Tranny explosion...

[5150DSM]

So I just got the word from my tranny...oh shit, this is bad. Seems my front differential decided to disentigrate and in doing so, damaged every other moving part in the box; even the viscous coupling is melted. Me to the mechanic: "So the dif just grenaded and took out everything else" Mechanic: "Grenaded is not the word, hahahahahahahaha you got to see this." I haven't seen it yet but based on the info can anyone give me an idea of why I had such a catastrophic failure. I have put roughly 450 miles on the car since I bought it and only went to the track once. I slip-launched at about 3500-4000 rpm's 6-8 times and then went home with no problems, I drove for like a week after that without a problem. The car then sat for two weeks and then the day I got back it started having problems(which I described ad nauseum in a previous thread)now I have to buy a new tranny. What went wrong?

 

[5150DSM]

No opinions? I'm just trying to identify the cause so I don't do it again. Could the dif have been messed up when I bought the car and it just took a couple of weeks to fully disentegrate? Thanks again for any help you guys can offer.
Peace,
Tony

 

[Defiant]

You own a street car, not a race car. If you want to run it like a race car, you're going to have to start spending race-car levels of money.

How many owners before you have been beating the living hell out of that gearbox, and how would you know?

 

[pneumo]

Both the front and center diffs are happiest when all 4 wheels are turning at the same speed. Doing donuts, hard launches, or kicking the back end out in a powerslide will stress one or both diffs. Wheel hop will kill diffs, too.

The front diff can be damaged before any signs show up. There is only a roll pin holding the cross shaft in place. One good slam from wheel hop can break the roll pin, but the cross shaft usually doesn't slide out of place right away. In some cases the cross shaft gradually works it's way loose and grinds a groove in the trans case. In other cases the cross shaft comes out quickly and lets one of the spider gears come out, where it gets kicked around inside the trans. By the sound of it, I think that's what you'll find on your car. Enjoy!

 

[5150DSM]

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. They found pieces of the dif embedded in the inside of the housing. I don't know a whole lot about transmissions but even I could tell this was a mess...It literally looked like a bomb went off inside the case. Thanks for the info... I guess I'll have work on slipping the clutch a bit more, they are a lot cheaper than trannies. Later.

 

[pneumo]

No need to be so depressed. There is a way to reinforce the front diff so it won't happen again, then you can play hard and be happy. When you get a new front diff, have the cross shaft welded to the diff casing on both ends. That way you don't have to rely on the wimpy roll pin. The only minor drawback is that you'll never be able to install a Phantom Grip or BM tranny LSD insert. Or if you do install one before welding up the shaft, you'll never get it out.

Of course there are ways to strengthen the center diff, too. Weld it, get a spool, or have it built into a 4 spider diff.