legacycentral bbs

(4eat 98 legacy) ok heres a summary of what happend:

1. undercar around front diff area was making sputtering noise kinda sounds like an "exhaust leak" and at sometimes sounds like engine knock but not all the time(sounded like that for 3 weeks)
2. trans begins to slip grab slip grab at highway speeds
3. a loud bang happend at 60mph and felt like something locked up for a sec
4. pulled over(smoke came out) and trans goes into drive but when giving gas feels like ebrake is on and once obtaining walking speed it sounds like gears whining
5. when put into reverse sounds like gears grinding or something and when in nuetral car cannot be pushed in reverse it locks up but can be pushed forward.
6. car can move in reverse if front wheels lifted off ground.

any ideas? i also pulled the motor today after this happening last night

The tranny is done. I'd suggest starting to look for a used one to swap in.

do you happen to know the cause of the concern? my mother persist to think it was my fault on why it broke yet i dont drive it hard at all. it always did slam into 2nd gear...

I don't really know. Maybe someone else might be able to provide some feedback. But without opening up the trans, it's just speculation.

EJ KILLA wrote:do you happen to know the cause of the concern? my mother persist to think it was my fault on why it broke yet i dont drive it hard at all. it always did slam into 2nd gear...

Unfortunately arguing with your mother is futile Been there done that.

flushed fluid:

trans: very dark but no metal found (used magnet in the bucket)
front diff: found 1tsp of very fine metal on the drain plug... almost looked like silver grease it was so fine...

retracted, see my later post... i believe this is a spider gear shaft come loose....

I had a very similar failure on my 95. It also had wouldnt roll in reverse and if you put it in drive it felt as if something was dragging. Dont waste your time trying to fix it. Its toast. Grab a used one from the junkyard and move on.

here's a thought... you didn't find any metal in the trans pan, and there was a knocking noise from the front of the transmssion. you heard a bang and it would go forward but drag, and in reverse it would lock up.... this sounds as if the differential spider gear shaft has come loose, slid partly out of its bore and has been knocking against the differential case. on most cars, the pinion shaft is retained by a little screw. if this screws breaks, then shaft will back out and all hell breaks loose.

i've seen this exact scenario on an '87 honda accord. it would knock like crazy in forward, but as soon as you put it in reverse, the pin would get caught on the trans case and lock everything up. the pin eventually wore a groove thru the case as the owner just kept driving it that way until it started locking in reverse....

if this is true, your transmission may be okay, and you may just need to replace the differential.....