RE: 91 Spider Transmission BROKE?

[ltooz@xxxxxxxxxxxx (LLe_2002)]

Hello all,
 I finally had time to drop the transmission this weekend, and guess what I found out, the hub in the center of the clutch was sheared off the clutch just like Russ predicted. Please look at the pictures. The clutch disc & pressure plate & throw out bearing are 4000 miles old. The disc still look new, the throw out bearing was center of the pressure plate fingers. Everything looks new. What can cause this to happen? Defective clutch disc? Tranmission?
 I noticed the transmission shaft has some play, in/out and around, could this cause this problem? Please give me some input. The transmission before was great, smooth and solid. Have you ever seen this kind of thing happened before?

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/ltooz_alfa/lst?.dir=/clutch+failure

Thanks,

Louis Le,
91 SPIDER VELOCE
Fremont,CA



AlfaNeely@domain.elided wrote:

>       I think the hub in the center of the clutch disk has broken loose.  
>The clutch disk still turns with the flywheel, but it is no longer connected 
>to the hub.  You should hear some funny rubbing noises as the hub spins in 
>its fitting.
>       I first guessed that the diaphragm spring in the pressure plate broke. 
> But then the clutch pedal should be floppy loose.
>       A broken input or output shaft on the transmission might act like 
>that.  But I have never heard of a transmission breaking unless it was 
>abused.  I cannot think of anything in the transmission that could come 
>loose.  Did you have the transmission rebuilt when you did the clutch?  I 
>guess if the mechanic left a key out, then a gear could be spinning on its 
>shaft.  The gear might have held for a while, until things loosened up and 
>allowed the gear to spin on its shaft.  That might be a possibility, but I 
>would suspect it only if the transmission had been apart.
>       A broken shift mechanism would feel strange, but you report that it 
>feels like it goes into each and every gear.  A broken bolt on one of the 
>sliders would allow that pair of gears to not engage, but the other four 
>should still work.  That is, if the first and second gear shift fork was not 
>moving the slider, those two gears would not work.  However, you would still 
>have third, fourth, fifth and reverse.  I cannot think that all three forks 
>have come loose from the rods that move them.
>       A broken drive shaft Giubo or U Joint would act like that.  If it 
>broke right behind the center carrier, the noise might be minimal.  However, 
>if that were the case, the front half of the back driveshaft should be laying 
>on the ground.  And when you pushed the car off to the side of the street, a 
>great banging and clanking should have been heard.  Did you look under the 
>car?
>       So by process of elimination, I am guessing it is the clutch disk 
>itself.
>
>       So let us know what you find out.  Someone is going to have to get 
>under the car to figure this one out.
>
>Ciao,
>Russ Neely
>Oklahoma City
>
>
>In a message dated 1/23/2003 3:00:49 PM Central Standard Time, 
>owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 13:56:36 -0500
>> From: ltooz@domain.elided (LLe_2002)
>> Subject: 91 Spider Transmission BROKE?
>> 
>> Hello all,
>> I've been enjoying my 91 Spider Veloce for a year and a half now. Yesterday 
>> when I got off work, drove to the stop light and the car's transmission and 
>> gear didn't engage anymore, the engine is running, I can put in all gears 
>> nicely (the clutch was 3k miles old), but releasing the clutch, I only hear 
>> some grinding sound in the trans area but the car doesn't move.
>> Engine is great, the clutch is great, is my transmission broken? If I can 
>> shift to gears and it stays in gears, why doesn't the car drive? What can 
>> it be wrong with the trans?
>> My Spider is totally immobilized now. It's so sad. Please help me to 
>> identify this problem.
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Louis Le
>> 91 Spider Veloce,
>> Sunnyvale, CA.
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