Clutch or transmission?

[Tim]

I drove my new Festiva to Portland over the weekend for a church trip, and everything went OK until I got there. I was pulling into a gas station, and heard a scraping, rattling sound coming from the engine. It was coming from the transmission.

At first it was rather quiet, but when I put the car in gear and tried to move it, the transmission screamed. When the car was in neutral and I pushed the clutch in the sound went away. It seemed to be present whenever the car was in gear, so I left it overnight at the gas station.

The next morning the noise was worse and the car would barely move.

I broke the #*&&@!@ speedo connector thing off trying to check the transmission fluid, so I have no idea if it's low or not.

So my Festiva is in Portland and I took the bus back to Spokane. Friday one of my friends is going to let me drive his F1 down there to pick it up, a trip I am NOT looking forward to.

Any ideas on what this noise could be? I'm guessing the throwout bearing but am unsure because I've never had transmission problems before.


Regards,

Tim

[gomer]

Re: Clutch or transmission?

The next morning the noise was worse and the car would barely move.

I think that says it all ,, I've had noisy throwout bearings before but they wouldn't cause this... it sure sounds like a bad clutch but it could be that the shift fork sheared... you won't feel any gear engagement if that happened.. when mine went out I could grab 2 and 4 but not 1,3,5 ,, at least for a day until it failed completely.

[ajb999]

u need more than 2 gears?

[getnhi1]

When the car was in neutral and I pushed the clutch in the sound went away.

That says to me transmission. A clutch would give some signs long before it goes.

[packrat427]

Tim ,remember all my tranny trouble ,It was a bearing in the tranny ,I am not saying that is or is not the tranny bearing ,but the tranny guts also stop when you push in the clutch, so it can fool you at first, when you try to drive it ,does the noise change from gear to gear like worse in 1,2, and less noise in 3,4 ,5

[Tim]

Tim ,remember all my tranny trouble ,It was a bearing in the tranny ,I am not saying that is or is not the tranny bearing ,but the tranny guts also stop when you push in the clutch, so it can fool you at first, when you try to drive it ,does the noise change from gear to gear like worse in 1,2, and less noise in 3,4 ,5

The more I think about what I'm reading here, the more I'm convinced it's the transmission. I vaguely remember hearing a rattling before this, but it was very quiet and I didn't think much of it. After the car was moving in 4th or 5th it was completely silent.

Only when I slowed down at the gas station in Portland did the car make any loud noise.

Luckily my '88LX parts Festiva is a 5 speed with no tranny problems. Looks like Fastiva55 and I have a project for next weekend....

Gomer - the car would go into gear just fine but would scream with pain once the car started to move. I didn't push my luck and only drove it 100 yards to a daycare parking lot after the problem started. I don't know if the shift forks are damaged but that is something I will look into as well.


Regards,

Tim

[Tim]

Got the car back a few minutes ago.

Strangely enough the grinding has quieted down and is hard to hear, but it's still there. Most likely it's always been there but was drowned out by the engine.

I'm guessing input bearing now because the grinding abruptly stops when the clutch is pressed.

I'll know for sure by the weekend when I've swapped transmissions out and scrubbed the inch-thick layer of oil off the engine. Yuck.


Regards,

Tim