any help on this tran's problem diagnosis?

[Handicat]

it's a KA/NA, motors from 93, not sure if the trans was changed or any details, junkyard car thrown together with whatever parts... so i dont know the wear and tear or history of any of them..

while highway driving, i started to hear an intense amount of vibration related violence coming from my gear shifter, it was like i was holding on to an angry badger...

i pulled over, and when i'd put the clutch in to downshift, it got louder and worse each time... i limped it to a parking lot where it sits today waiting for a tow tomorrow.

when i tried restarting the car with the clutch to the floor, the motor turns and starts, but sounds like it's spinning the clutch violently and un-balanced-ish? i think i just made a word...

i'm guessing that the clutch is shattered to some degree, and or the throw out bearing, or forks are shot, and is not disengaging the clutch, so if that was the case, wouldnt the whole car try to move when i tried to start it? or does this mean that i may have broken the drive axle off inside the trans? ( i'm new to all of this, so try not to burn me with my wrong assumptions on what parts are called ) i'm a VW rally guy, cut me a break.


thanks - Jesse

[projectRDM]

Clutch, pressure plate, or throwout bearing is damaged for certain, but each one can act differently depending on the damage. There's no way to know until you drop the transmission. You also could have broken the front cover or the fork pivot, but again it's all internal in the bellhousing anyway.

[redsx13]

it's a KA/NA, motors from 93, not sure if the trans was changed or any details, junkyard car thrown together with whatever parts... so i dont know the wear and tear or history of any of them..

while highway driving, i started to hear an intense amount of vibration related violence coming from my gear shifter, it was like i was holding on to an angry badger...

i pulled over, and when i'd put the clutch in to downshift, it got louder and worse each time... i limped it to a parking lot where it sits today waiting for a tow tomorrow.

when i tried restarting the car with the clutch to the floor, the motor turns and starts, but sounds like it's spinning the clutch violently and un-balanced-ish? i think i just made a word...

i'm guessing that the clutch is shattered to some degree, and or the throw out bearing, or forks are shot, and is not disengaging the clutch, so if that was the case, wouldnt the whole car try to move when i tried to start it? or does this mean that i may have broken the drive axle off inside the trans? ( i'm new to all of this, so try not to burn me with my wrong assumptions on what parts are called ) i'm a VW rally guy, cut me a break.


thanks - Jesse

how does your clutch feel? is it any different now than it was before the problem? It could be the drive shaft, or the flexis.

[Handicat]

thanks for the replies... all good suggestions... my friend Jon dropped the tranny, to find himself staring directly at the backside of my flywheel.... turns out the idiot before us, swapped from auto to manual trans, and used the tQ converter bolts to put the flywheel back on, with the space... so all the bolts were 1/2 too short, all backed out and the flywheel was spinning loose inside the housing.... long story short, a long very wet annoying day in the driveway, and all is good as new..... well... 20 years new.