Shifter Rod Seal
Replacement

Difficulty Level 3

Difficulty scale:
Adding air to your tires is level one
Rebuilding a 911 Motor is level ten

Figure 1:
Shift Coupler Cone Screw

Figure 2:
Rear Coupler Access Plate

Figure 3:
Rear Coupler Access Plate Removed

Figure 4:
Shift Coupler Disconnected

Figure 5:
Seal Removal Tool

Figure 6:
Shift Seal Removed

Figure 7:
Shift Rod Seal Installed

     Jack up the car and support it with jack stands.  I usually like to place the jack stands under the ends of the torsion bars.  The weight of the engine in the rear causes the car to somewhat balance on the torsion bar.  You can then jack up the front very easily, and place jack stands under the chassis near the front suspension.  Make sure that you use jack stands - hydraulic jacks are not safe enough for supporting the car permanently.

     Disconnect the shifter coupler from the transmission.  Depending on the car that you have (356 or 911), you may need a hex key to remove the cone screw in the coupler, as shown in Figure 1.  Once you have disconnected the coupler from the transmission, you need to remove the coupler from the shift linkage.

     Remove the shift coupler inspection plate.  This is the rear coupler plate that is located inside the car behind the seats.  Figure 2 and Figure 3 show this plate and the coupler mount.  

     Mark the location of the shift coupler relative to the shift rod.  This is so that you can restore your shift linkage position to where it was previously.  If you forget about this step, then you might have to use trial and error to figure it out later.  If you are not happy with the location of your shifter rod, or the performance of your shift linkage, then you might want to adjust this when you reconnect it.

     Remove the shift coupler by loosening the pinch bolt, and sliding it off the linkage bar.  When the coupler is disconnected from both the linkage and the transmission, you can slide it off, as shown in Figure 4.  Now would be a good time to replace the shift coupler bushings inside the coupler if they are looking worn.

     Get a Craftsman cotter pin extractor, which looks like a screwdriver with a very sharp tip, bent at a right angle. You may find you need to play with the angle of the tip in the following step.  Figure 5 shows a similar tool that you might use to remove the seal.

     Proceed to jam the cotter pin extractor into the shifter shaft seal, which of course surrounds the shifter shaft. Once you start, you are committed, as you will wreck the seal. It may take 5-10 minutes to really work the tool through the seal, but keep at it.  "Set the hook", and pull the seal off the shifter shaft.  You might also want to use a small screwdriver to gouge and remove the seal if the pin extractor tool is not beefy enough to remove the seal.  The selector shaft with the seal removed is shown in Figure 6.   You might want to drain the oil from the transmission before you start this process.  I thought that I would have a flood of oil coming out of the seal, but in fact none came out.

     Make sure that you clean the inside of the shaft area to remove any bits of rubber or metal (the seal has a rubber inner part supported by a metal sheath) prior to installing the new seal.

     Prepare the new seal by coating the OD with a non hardening gasket sealer.  Slide the new seal over the shifter shaft.   Make sure that the metal ring is facing outwards.  Refer to Figure 7 if you are not sure which way the seal goes on the shaft.

     Drive the seal home with a piece of pipe that fits over the shifter shaft. I used a handle from a small hydraulic bottle jack. Best way to check progress is from beneath the car, but thanks to your old leaky seal, this is a dirty, greasy place!  You can also use a large crescent wrench and a hammer if you can't fit a piece of pipe over the transmission shaft.  Tapping from both sides of the car evenly will seat the seal.  You can (carefully) use a large screwdriver to tap the seal flush to the surface of the transmission case, as shown in Figure 7.

Check the oil level in the transmission!

     Well, that's about all there is to it. It's really not that difficult if you follow the steps carefully, and make sure that you double-check your work. This technical article, and the others like it on this site are made possible by your purchases of parts and accessories through Pelican Parts. If you like this article, and would like to see some more offered on this site, free of charge, then please support us with your purchases. We think you'll find good prices mixed with great technical customer support. Please help to keep the site growing by letting us earn your business.