Some of us do dumb things and here's mine for the day. Last October me and my girlfriend were cruising in the convertible and being that it's a 4 speed you never really "cruise", so I decided that after we crossed some rr tracks and I was in 1st gear already and there wasn't any other cars around I'd row through the gears, so I jump on it and pull 2nd gear at about 6500 and let the rps climb to 6500 again and go to pull 3rd and dammit the trans is stuck in 2nd so I push in the clutch and coast, as we are coasting I'm getting some clunking so since it's 85° outside I'm gonna find a driveway in the shade. We go real slow it's clunking good now and when we finally find a shaded drive I go to pull into it and I lose all gears, Iuckily we had enough momentum to coast. I call AAA and get the car home and on the lift and don't touch it until today. over the winter I picked up an m20 and rebuilt it to have ready for when I can get to it. Fast forward to today and I decide I'm going to r&r the trans. So I go out to the garage get everything ready, remove the console, shifter then go under the car, it's on a 4 post lift with all 4 tires on the platform, 1st thing to do is remove the driveshaft, so I grab the wrench and remove 1 ujoint strap and turn the driveshaft to remove the other one. I proceed to remove the trans, bellhousing and clutch, I replaced the clutch since I was there and the m21 leaked some oil onto it, I took all the parts off the m21 that I needed for the new trans m20 and I installed them. Everything was going good and the last thing to install is the driveshaft so I slide it onto the output shaft pull it back into the rear axle flange and go to put on the straps when I grabbed the flange and turned it, now remember all 4 tires are on the platform! I think to myself you dummy the trans is fine you blew up the rearend. Why didn't you catch it when you removed the driveshaft? So now I have an m20 in the car which will probably be better anyway with the 3 42 rearend. I guess I should have investigated the issue better but what's the odds of the trans jamming in gear and the rearend breaking at the same time? Here's what I found.
Ouch! I'm proud of you also! I grenaded a rear end going over R&R tracks. The stars were aligned just right as was the shaft for spyder gears. I'm guessing it was perfectly vertical when I hit the tracks which were very rough and it sheared the bolt that holds the shaft for the spyder gears and it fell out. Very loud and very abrupt. Blew a hole in the cast iron center section. Hope your center is okay. Mikey
Same thing happened to my friends chevelle(ugly car-non buick)a couple years ago. We bolted on some slicks and thought we would try out the new 468. It turned into one of those rhetorical questions like does art mimic life or life mimic art? We still don't know if the trans busted and locked the rear or the rear busted and locked the trans,but he was rolling fast enough and getting enough traction that they both turned to trash. The clutch and pressure plate all looked like new when we took it apart.
I had picked up a '70 455 GS (400T) with a rod through the block at the Greater Dyer (Indiana) Auction in about 1978. Got a boneyard motor and decided to freshen it up and that escapade went as far as a line bore etc. Got it all back together (these were still daily drivers back then) only to back out of the garage to find exactly what you had! Those pics look familiar even 40 years later! Who'da thunk? Then there was a pal that I traded my 70 455/4 speed car to for his 68 400/4sp GTO for the night. Mine had a stucky Hurst shifter that liked to jam between 2nd and 3rd gears.Hmm... Mine came home that night with a rod knock and into the dealer Monday morning for a new short block.... And I took it easy on that lousy GOAT! Shoulda beat the crap outa it! ws
It made for a great story. Assuming something is a mistake I make almost daily, especially when it comes to women folk.
Done blowed up! If anything the auto repair gig is good for, it excels at making us all look like fools sometimes. I Hate when that happens! now I don't feel so alone...
That wouldve sucked but I make sure the parking brake is set and I have blocks in front of and behind 2 of the tires
..."stuck in 2nd"...understandable misdiagnosis. Sometimes we're just a little too smart for our own good...
