Transmission busted, or not?
 

So, last night this happened: I was driving home for a good half hour, when i was almost home I decided to give it good gas off the light. So light goes green, i ease on the throttle and as the car just starts rolling hit the gas to about 1/2 way. The car jumps forward as it should and as soon as the RPMs hit about 3k BAM! a loud BAM and a sudden jolt to my car and then total loss of power.

The engine was still revving but the car wasn't going anywhere. So, i roll over to the side, turn off car, turn it on, put it in gear and.... nothing. Engine RPM drops a little (encounters resistance from something I guess), but the car just stands still. More over, the speedometer needle climbs like my car is moving....

And if I put it in gear and press on the gas, the RPM climb, the speedo climbs but obviously the car just stands still.

So the question is: Is my tranny busted, or could it be something else?

it could also be your shifter fork thing probably that happen to my homeboy

busted cv axle prob?

probably an axle. is this a manual transmission?

See sig. It's an autotragic. Would I be able to check the Cv axle without raising the car much (only with a jack), and what is a shifter fork?

:sprint:


yes, you should be able to see is with the wheel turned all the way

CV joint, axle, or Diff. Speedo climbs because Final drive (ring gear) spins, but theres no connection to both tires. Im guessing spider gears in diff.

The question is though, can the diff be changed out by itself, or does the entire transmission have to be changed?

To replace the diff, you need to pull the trans and split the case.

Do you hear any clanking? Sounds like an axle.

I'd certainly check your CV axles, you can generall give them a good tug back and forth and check to see if you have much rotation front/backwards with them. If they are bad you'll know it I'm sure I just replaced both in my car but not for the same issues.

On the other hand, I think the speculation of a bad differential is far more likely unfortunately. With the mileage on your car I'd more than likely be scoping out the salvage yards for a lower mile used transmission. Bummer man.....

CV's being broken are as real as AIDS.

CV let lose, should be an e.z fix. It's possible that the joint simply seperated from the actual axel. Did you do any suspension work recently?

Haven't had a chance to check the CVs yet. No suspension work while I've had the car, but no one to say it hasn't been done by previous owner. I'm going to take a look at them on Monday weather permitting. It's been snowing/melting here for pass few days =p

It might be an axle that was not sittin properly in the tranny housing. That's what exatly happened to me when I installed my axle and I did not hear a clickling sound meaning the axle is not seated in the tranny housing.

CV joints don't pop outta the tranny for no reason, yours was improper install.

I know that's what I am explaining in my post about my cv experance.

Your experience doesn't apply to his problem so why are you postin?

Quit spammin for your 14 posts.

Actually, their experience does apply. They are giving possible reasons for the noise. You just missed it. See below.
In other words.. If the axle was removed, make sure it was seated in the tranny when it is reinstalled. I got it. ;)
OP - Everything is conjecture until you get underneath that thing. Cross your fingers. Hopefully, it will be something cheap and easy. :D

maxikid post something useful once and don't post anything untill you have something serious to say, and stop hijacking a serious thread.

On the other note, how would I check if the axle is not sitting properly? Because I need to figure out as best I can what is going on before I take in to the mechanic, because then I basically have one shot to get it right. Can't afford to take it in and then find out that I will need a full transmission when I don't have it as it takes something like two weeks to get it from ebay.

Jack the car up and look under it. You will see if an axle has come out of the transmission. (I doubt this is your problem).

OR

While the car is on the ground, turn the wheels hard right or left, and put the car in gear. Have someone hold the brake, put it in drive and give a little gas. Look at both CV joints, pay attention to the axle shaft. If the axle shaft is spinning but the wheel isn't, then the CV has either come apart or slipped off the axle shaft. The CV joint is held onto the axle on a spline at the end of the shaft. I have had these come apart while changing suspension components. It's an easy, but messy fix.

Either way, if you see one of the axle shafts spinning, your transmission is fine. It should take you less then 5 minutes to figure out what has failed and you can do this while the car is on the ground.

Kiss 1st, if you had no symptoms, the loud noise was something breaking, the diff would have have cried out for help, the cv shaft would click on 90 degree turns. keep it simple first.

