audi-style shift lever mounted to the torque tube with the pivot point relocated to shorten the throw. Mounting the shifter to the torque tube helps reduce shifter binding/movement as the engine/transaxle move under load. The stock shifter solution has part of it mounted to the body with very soft bushings. I haven't finished building it yet and it will be a while before I can test it so I don't know if it will really make a noticeable difference. One thing to keep in mind with the snailshell: It doesn't like to be rushed when changing gears, so even with a shorter shifter throw (and the corresponding greater shifter effort) you'll have to go as fast as it will allow and not force it or you get to repair transaxle internals more often.
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[friggin]

damn, that kind of throws my whole goal out of the question then. Im building my car to be an autocross car and Ill need to shift fast at least until I get more power with the AAN swap. but I guess Im stuck with having long shifts or leaving it in one gear.

The AAN swap might happen this summer but the likelihood of it actually happening are pretty slim sadly. The funds just aren't there and neither is the time.

But thanks for the info!

Do you have any info on how difficult it is to replace the syncros in the factory 924 gearbox? because I can't downshift into first at all unless Im at a stop and shifting into second is kind of a bear if you're trying to do it even half way fast.

Also is there a write up on how to change to an audi gearbox?
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1979 924 stocker soon to be autocross beast

[fiat22turbo]

I'm not saying its slow, just that it will never be that fast compared to modern gearboxes.

Build a motor with a wide enough power band and tall enough gearing and you won't need more than 2nd gear anyway.

My buddy races a 924 Turbo in ChumpCar and they don't even use 1st at all. Just leave the pits in 2nd and get on down the road. The car is running EFI and a Subaru turbo at about 14psi I believe. Still a 2.0L bottom end though.

I've autocrossed quite a bit in a variety of cars and I've rarely if ever needed to shift more than once or twice during a run. Takes too much time to change gears and most orgs just don't want people going that quickly. So just learn to use all of the RPM range and you may not have an issue.

Anyway, its related to the gearbox used in the early 911 and 914 so they aren't bad to service and Ideola used to sell the bits to do it, but I think the NA parts are getting to be scarce. So if they are available, snap them up then do some reading on refreshing the 914 gearbox and then read about the particulars for the 924's version from the factory manuals.

Seriously, I'd keep an eye out for a broken or smashed 931 or 951 to buy from the local salvage auction, part it out to make your money back and keep what you need to improve your transaxle situation. Do that a few times and you should be able to get some money together to finance your AAN conversion, etc.
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[friggin]

I'd love to get a 931 or 951, but Im in the middle of nowhere and have the only porsche in my part of the state and probably one of very few 924s in the state so parts are very scarce for me, and finding one in a salvage yard is pretty much impossible, so buying online is pretty much my only option for almost everything.

I would not be against swapping to an Audi gearbox though, do you have info to what gearboxes would work?

I mostly just want to have a quick car that will compete with my buddies cars (V8 swapped E30, 300zx TT, Civic witha supercharged V6) and I want it to keep the 50/50 balance.
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1979 924 stocker soon to be autocross beast

[fiat22turbo]

[friggin]

[quote="fiat22turbo"]As for your buddies, yeah they're going to own you in the straights. Sorry. Fact of life with a 924 or a 944. They just aren't that quick in a straight line compared to newer cars. You can help your case with dropping as much weight as possible from the car:

Plastic windows (Hint: a heat gun, a spare day and a sheet of lexan can make for a decent rear window)
Lightweight wheels
Smaller motorcyle or tractor battery
Removing interior and sound padding (makes for a miserable car to drive though, so be careful here)
Lightweight seats
Shorten the exhaust to exit in front of the rear wheels
Composite body panels

I'm sure there's many other ideas around to drop some weight from the car and many work without making the car less enjoyable on the street.[/quote]

all of their cars are right around 10 pounds per hp so in theory I shouldn't need more than 240 bhp to keep up with them. and I've read that the AAN is good to 450 bhp before the rods will give up.

I plan on doing a lot of those upgrades such as the wheels, seats, and gutting the car. I'm waiting to do the wheels when I do the 5 lug conversion. so that will be a couple years down the road.
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1979 924 stocker soon to be autocross beast

[ideola]

The short answer to your question:
http://garage.ideola.com/prod-ClutchTransKits.html





Only five left on the shelf at this time, although we are looking into another run.
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erstwhile owner of just about every 924 variant ever made

[fiat22turbo]