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Tranny went. Now what?

Bigheadedon

New member
Was in lacrosse attending my sisters graduation earlier. I made a sharp right hand turn and heard a loud clunk. I knew it was my CV joint because it would only make noise in a turn. Was just on my way home on the interstate going up a hill, I thought why isn't the tranny downshifting, just as I thought that there was a loud BANG! and a sickening grinding noise. I pulled over and it is stuck in nuetral. Try putting it into reverse, or drive and it just grinds. What to do now? Is it odd that the CV and Tranny went out in the same day.
 


The tranny is a reman and has over 150,000 on it. The engine is still in really good condition and everything else on the car is good.
 
time for a tranny, and a axle it seems. or the axle is fine, the trans was the clicking, then it let go? hard to say, im not driving it.

used trans can be found for 300 to 400. if the rest of the car is good, id swap another trans in there.

if you swap the trans yourself you can save another 500 on the labor. dont forget to blow the trans lines and cooler out so you get all the old fluid and metal out of the cooler and lines. you dont want that going into the the new trans.
 


Do we have differentials or something else??

I'm not sure if my tranny went or the diff blew. Fromt emd made banging noise in sharp turns. On the free way going up a big hill with a slight bend there was a loud bang. Now when you shift into gear, it just grinds. It won't move but it will sometimes get into first gear and roll forward, which leads me to believe it is not the tranny
 


Hmm. Only take this as a possibility. If problems started on a right turn, that's when the CV axles are are twisting with the wheels(not literally twisting). If only 1 of them somehow popped out of the trans, that would mean you have no power to the ground at all. This happened to a guy that had a ball joint pop out in front of my friends house. Cv popped out, and he said I'll just try to drive it off to the side of the street. I told him he couldn't because of a "differential" action. He insisted he could because 1 wheel was still on the ground (he must be undereducated or think he has a locked axle). He put it in drive, gave it gas, and the open end of the trans just spun like crazy, sending nearly 0% power to the other wheel. It made lots of grinding sounds because the shaft was still touching the trans output.
 
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Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

I do, and replied sarcastically :th_laugh-lol2:(since it's from 1937)
 
Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

You already have a thread, why make two?

http://www.grandprixforums.net/tranny-went-now-what-78547.html


Our cars have a transmission with a "diff" that holds gears, we do not have a "diff" like a truck or awd vehicle.


FWD's do have a differential. I know, because I have blown 4 differentials in my Stealth. The differential is inside the trans. Kind of why it is called a transaxle.

AWD's can have 3 differentials. A rear, a front, and a center.
 
Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

......We have a open diff.....simply take off the diff cover on the passenger side and look inside inspect for scoring or fragments if it has dragged all Tue metal is making its way in your transmission via the filter hopefully the filter is doing its jb or else you will need a rebuild
 


Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

FWD's do have a differential. I know, because I have blown 4 differentials in my Stealth. The differential is inside the trans. Kind of why it is called a transaxle.
Right, that's what I always thought. They look nothing like these rear wheel drive diffs. Our transaxles have a much more space saving design. I took this pic when tearing apart a 1984 Cadillac Coupe de ville
dsc01346custom.jpg
 
Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

I know i have two threads right now. But I'm getting a bunch of different answers from alot of people. I've been told my problem could be a broken cv joint, because they were bad in my car. A blown diff, or a blown tranny.
 
Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

And you were also told to open it up (Diff) and take a look... Doesn't make sense trying to shotgun parts at a problem. You go and replace an axle then come back and say geeeee that wasn't it, the replace the diff and report the same result... And then do a tranny rebuild and whoola, a fix. Vice/Versa, which ever it might be.

Bottom line is if you cant do it yourself, the only way to know is to have it looked at by someone you can trust who knows what they're doing. Videos, sound clips, semantics are lacking in diagnosing an issue sometimes that if in or with the car could be found quickly.

For the record, asking the same question in multiple threads is frowned upon, regardless of the answers you get, it makes a mess of things on the board! I'm no admin, but I'm thinking this'll get locked...

Just a friendly heads up!
:)
 
Re: Do we have differentials or something else??

I see a few different things that could be causing the issue. Let's diagnose it.

Step 1. Jack and support front of car. Turn one wheel as if the car was driving forward, does the other wheel turn in the opposite direction? It should. This would be a differential test.

Step 2. If you start the car and put it into D or 3, do you get no movement? If yes continue on, put the car in 2 or 1, do you get some movement, not good, but something? This tests the foward band. A broken band will cause no engagement in D or 3
 
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