Was out tonight driving around and I got on it a little and the next thing you know BOOM!! It was like getting rearended and the car would not go anywere in any gear. I stopped the car, or rather coasted to a stop, and found diff fluid all over the ground in a glorious stream behind me (all of it) :eek: I got a light and looked under the car and found that the diff had seperated from the tranny at the housing between the two :cry :U :U It looked as though it exploded!! I then found out that there was fluid leaking before it happened but it had just started maybe 300 yards before the BOOM! Does anyone know what could have caused this or has anyone ever heard of this happening? I am dumbfounded as to what happened back there :confused: please help me sort this out.
Thanks


[Modified by Green Monster, 12:23 AM 9/22/2002]

 

I am leaning towards a major diff failure as the culprit since that is what is leaking. It may not have actually seperated but the housing has split.

 

trust me, it has seperated from the tranny and i hav a big piece of the housing right here next to me, not to mention the fact that the diff itself is almost in my trunk. (part of diff cover broke through fiberglass)

 

That is what I meant. I doubt the seperation caused the leaks and failure. You have exprienced a major differential failure that has fractured the housing. Probably the entire ring and pinion has shattered. This could have caused damage to the transmission as well.

 

it is not the diff housing that that has split, it is the piece that connects the tranny to the diff. It looks like a mini bell housing. But there is also a chunk taken out of the diff case where it bolts the the mini bell housing.

 

just found out that the output shaft from the tranny has snapped in two.

 

I was at Moroso a few months ago and exactly the same thing happened to the BREATHLESS C5. We thought the rear blew however, when the rear was pulled it was realized that it was in fact the transmission output shaft that wound up shearing off. Grenaded the trans case and rear end housing. Give Ernie a call he put the M-12 in as a replcement.

Bob


[Modified by 16Again, 8:29 AM 9/22/2002]

 

ok, but what caused the output shaft the break like this. I would think something like this would only happen if the rear blew and caused the output shaft to go?

 

The particular part is a known weak link on our cars.. There are several companies out there sellign hardened output shafts to deal with this problem..

After Ernie at Breathless broke his, they developed a hardened replacement which he now sells...

One of the diff output shafts is also weak.. replacement shafts for that are also available..

This can happen from a sudden application of torque combined with particularly good traction, or sudden "bite" of the tires.. Most often happens on manual trans cars with nitrous who dump the clutch while spraying..




[Modified by nevrenuf, 5:58 PM 9/22/2002]

 

:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

:eek: :eek:

 

On traditinal cars, the driveshaft is the weakest link and is engineered to fail first to save the Tranny./Rear(Does not always happen though.........). I would suspect that is the same on a stock Vette. Of course with everthing so close, that failure will damage more parts:eek:

 

Did that happen with or without the nitrous?

 

it happened without the nitrous on street tires.