I've recently replaced the clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, axle shafts in this car. I let the clutch out in the garage and moved the car back and forth a few times. Decided it was time for a test drive so I pulled the car out of the garage behind the house, idled in 1st gear around to the driveway(about 125ft) and pushed the clutch in. When I let the clutch back out in 1st gear to drive onto the street, I heard a light pop sound and then a light metal grinding sound. I immediately pushed the clutch in, and tried to reverse the car but it just rolls while in gear as if it is in neutral. Got it back into the garage and checked to see if an axle popped out of the transmission but it doesn't appear to. Did the transmission just grenade, or any insight as to what happened?

 

I pulled both axles, neither of them have any messed up splines so I can assume both axles were in completely. No splines messed up inside the transmission either. How can I tell if I broke something inside the actual transmission?

 

Occam's Razor would suggest a problem with the last thing you worked on - the clutch. It seems a hell of a coincidence that the transmission should fail at the moment you try out the new clutch.

What could go wrong in a clutch assembly? The only thing I can think of is a problem with the slave cylinder or the clutch release bearing - perhaps jammed in the release position? Light grinding noise also makes me think of clutch release bearing - that's the noise they make when they fail.

Another possibility - the gear change is not working properly and it's not in gear at all. Maybe a cable disconnected? Edit - now I think about it, a strong possibility. That would mean the pop was it popping out of gear, and the metallic noise was the gears just touching after it popped out.

 

I just figured it out. I replaced the axles with new units, and the c-clip that holds the bearing into the bracket for the passenger axle wasnt in all the way, which allowed the axle to walk its way out of the transmission splines. I pulled the axle, got the bracket back in location on the bearing, and secured the c-clip in its groove. The bracket came on the axle when it was purchased, so I guess it just didn't get popped into the groove all the way when it was assembled. The car is moving and shifting as it should now. Just a few more things to button up so it is 100 percent ready for the road again.

Thank you for your reply.