The gearshift on these starts to loose its precision in a few areas over time.
The gear selector itself will wear allowing some play. Only way to really tell how much is if you take the console off and remove the gear cables and then wiggle it.
You will need to hold the bits underneath to see how much the stick wiggles of course.
Alex's bushings for this are great, all metal and really solid.
I have used them with the SSK and with the standard shifter.
For me the SSK didn't feel great as I still had play elsewhere, so the spongy feeling I had elsewhere combined with the extra effort needed to row the gears with an SSK was not great.
Hence using the standard shifter with his bushings, which felt great. 997 shifter is even better as a bit shorter.
The next bit is rubber mounts aging, don't underestimate how much this can make it feel spongy.
New Engine mounts make a huge difference, you can normally tell if they are worn by turning the climate off and seeing of the passenger headrest is showing some vibration.
The transmission mount itself is of course one of the first port of calls too. It is a pain in the arse to swap out, but £30 and 30 mins labour will allow you to put a Powerflex insert into the existing bushing.
This really, does make things feel more precise again.
My mount showed no sign of wear, it was not torn anywhere, but a the Powerflex insert really did make it feel nicer again.
So much so I put the SSK back in the car and it is staying for now.
I do have a 997 shifter I can use with Alex's bushings and a 997.2 GT3 shifter as well. (which feels like Alex's kit/997 shifter combo).
The other thing that everyone seems to ignore is the detent pin.
This is held in place by a 5cm or so spring, over time this looses its strength. This then allows play on the shift cable for 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 movement, the back and forth movement.
I posted about it before but no one seemed interested, but I put a video up to sow what I mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFBP2CWsahU
It is a pain to change, but if you have to drop your gearbox down for any reason at all, swap the spring and the detent pin.
Porsche even have a part number for an 8mm ball bearing to take up the age related slack, and yet no one ever mentions this anywhere.
Even companies that rebuild gearboxes on these don't even mention it and on my rebuild with a very well known company they said they didn't replace mine and have never even considered it.
I'm not sure how much difference new cables would make?
Surely as a cable ages it might stretch? But we have adjustments on these cars to take up any slack.
What does a new cable bring to the table?
Do they get more flex in them as they age?
Maybe I should do mine?
To be honest, you can see the play in my gearshift from an old detent pin/spring in the video, that is what I would like to change next.
let us know how you get on with your cables?
When under the car, if you move that lever by hand, how much play is there?