I'm stumped.

The car pulled into the garage, and now (after welding the flares on) it won't move. The car shifts into gears just fine. It just doesn't move. It sounds like the trans is engaging, but won't move. No sounds at all. (grinding, etc) The clutch hasn't slipped at all recently...no nasty smells or squealing. Just nothing.

I thought it may have been the U-joint bushings...so I swapped them out. Nothing.

I took the cup off and manually put it in gear. Nothing.

I spin one wheel, and the other doesn't move at all. I can't remember if it was like that before, but I'm thinking no.

Could it be as simple as a broken pin somewhere? I got Dr. Evil's notes, and started reading...but the sections that I looked through didn't help much.

The shitty part is that I'm a few weeks away from putting her to bed to start the Subaru conversion. I don't have the time/space/parts to work on that just yet...and don't want to spend time/$ working on something I was going to pull in a month.

So I'm kinda sunk until further notice.

Ideas?

If'n your going Suby I would park it. Did you pull the side cover to verify the shift forks integrity?

Calling the good doctor.....


Good news is you're only 2+ hours away from Dr Evil: the healer of all things human and transmission related.

This is in the 901. I wasn't going to do the subie until I could get a engine cradle/mount. This may force my hand though.

I wonder what the record for the fastest conversion is? Hmmmmm.

Did you idiot check that the CV's are still intact?

Sounds like a broken CV...

That's what I was thinking but wouldn't you hear some kind of noise when in gear? If it's a CV you can fix that Doug. Hopefully it's an inner one closest to the trans.

Start it, put it in gear and look under the car. Are either transmission flanges rotating?

If the outer CV comes loose or apart, the shaft and cv don't make a lot of noise in the trailing arm when spinning. (Don't ask how I know . This happened to me about two weeks ago just before the 9/14 drive in...)

Hmmmm. Well...I have two options.

1: I have a couple of spare CVs that came with the car. New in the box, so that'll be one option.

2: I found an entire 901 in my basement that appears to be in good working order. If it's not the CV, that's "plan b".

I'll have to take the CVs off to get the Trans out, so option 1 will lead to 2 anyways I guess.

Don't get ahead of yourself! Jack the rear of the car up and put it on jack stands, put it in gear, and poke your head under to see what you see. It will be obvious if the CV or output shafts are spinning and nothing else.

side shift?

I bet it has to do with the clutch.
What happens if you put the car in gear, engine off, ebrake off and just push it? If it goes, the gear and motor are not connected so probably the clutch is not coupling.
Check the cable routing.

Definitely not the clutch. It's not even getting to that. When I spin one side, the other wheel is stationary, so it's something internal. The CVs both look to be intact. I'll pull the boots tomorrow, but there would be a lot more going on if it was a CV I think.

Side shift Trans.

Don't look at the axles. Grab them and move them. You'll know if one is broken. The first one I broke looked just fine, except inside that fine looking boot was a mess of shattered metal.

Can you spin a rear wheel without the half-shaft on that side spinning? If so, you have a bad outer CV joint there.

If the half-shaft does spin, does the output flange on the transmission spin? You'll have to look closer to see that. If not, the inboard CV joint is not connected.

Do those same tests to each rear wheel. If the output flange of the transmission spins in both cases, then you have something going on inside the transmission.

It's not that uncommon for the bolts to back out, hence the people who sell drilled CV bolts and other similar solutions. It may be a simple matter of bolting everything back together again correctly.

--DD

Great tips guys. I'll start there tomorrow and see what we're dealing with.

I'm taking the spare trans with me to the garage in case none of this works.

I'll post pics along the way.

The other wheel is not spinning since the clutch is not engaged. That's normal.

Anyone guess "Pinion Gear"?

It wasn't the CVs or clutch, and both wheels were moving independent, even when it was in gear, so I just swapped the whole trans for the one I had in my basement.

I got this pic from my friend about an hour after I left. He couldn't wait to figure it out.

I guess a 901 isn't the best option for a V8 conversion. Renegade rebuilt this Trans in 2008, about 6,000 miles ago.

A 901 is OK for a V8 if driven properly. You must ease off the clutch in second gear to get going, then you can hammer on it. BTW, don't ever use 1st gear.

If you pop the clutch with lots of gas, you will break it!. If Renegade rebuilt it, it may have a flipped H gear in 5th position. Great for a V8. Standard 5th gear is way too low.

I was gentile. I don't think everyone else was.

At any rate, it'll only be in the car for another few weeks before the Subie conversion gets started. At that point...this one goes back in the basement.