91Z28

so today im cruisng along at about 75 on the highway in fifth in cruise control and all the sudden i hear a ton of grinding and squealing, and the motor goes dead, i try and restart thinking that i lost power perhaps, the motor turns over with the clutch in and when i let out it kills the motor again. I pull over and try starting it, motor runs fine but only with the clutch in, if i let out in any gear or neutral the car bogs and dies. So i tried a rev, and poped the clutch and i got it to idle in neutral without having the clutch fully depresed, and it grinds and squeals though. I limp it to an exit, but while driving there was alot of griding and jerking and such, i put it into 3rd, this seems to make it less likely to do that. I eventually towed it home. I replaced the clutch, pilot, and throwout about 8 months ago. I noticed right before this started up that in neautral with the clutch out there was a little bit of chattering, it was faint.... that went away after pressing the pedal in .... any ideas fellas ? should i try and return the clutch and extras, its got a one year warr.?

Thanks guys !

JAYDUBB

I would consider checking the fluid level in the trans. Drain a lil bit in a catch pan and see if its got any metal in it. Also, make sure the fluid is still RED.

manchesterbeast

what is the effect of a bad or dry pilot bushing?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Stop for a minute, and think about what is moving with respect to what under the various circumstances, and use some logic.

The throwout is pressed up against something that's bolted to the crank. So if the throwout is bad, it will malfunction to some degree any time the engine is running; and it will get MUCH MUCH worse when the clutch is pushed; in gear, out of gear, in neutral, or whatever. It can't tell and doesn't care about any of those things. So your symptoms can't be caused by the TOB. Move on.

The pilot is in the back of the crank, and the trans "input shaft" (the clutch gear) is in the middle of it. Whenever the clutch is engaged, those 2 parts are turning at the same speed, locked together by the clutch. So a bad pilot makes noise when the trans input shaft is turning at one speed and the engine is turning at another, which is only possible when the clutch is pushed. You have noise and failure when the clutch is released. So the problem can't be caused by the pilot either. Move on from that as well.

Did it make the noise while the car was moving but the engine was not running?

You say that it behaves normally when the clutch is pushed, but when you let the clutch out, the engine dies. That means that it's something BEHIND THE CLUTCH.

Manual transmissions always make a little noise when you have them in neutral with the clutch out. All the guts of the trans are spinning around in there, along with the engine. Everything coasts to a stop when you push the clutch in. So a LITTLE BIT of noise then is normal; should be a sort fo whirring sound with a little bit of rattling. Very faint but always there.

If it acts different in some gears from how it acts in others, it's something inside the trans.

Each of the gears spins on the mainshaft when the trans is in some other gear; shifting into a gear, locks that gear to the mainshaft. If it works in 3rd but stalls the motor in all other gears, then 3rd gear is seized to the mainshaft. Stuff like that happens from running a transmission dry.

Sound to me like your trans is smoked, and probably not worth fixing. That is, the cheapest way to fix it, is to buy a whole working trans, and a "rebuild kit" which contains all the soft parts like bearings and such, and take out all the good parts from the one and put them into yours. On the other hand, if you have a whole good trans, you don't need to take it apart, you should just stick it in your car; so repairing or "rebuilding" your wasted one is probably not economically sensible.

Pull the trans and see if you can turn the clutch gear with it shifted into any gear besides third. Drain the fluid first, if there is any, and see how much metal there is in it. If there's very much, you're better off to just throw it away and get another; as EVERY PART in it, every gear, shaft, bearing, and everything else, is trashed from running dry and/or having ground up metal in it.

Bummer, dude.

JAYDUBB

I was thinking that it was something related to the transmission also.

84z28350

Definately has to be in the trans...

Input shaft bearing is most likely the culprit.

91Z28

bummer, well i guess it was bound to happen anyway, the probelem is finding another tranny, im not going through the hassle of rebuilding one, especially if i go with a lt-1/ls1 with a t-56 later.