HELP!!! Missed a shift!

[sepsis311]

1984 Carrera, missed shift to 1st gear... yea, i know...

Battery light on, druck pressure at 5, engine blips from 5 to 600 rpm every second. help!

[schamp]

You might have already checked but did you throw a belt?

[sepsis311]

no, i havnt checked. the car still feels like it drives normally. would a belt cause all these problems? i'm open to any idea's...

[Ron.G]

You might want to check the belt before you cook something.

[sepsis311]

I'm new to cars, so please bear with me. Where would i look for the belt? And is this the timing belt your referring to?

[schamp]

I would not drive this car without checking for a thrown belt.

[jevvy]

I think he means the belt that drives the fan and alternator - its connected to the big fan that you can see when you look into the engine compartment

[mschuep]

Pop the engine lid. See that pulley? There should be a fan belt on there. (and probably another one that runs to the a/c compressor too). EDIT : Jevvy beat me to it

[sepsis311]

I havnt been driving it at all, i meant the ride home after the mis shift felt normal. Could one of you guys point me to the belt on pelican parts in case i need one? I'll keep everyone updated with the situation, i need to check it out after work. By the way, do you guys know if this car has a rev limiter? Also, do you guys think you could put my mind at easy by telling me that the engine (pistons and all) are ok and i wont be looking at a rebuild?

[deanp]

The rev limiter does nothing to prevent damage on an accidental mis-shift into a lower gear when the RPM's skyrocket. The rev limiter is there to prevent over-revs on the up shift.

You may also want to do a search on 3.2 rod bolts in the tech forum and engine rebuilding forum. I believe that even if something didn't fail immediately, the 3.2 rod bolts are notorious for stretching causing failure down the road.

How quickly did you catch the mis-shift? What did you see the tach shoot to for revs?

[sepsis311]

I didn't mis shift droping down gears. Actually, it was from a stand still. The clutch slipped and didnt catch when i engaged it. The rpms hit somewhere halfway in the red. Also i should metioned it smelled like burnt rubber after the mis shift. Could've been the clutch, or as you guys speculate, the belt.

[rcecale]

Originally posted by jevvy
I think he means the belt that drives the fan and alternator - its connected to the big fan that you can see when you look into the engine compartment

I believe the belt that jevvy is refering to is the one indicated in this pic...



Randy

[Boxer 6]

Originally posted by sepsis311
I didn't mis shift droping down gears. Actually, it was from a stand still. The clutch slipped and didnt catch when i engaged it. The rpms hit somewhere halfway in the red. Also i should metioned it smelled like burnt rubber after the mis shift. Could've been the clutch, or as you guys speculate, the belt.

I'm really confused Did you "holeshot" the car in third gear?

Hey guys, doesn't that car have a rubber centered clutch? If so, maybe some chunks of rubber broke off and are being tossed arround in the bellhousing causing fluctuating RPM's

[sepsis311]

It was at a standstill, i reved the engine to take off, and engaged first gear, but the clutch didn't catch and the rev kept going until i let go of the gas. The engine blipping happens when the car is idling in neutral so it cant be the clutch banging around loose chunks.

[jevvy]

This is less bad than what I initially thought you did, your rev limiter should have saved you bacon if you have one.

I like most people who posted thought you mechanically over-revved the engine which is when you shift into a lower gear when you meant to go for a higher gear for example you hit 1st after redlining it in 2nd when you were aiming for 3rd - no rev limiter will save you from the damage that can be caused from this.

If you do not have a rev limiter or it didnt function properly then you may still have damaged something - hopefully someone may chip in with some better ideas...

[svandamme]

if it had a rev limiter, it would have stopt the overrev then
but some cars don't have the right rotor

how far did the needle go?
did you hear it hit the limiter
should be an oscilating high rev sound, and the tach would be fluctuation in redline, but not exceeding it...

i don't understand how you would give it so much loud pedal on 1st gear
where you trying to do some tire shredding?? drag strip??

[sepsis311]

Waiting to get onto a busy fast highway from a traffic'd onramp. I dropped the clutch mid rev but it just slipped. I didnt hear any loud bangs or pops or anything, just smelled burnt rubber. I did see the tach needle fluctuate and it was a high oscilating rev sound. Wheeeeew. So i guess the "battery" light is really the alternator light? Chances are the belt snapped, so the alternator isnt charging the battery. What about the druck pressure pinned at 5 and the engine blipping from 5-600 rpm during idle?

[deanp]

If the alternator belt snapped then you also lost your cooling fan. Very important to make sure that belt is still there and properly tensioned.

Not sure what to tell you about the oil pressure and hunting idle though. Were these things 'normal' before the incident?

The tach needle fluctuating and the oscilating sound means you were bumping the rev limiter.

[jevvy]

sounds like you snappd the belt but you must also realise that the same belt is used to drive the fan that cools the engine - how long did you drive with the alt light on?

the burning rubber smell might also have been from a slipping clutch and that is how it redlined - the back tyres have a lot of grip and its hard to break them loose

[sepsis311]

The oil pressure used to be midway up the gauge, never at the top. The hunting idle is definately new. I was 20 minutes away from my house when this happened