So you’re stranded on one side of the river with only a 981 Porsche Cayman….

Catch a greyhound or maybe a flight to Alabama, pick up transmission

Fly to Seattle with transmission as overweight stowed luggage

Swap transmission in Seattle and drive it back

Ship Cayman to FL, drive to AL and pick up transmission while you wait for the car. Enjoy the crap out of the Cayman!

I would normally be the last person to say "don't drive a Cayman across country" but I think trhe above makes the most sense.

Updated approach (not thinking in terms of cable shift, before). Two one way tickets, second is refundable. If the tranny is good, but the shift cables need adjustment, adjust and drive home. If it is not a shifter problem, coordinate shipping home while visiting.

This is less fun than throwing the "new" tranny in the back and swapping it in a rest stop in Kansas, but...

Thanks for all the suggestions, everybody. Upon some further investigation, it turns out the free Alabama transmission is from a 987 Boxster, so I don't think it will work.

Here's my rough plan so far:

1. Ship some specialty tools and a fresh clutch to Seattle
2. Fly to Seattle planning on spending one week there with my dead Porsche
3. Day one pull the transmission, disassemble it and make a real diagnosis in my friend's garage
4. Order internal parts if available/realistic or take the minivan to a junkyard (Seattle is full of dead Porsches apparently) and get a used transmission 
5. Day five reassemble the car
6. Drive home

Here are my unknowns:

1. What specialty tools will I be missing?
2. How readily available are internal transmission parts?
3. What is actually wrong? The dealer diagnosed it as a bad transmission, so I'm assuming cables and such have been checked but zero thought was given to the transmission internals. I don't think a Porsche dealer would even consider opening the transmission. 

There is one other plan that's a close runner-up: Just drive home in fourth gear. I suspect this would work perfectly, or it could mean disaster in the middle of nowhere. Still kicking this idea around but probably won't go through with it. 

What dealer diag'd it?

I would fly out and rent a Porsche.  Purchase the other car and ship it home. Enjoy 2 weeks of exploring the north west in rented Porsche. Maybe find a good used trans while exploring and ship it home as well. 

I'm just jelly of all these Boxster/Cayman owners..

Uncle David (Forum Supporter) said:

Visit your friends in Seattle. Fly. While there, have the car and transmission shipped to your house in Florida. Fly home. Fix the car in your well-equipped shop.

Google says it's 3041 miles or so from Seattle to Ormond Beach, and that the average gas price is $3.41/gal. At 20 mpg, because no OD, that's $5633. Then add the cost to get out there, and food & lodging on the way back.  I bet my plan is cheaper.

Something odd there.  I think you multiplied by 10!

Is the car still at the dealer ?
 

anyway to pay for a transmission oil change ,and hopefully that will tell you how much junk is  flying  around inside !

Driving it in 4th is probably fine if there are not extra junk from broken gears......

How many miles on the car? If it's lived a rough enough life to need a transmission and you're taking the time to do the clutch I'd bet it will also want a flywheel. If you're doing that you need some hardware and a torque wrench that measures angles and a set of triple square sockets (also needed for the axle bolts).

It looks like after the 997 porsche started treating the manual transmissions as non-rebuildable. There's no internal parts on the parts diagrams and nothing about it in the service manual.

I'd poke around and give it a more in depth diagnosis and then choose between risking driving it home and shipping it home to be sorted out correctly without rushing or cutting corners.

In reply to Slippery :

I can't help you through the math because I can't replicate the error. Wow. Way off, and by a wierd factor. No idea what happened. But at least there''s more posts now!

dps214 said:

It looks like after the 997 porsche started treating the manual transmissions as non-rebuildable. There's no internal parts on the parts diagrams and nothing about it in the service manual.

I smell Getrag.  They are (in)famous for refusing to sell internal components, just assemblies.

Cottage industries cropped up for rebuilding the Getrag transmissions in 3000GTs.  Bearings can be sourced, but shafts and gears are a dwindling supply until demand creeps up to where it makes sense to get them made.  I suspect the same is for the Getrag transmissions in S60R/V70Rs, as there are people who rebuild them at crazy expense.

(which is why I bought one with an Aisin trans... )

Darn, I thought I just hadn't learned Porsche's weirdness but feared that might be the answer. I can't find parts or diagrams anywhere 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

As for 4th gear drive home...  

A few 100 miles - sure.
A 1,000 miles - maybe.
But, this is a 3,000 mile trip!  That's 45 hours of driving not factoring for stops.  It'd be 3 days of 15 hours of driving which might be 18 hours each day.  6am to Midnight for 3 days straight.  Dial that daily grind back and its a 4 day drive.  
Furthermore, it is still winter in half of the travel route.

I recommend seeing/inspecting the car in Seattle and using the days to assure that the car has been picked up by the car hauler.  

Some smurfing around says final drive is 3.89 and 4th is 1.13.  

Now, how many people drove cross country with small block and even big block V8s with 3.90 or 4.11 gears?  And no overdrive?

And dare I point out that VWAG made many, many cars where that WAS the top gear.  Heck I personally drove all over the place with one, for a total of about 90k miles in four years' of driving ownership.

I bet a Cayman has tires taller than 195/60-14s, too.

Base and S have the same final drive and fourth gear, the internet says 4000rpm in fourth gear is 73mph.

When is this trip planned for? I don't have much experience with driving out west but crossing the mountains in late winter/early spring in a car that probably has worn out summer tires on it seems like not the best idea.

I haven't booked any flights yet, but definitely won't attempt anything until after the snow thaws. My only goal now is to get the car to safe harbor (my friend's house in Seattle) and make a plan from there. It can sit in his driveway for a few months without issue. 

Hey Tim, sounds like you're busy developing a plan. I'm good friends with Andy Hollis and know JG as well.  I live near the airport in Seattle, and am happy to help however I can.  I too have a garage with a MaxJax and lots of tools, so let me know if I can help in any way.

Ron

I can't add much to the discussion, except for the fact that my experience has been that "needs transmission" and "dealer says needs transmission" are not always the same thing.

There is only thing worse than a broken Porsche engine and that is a broken Porsche transmission.  Fly there and light it on fire.

Toot said:

There is only thing worse than a broken Porsche engine and that is a broken Porsche transmission.  Fly there and light it on fire.

I wouldn't say that. Transmissions are cheaper and much easier to swap.

Remember we're talking about the manual transmission here. If it was a broken PDK, yes light it on fire.

This might be a mixed message because I still think just shipping it home is the right answer. But I had mine out today and just out of curiosity I did some 4000rpm cruising (I never actually went on the highway so it was ~60 in third gear instead of ~70 in fourth gear) and it was really pretty tolerable especially considering I have a louder than stock exhaust now.