Stranded

[4carbcorvair]

Wifey to the rescue! Waiting in a parking lot for my wife to come pick my son and I up. I think the diff went out. Heard some pops when I pulled into a parking lot. Went to leave and made it about a quarter mile and the car wouldn't move. Than it would catch and move a little. Able to get to a major grocery store parking lot. I'll get a ride home and get my truck and tow dolly.

[UNSAFE]

Spider gears

[bbodie52]

Could also be a broken universal joint associated with one of the two half shafts. A break in power transmission to one wheel will spin freely, while zero power is transmitted to the other side (a limited-slip differential will at least try, but a conventional differential cannot transmit power to one wheel only if nothing is getting to the other wheel). Such a malfunction is likely easier to fix than an internal malfunction inside the differential, so hope for an external malfunction!

[4carbcorvair]

Yes, Kevin. I believe spidies. Makes quite the ruckus while turning and can feel a bind. I've changed out diffs in other Corvairs due to broken spidies, never mine. I think I have one spare diff left. :) I'll pull it and see how bad, I'll have to rebuild one now for a back up. :)

Wifey brought me home. I hooked up the tow dolly and went to get it with my oldest. Luckily I was able to drive it onto the dolly, it wasn't happy and started rolling back until it caught again. It will have to wait a bit before I can drop the drivetrain.

[4carbcorvair]

Finally jacked it up yesterday and spun a wheel. Sounds and feels like broken spidies. Went to my stash and pulled out the spare diff I have. Not sure I'll get to it this week, may have to wait til next.

[4carbcorvair]

Pulled the drivetrain today. Love my harbor freight lift cart! I picked it up just for this. Anyway, removed the diff top cover. Pieces of spider gears in the carrier. I'll put things back together with my spare diff hopefully later this week. I have a detail job I need to get done first.

[4carbcorvair]

Can just see part of a broken tooth off the spider between the ring and pinion.



The HF cart. :)

[4carbcorvair]

Back together!! Didn't have much time after most of the assembly was completed. I did take it down my street and back, nothing fell off or broke. I still have two pieces to install, the engine mount cover and the rear grill. The bolt seal for the new oil filter is leaking real bad, I'll check that and either clean or replace.

[cad-kid]

Good job getting it back together again