Question for the gear shift experts: big scrap in R-1st shift plane on side shifter Options

[raynekat]

I've got a 71 914-4 that I converted to a 914-6.
The problem is a very loud annoying squeak when I'm in the R-1st plane.
Something is really scraping badly.
Pulled the shifter which looks to have been changed out from an early shifter to a later shifter.
Greased it very well and that didn't seem to help.

So I looked a bit deeper and put a flashlight in the tunnel where the shifter sits pointing backwards.
Using a small mirror about 6-9" rearward, I see that the shift rod goes through a circular opening in a small bulkhead that is welded into the tunnel.

Looks like the scraping/squeaking is when the rod is hitting the edge of the circular opening in the bulkhead in the R-1st plane.
If you don't pull the lever all the way to the left, then you don't hear the scrape.

Is this typical of a side shifter conversion for an early 914?
Am I shifting incorrectly by pulling the lever hard to the left for the R-1st plane?
Does that bulkhead need to be removed by opening up the shift tunnel from above?

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.
Thanks in advance.

[raynekat]

So how to cut the hole???
Many options.
Jigsaw, circular cutting wheel, plasma cutter (no, heck no), etc.

When I was in Harbor Freight today, I noticed something that just might be the ticket.
I wanted safe, effective, somewhat quick, non messy.

Here's what I came up with and I already had the tool.
It's the same vibratory scraper I used to remove all the undercoating underneath the car and all the sound deadening inside the car when I first embarked on this restoration journey 3 years ago.



All the tool needed was a different blade....a cutting blade vs the scraping blade.
Harbor Freight had a few different ones for cutting metal.
Here's a close up of what the blade looks like.



End result was perfection.
A very safe tool that wasn't going cut my finger off.
Minimal mess.
You can image where a cutting wheel was going to be throwing stuff all over the car.
This tool just vibrates as it cuts.

I made the 4 cuts around the perimeter of my access panel in less than 10 minutes.
It was slick.
Image a circular hack saw where you don't have to saw....the machine does all the sawing for you.
You just hold it and guide it.
It is also easy to control the depth of the cut, so this method had that going for it as well.

Voila: