[OK-944]

Less than one half mile from home, gliding gently down a shallow, smooth slope in fourth gear - almost no pressure on the throttle when…CLUNK!! Pretty loud and “percussive.” Could really feel it. Might’ve hit something, but sounded/felt worse.

So I pressed in clutch, shifted to neutral, and stopped the car. No flat tires…no sounds from suspension when pushing down at corners.

Drove back home but did not go above third gear. Engine is fine…good oil pressure, sounds, etc.

While its possible that I just hit something - like a large stick which flew up into my wheel well…I’m thinking that I should at least test the drivetrain, and need to pick some brains about this.

I’m thinking that the least “invasive” way to check the tranny would be to lift the car, put it in fourth gear, and turn the engine by hand, with the front crank bolt, to see what happens.

Alternately, I could start the engine with the car lifted, and let the engine idle while I slip through the gears…perhaps starting with second so as not to shake things up with the car lifted.

Or…I could just lift the rear of the car on jacks, chock the front wheels, and do the “shifting while engine runs” test.

Question: if I do the tranny test with the engine running - might I put less stress on the CV joints if I at least removed the rear wheels/tires? Or is it OK to let the wheels/tires hang and spin while testing?

Another concern is that the tranny might have thrown a tooth, which might cause further harm. This possibility is what leads me to thinking about spinning the engine by hand as mentioned above.

At any rate…any comments would be great. Thanks!