Zephyr 351C

Hi everyone, I'm Zach, and up until yesterday most of my questions were answered in a search. Now I'm stuck...

Car is a 92 Teg, stockish B18 5speed. Unknown mileage on the motor/trans, the previous owner bought the car with an empty engine bay.

As I was pulling into a driveway yesterday my car just stopped, like "thrown in park while rolling" stopped. Would not coast, or move more than a foot under power, in first or reverse. Although it does try to move, all it does is turn clutch into smoke...

I jacked up one side and put the car in neutral but the wheel wouldn't spin freely. Same thing on the other side.

The boot on the driver's side axle was split, so I decided to pull it (and the other, if necessary) to get my car out of the road.

The driver's side axle came apart when I pulled it out, so the diff end is still in the car, and no, it doesn't spin. However, now the other wheel spins freely, so I was able to coast the car out of everyone's way.

A similar experiance with an old pickup leads me to think its the differential. Unlike that pickup, I can't fix the car with a $100 rear end and a couple hours fighting rusty bolts.

Other than an occasional 3rd gear crunch, I haven't had any transmission issues.

Should I put a new axle in and see what happens, or is that a waste of time?

Any suggestions appreciated.

4g hatch

I would replace the axle first. With open diffs if one breaks or ismt locked in the car wont move. Plus when open diffs usually go out they leave holes in the xase from the center pin breaking. When u get the inner axle part out of the diff look and make sure the pin(bar) is still in tack in the center of the diff.if it is id replace the axle and try it

Zephyr 351C

Okay, thanks. I'll do that tomorrow.

I'll have to pull the intermediate shaft to look in the differential. Is that a special kind of PITA? Or just unbolt and pull? If the bar isn't intact, I'm assuming I'll need another transmission, correct?

I didn't see any external damage on the case, but I was moving at a crawl since the car is lowered and the driveway is rough. Whatever happened, I'm glad it wasn't ten minutes earlier when I was doing 70mph....

Zephyr 351C

Update:

Changed axles, same thing. Will roll under power for about a foot (in first, second, and reverse), then stop, as if something is in the gears. Does it on the ground and jacked up.

The car wont coast unless one axle is removed...

With both axles installed and the car jacked up, spinning one wheel by hand spins the other opposite (typical open diff).

OneBadTurboCRV

You need to drop the transmission either way. It sounds like your differential is done or possibly even worse. Also, contrary to popular belief, differentials don't always explode in a blaze of glory making the whole front end fly into outer space... I have seen fully contained failures where the spider gear's teeth stripped off. Depending on the chunk size it can chip gear sets though.

Zephyr 351C

Trans is being pulled by the end of the week. An old buddy is going to look at it Wednesday and actually see what its doing, then we'll go from there.

Unlike me, he actually knows what he's doing inside the transmission case. I have changed and rebuilt a few diffs, but none of them were inside a transmission case...