Yes, hence this thread - I am trying to figure out what broke.

cv
 

I know i am a noobie to this thread but have much experience working with my max. Therefore when i had the same problem, i had torn the whole boot, which equals no grease and not as much spin in the axle. As soon as the weather is nice jack it up and check your cv axle and boot. If it is just boot like my problem should be easy fix. about $70 dollars or so at local part dealer. Hope you find problem.

Just an input from an average joe.

a torn boot would not cause this problem. all the boot does is keep grease in and water/dirt out. he broke something substantial.

silencecalls - a broken axle or a broken diff are basically the only two possibilities that would cause your symptoms. time to jack the car up in the air and see which it is.

Something definitely broke. Hope for a CV joint; can replace that w/o opening tranny. Only way to find out is get it in the air and look.

Sounds like something inside the tranny like the converter to me.

Seriously?:eek::eek:

OP says "More over, the speedometer needle climbs like my car is moving.... "

It's Either diff or CV/halfshaft.

Who and why are you jumping out at me like this,First off this has a lot to do with this thread, because we are here talking about the cv that was just not seated in and thats whats causing all of this rough grinding or noise. I know when I took my car on the highway to test it out the cv grinded the needle spun fast and the car was slowing down and the cv was poped out and i had to pull over to the side and I noticed the axle was out you will see the spirel curves they have on the axles. When I am working on axles know I make sure i hit them tell I here a clicking noise or I see the cvring flushed with the tranny housing.I know because I had to go thur several axles before I found the right one and the aftermarket ones are the worse at matching up with the nisssn ones.

Ok Day off and weather is nice! So I jacked up the car today!

Procedure:
Jacked it up one side at a time, first spin the wheel by hand to see if axles are spinning, then start it up, put it in gear and see what happens.

This is what I got: By hand both wheel's axles were spinning freely, both CV joint's boots were fine. (So all four boots). Now when I put the car in gear I was hearing a light grinding noise like a gear was trying to catch but wasn't. And the wheels were stationary, I could still move the wheels with two fingers - so there was no power going on to them.

Now on the left wheel (since the tranny is closest) I took a small video of me spinning the axle where it goes into the diff.

vqmaxman you mentioned something about the spiral curves - please take a look at the video and tell me what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNt0waLZ8Cc

Simply for his 15 posts. L A W L.
If it's something with the tranny that is broken, 6 speed swap it :)

I looked at the video and yes, that's exactly what happened to me and yes, the axle was not seated all the way in. Do you know if your car is a non-locking or a locking. Putting diffrenent axles or putting wrong axles will not seat in or work properly.

You can clearly see that the axle has backed out of the trans.

X2. Good chance the c-ring on the end of the axle snapped out/broke up completely and let axle slide out. If your lucky nothing else is torn up and a new axle fixes it w/o removing and opening transmission. Good luck with the repair.

dude your axle is not in the trans... it's pulled out like 3/4". either the axle broke at the splines where the C clip is, or a side gear broke in your differential (allowing your intact axle to pull out of where it should be), or something is so wrong with your suspension that it actually allowed an intact axle to pull out of an intact side gear in your trans (least likely).

edit: I'm having trouble orienting myself in that video, is this driver's side or passenger side (you said left side but that isn't a clear answer since left side when you are sitting in the car is different than left side when you are standing in front of the engine bay, or underneath the car depending upon your orientation).

if it's the passenger side it could just be the axle support bracket has broken or the axle has somehow come unseated/unbolted from that support bracket. i had a passenger axle back out once because the support bracket broke. the support bracket holds it in the trans.

Sorry, my bad on that one. That is indeed the driver side axle. The passenger axle is too deep in for me to see. But the current forerunner is that the axle is intact and that it's the diff gears that are broken. I get paid tomorrow so the car is going to a mechanic and jacked up asap.

before i took it to a mechanic i would take the wheel off and remove the big nut that holds the axle in the hub and pull the axle out and see if the clip is broke the machanic is goin to charge u a good amount for some thing you can prolly do in an hour or so just my .2 cents

X2. Relatively easy to do the axle on the short axle side. Still a good chance that all that happened was the clip broke and the axle popped out w/o any other real damage.

How do you really know if it's the differ or the CV's? At this point, it could be anything so to say it's only the CV or the diff means nothing. There were many times when I've seen autos rev like hell because the TC wouldn't engage properly.

Anyway, the transmission WILL need to be rebuilt if the axles are fine. No need in pulling it out to figure out the issue without rebuilding it.