Transmission vibration and noise

[MichaelSuch]

Hey guys I'm having some problems. First to start off I bought this car in November I believe it was, and ever since it had some loud almost like grinding noise from the transmission area. Thought it was just clutch chatter, the TOB or maybe bearings in the transmission. It would only grind under load. Would never do it in neutral no matter what the engine speed was. So for awhile the sound never changed. But recently, about 2 or 3 weeks ago I started getting some vibration while driving anywhere from 40-55 mph. I figured that was just the carrier bearing getting worn and just too much play in the driveshaft. The past 2 days it had been getting worse and worse with more vibration. Enough to shake the whole car it seemed. But if I let off the throttle it would go away.

Now tonight I was driving home. All of a sudden the grinding sound went away. And it sometimes it seemed like the clutch would slip. But every now and then it would get all kinds of wierd noises. As soon as I tried to shift gears it was stuck in gear. I had to push the clutch in and out a few times for it to get out of gear and into a new one. When I finally got it home it something smelled hot and it really smelled like transmission fluid. I checked the fluid in December and it was a tad over full, I never did replace it though. The clutch had been replaced sometime within the past 20,000 miles with a carquest clutch according to the previous owner. So I either have transmission or clutch issues. I plan on ripping it apart this week. What are the symptoms of worn bearings in the transmission? Also the car has right around 137,000 miles on it. It's a '92 AWD TSi. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[viperlp01]

Unfortunately it is hard to tell will out checking the clutch out first. The disk could have broke and became unbalanced but it is doubtful. If you could get the car on jack stands and have the wheels moving and see if you can pinpoint the noise.

 

[MichaelSuch]

Is it possible for the clutch to cause that much vibration through the drivetrain though? The vibration felt like it was right at the rear differential.

 

[Lofty]

Unsure of what to say for this one.

Are all your trans to block bolts in? I really don't think it's clutch related as it would make noise whether it was in neutral or if you applied load on it (generally)
It's possible you blew out some springs on the clutch.
Im willing to bet it's something trans related. But hey, you have to pull it out anyways, so I guess you'll just have to let us know!

(It smelled like trans fluid when I cracked my bell housing, not to worry you or anything)

Symptoms of worn bearings would be a constant noise, that gets worse as you drive down the road (if I remember properly)

My input shaft had a good half inch of in and out play.
Fun stuff.

 

[MichaelSuch]

Ok, well hopefully I will figure it out tonight when I get off if the weather can cooperate. I bet the housing cracked because I do remember going over bumps and the car felt like it would miss for a second. I bet someone didn't tighten them back up properly from the previous clutch job

 

[MichaelSuch]

Here's the problem

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I guess this thing is toast. I think its the intermediate shaft? Had a ton of play in it. Sad to say, this thing shifted pretty decent except for 2nd gear in the high rpms. Poor guy. Now I have 2 other transmissions. One I know is missing the transfercase shaft, and possibly more. The other seems complete. But I got this with a parts car that was a '90. How do I know if these will interchange with the rest of my setup? I know I have a 4 bolt rear end w/ LSD. I need to count the splines on my current transmission as well.