Anybody ever wonder...

[Angee]

If you have an angel sitting on your shoulder with a broken halo?

My car broke down today...it's front wheel drive and we think it may be the CV or half-shaft...I'm leaning toward the half-shaft myself. It started on the 25 mile drive to work. The front end was making grinding noises upon accelerating. I pulled over to check for ice buildup inside the wheel, but nothing was there. I carefully drove the rest of the way to work (babying it on accelerating) after calling Rob, and looked at it again to see if I could see anything. Nothing. I asked Rob to come drive it around the lot at work and see what he thought, so he met me after work. It didn't make it back into the parking spot, we had to push it.

It's been occasionally making a brief clacking noise like a u-joint going out, but I thought it was from the struts being back at the proper height and settling. Now I think back and it was probably a warning sign. The drivers side CV is new, so we're thinking it may be the short axel. There are NO gears when you shift. no clutching required to go from 1st to 5th and reverse. It's a front-wheel drive 5 speed manual 94 Mazda MX6 with 181,000 miles on it, so I figure it's time for something to break (again), so no point in freaking out. Our friend is going to let AAA (thanks to Rob's mom for the membership for Christmas!) tow it to his house so we can work on it in his heated garage. Won't know exactly what happened till we drop the front, but please keep your fingers crossed for me that it IS something simple, and not the tranny shot to shit. I can NOT afford a new car right now, so I have to keep this thing running.

So much for shopping for Christmas Friday...

[Sixxxxer]

What do you mean by No gears to shift...And If you dont need a clutch to shift into Reverse you got bigger problems than your front Half shafts

[Mr Lefty]

uh... you dont' really have to clutch ever to shift 1-5... reverse... some like my truck if you sit at idle may slip in.

sounds like a tranny problem for sure though if your not getting any feed back in the shift lever

if it's a cv or half shaft... it'll probably pull to that side. being that you probably have a transaxle... I'm thinking your problem is there. I don't have any experience with these as i stick to 4x4 trucks... but I've seen several cv's go bad along with half shafts... every one of them pulled decently hard to the side that had failed.

[Angee]

Let me rephrase that...it shifts gears fine, but needs no clutch to do so, and gears don't engage, the car is always in nuetral. It's definitely not the clutch, we know that. The speedo works when the car is sitting there, so SOMETHING is engaging, just not the damned wheels!

I'm going to post on the MX6 board and get some opinions as to what all to look at.

[Mr Lefty]

Originally Posted by Angee

Let me rephrase that...it shifts gears fine, but needs no clutch to do so, and gears don't engage, the car is always in nuetral. It's definitely not the clutch, we know that. The speedo works when the car is sitting there, so SOMETHING is engaging, just not the damned wheels!

I'm going to post on the MX6 board and get some opinions as to what all to look at.

that's what I mean... it's probably your transaxle... the gears aren't engaging... it's hard to say where the loss of torque is happening either before or after the transaxle...

can you push the car in gear? if so it's probably the transaxle... if not try lifting the front... and spining the wheels by hand in gear...

[Angee]

I'm gonna wait till we rip it down Friday and see what's in there...I have a board I hang on and I can scavenge parts there. If nothing else, the project car may have to be drug out as a DD until this one is fixed. At least it's a holiday week...no kids to worry about getting around and only two days to worry about going to work before the weekend.

Thanks guys...

Now I have to drive the Subaru...never drove an AWD in snow, this is gonna be fun...not!

[Lamnidae]

Originally Posted by ebbs15

that's what I mean... it's probably your transaxle... the gears aren't engaging... it's hard to say where the loss of torque is happening either before or after the transaxle...

can you push the car in gear? if so it's probably the transaxle... if not try lifting the front... and spining the wheels by hand in gear...

Shit.


it's like Ebbs actually has a f'king clue about something. wow.

[Mr Lefty]

Originally Posted by Amblyopic

Shit.


it's like Ebbs actually has a f'king clue about something. wow.

hey asshole... don't act so surprised!

[Mr Lefty]

Originally Posted by Angee

I'm gonna wait till we rip it down Friday and see what's in there...I have a board I hang on and I can scavenge parts there. If nothing else, the project car may have to be drug out as a DD until this one is fixed. At least it's a holiday week...no kids to worry about getting around and only two days to worry about going to work before the weekend.

Thanks guys...

Now I have to drive the Subaru...never drove an AWD in snow, this is gonna be fun...not!

after driving a front wheel drive you'll love it... the car will track smoother and you'll actually be able to leave the lights with out having to hit the rev limiter.

good luck.

[Sixxxxer]

Originally Posted by Angee

I'm gonna wait till we rip it down Friday and see what's in there...I have a board I hang on and I can scavenge parts there. If nothing else, the project car may have to be drug out as a DD until this one is fixed. At least it's a holiday week...no kids to worry about getting around and only two days to worry about going to work before the weekend.

Thanks guys...

Now I have to drive the Subaru...never drove an AWD in snow, this is gonna be fun...not!

You would prefer FWD to AWD In the Snow???

Odd...