OH Oh, I Think I have Broken the Ring & Pinion Gear!!

[Vincent Hill]

At least this car likes us enough not to do bad things while out on the road (Like up in Ohio a few weeks back). I have just finished the Window Lift rail and drove the car yesterday and everything was fine.

Peggy left the house around 7:15 and less than 10 minutes later she called stating that the car will not move under its own power. SHe said that the Clutch cable still feels like it is connected and that with the clunking noises that she first thought is was a Drive SHaft but after looking under the car now feels it may be the transmission.

I Drive the van to where she is (about 1.5 miles away) and put the car in gear and it starts to move forward and stopps moving and make a clunking noise. I now feel that it may have sheared some teeth off the Ring Gear.

I hook up the tow strap (I now carry one in the Porsche) to the car and van and have her drive the van and I am in the car. SHe did a good job of steady driving and the car is now parked across the street from my house.

I also have a 915 transmission I rebuilt attached to the 2.7 engine. The only problem it has is when I was setting up the spacing od the gears I had the stacks Vertical as opposed to Horizontal and the shifting from 2 to 3 in bad. I will need to re-set the Gear slider Forks and put this one in the 82 SC I think!

Has anyone broken the ring gear? Anyone had this happen to them??

The transmission and car only have 137,000 miles and the Other transmission had about 350,000 before I broke the 1st gear Piece that took all of the power. I also noticed that the New piece was 3 times thicker than the Old version.

I am getting tired of all of this work on all of these cars all of the time.

[john walker's workshop]

CV joints can break and stay in place. R+P noise is nasty and jerky.

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

CV joints can break and stay in place. R+P noise is nasty and jerky.

Dr. Walker, I hope this ends up this way! I will be HAPPY to replace them! PLUS I like the idea of them staying in place because that was another great fear I always had of one falling out attached to the WHeel!

I will know later tonight or tomorrow moring and let everyone know! Thank you for allowing me to at least Breathe before I deal with this!!

[Bill Verburg]

my bet would be a cv joint too. w/o a lsd if one side separates for any reason there is no drive at all

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

my bet would be a cv joint too. w/o a lsd if one side separates for any reason there is no drive at all

LSD?? Locked Differential?? I know 1 thing this has taught me, That along with everything else I carry on a trip I may be carring a "Spare" Drive Shaft! I Hate the idea of something going wrong that I can easily (Easy for me to say!) fix and have to spend HUNDREDs of $$ because I do not have a Simple part with me!

This car is starting to scare me a lot more than the 1976 becasue with close to 400,000 miles and 10 years before it was wrecked, It NEVER took us anywhere without bringing us back home. And here we have an "Almost" new SC and we have had to drag it back home twice in 2 years. Once the Electrical Problem with the "Green Wire" and now this!

My Old Rag Tag BMW 320I has had its problems but never failed to get us home either! Even the time the ALt died and the Battery was almost dead! I sprayed the Alt with Starter Fluid on the side of the road on I-70 just out of PA into Maryland and Pushed the car down hill and jumped in and the ALt worked well enough to get to my front door where I turned it off and it did not restart until I Charged the Battery and replaced the ALt.

Now Here I am with a car that only had 124,000 miles and good care and I am beginning to fear taking it anywhere without a SPare Porsche being towed behind it! I am thinking that the 911S IS better than the 911SC

[CCM911]

Come on Vincent. Hang in there. You are just in the process of sorting your new ride. These things happen, and are not necessarily a harbinger of things to come. I know it is only natural to expect the worst, but I think I would tend to agree with the others in that this can merely be a CV joint. Did you read in Pano about the guys driving to the Parade from Alaska? His car had a CV issue, and his description of the problem is eerily similar to yours.

Plus, John Walker seems to know his stuff, and he did not seem alarmed in his reply.

Chin up, and forge ahead.

[Joe Bob]

Yup....likely a CV. Save time and trouble, order a complete axle with installed CVs.

www.pmbperformance.com ask for Eric.

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by CCM911

Come on Vincent. Hang in there. You are just in the process of sorting your new ride. These things happen, and are not necessarily a harbinger of things to come. I know it is only natural to expect the worst, but I think I would tend to agree with the others in that this can merely be a CV joint. Did you read in Pano about the guys driving to the Parade from Alaska? His car had a CV issue, and his description of the problem is eerily similar to yours.

Plus, John Walker seems to know his stuff, and he did not seem alarmed in his reply.

Chin up, and forge ahead.

I appreciate your concern because I have never had this feeling about a Porsche before!

JW does not "Seem" to know his stuff, He "KNOWS" his stuff!!

I am not a Mechanical Idiot, but the things that are happening to this car are things that no one can fix on the side of the road "Without" some "Unusual" Spare Parts.

My BMW is the same year and has over 250,000 miles. The 1976 911s had 384,000 miles. My first Chevy Astro Van had 265,000 miles before I GAVE it to a friend who drove it another 70,000. and now here I have (for me) a New car with NO Miles and it has left me and my wife unable to drive twice in 2 years!! I go over everything I own and if it is not right I replace it. I change parts when they have gone a certain distance. I replaced both Half Shafts when I got the car with the ones out of the 1976 that had only gone about 30,000 miles and here we are now 15,000 more miles and maybe one has failed!! I even put grease fittings in the ball Joints and tie rod ends.

SO what I am saying is, we seriously drive our cars AND Seriously Take care of them also! If this one is not up to it, It will SOON be an Ad in the Paper just like pretty soon the Mini Cooper S is going to be! Now that is a 100% real Piece of Crap and the best way to know it is when they went to a "French Puegot Engine" to IMPROVE it. Still is had always made it back home which for me and my wife is the standard we Judge ALL of our vehicles by. (7 Motorcycles and 5 cars).

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Yup....likely a CV. Save time and trouble, order a complete axle with installed CVs.

www.pmbperformance.com ask for Eric.

Thanks,
I already saw where the Host has 4 CV Joints and Boots for $480 which is a very good price and if there is a problem with the CV's I will replace all 4 of them and use the Good Molly CV Joint grease.

[KTL]

Joe Bob's point is that instead of battling the R&R of 4 CV joints, you can just buy a complete new axle already assembled with joints and boots. That said, the grease used in new axles is typically cheap stuff that doesn't last as long as we would like. Always a good idea to pack a new axle with known quality grease.

If it was a bad ring and pinion, I think you'd feel it in tow behind the van. The ring and pinion is always spinning inside the transmission whenever the wheels are turning. With damaged R&P teeth, I suspect you'd feel a problem with the gear mesh, despite not being under power.
The CV joint is designed to have misalignment. So w/out power applied to it, it can still function relatively smoothly.

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by KTL

Joe Bob's point is that instead of battling the R&R of 4 CV joints, you can just buy a complete new axle already assembled with joints and boots. That said, the grease used in new axles is typically cheap stuff that doesn't last as long as we would like. Always a good idea to pack a new axle with known quality grease.

If it was a bad ring and pinion, I think you'd feel it in tow behind the van. The ring and pinion is always spinning inside the transmission whenever the wheels are turning. With damaged R&P teeth, I suspect you'd feel a problem with the gear mesh, despite not being under power.
The CV joint is designed to have misalignment. So w/out power applied to it, it can still function relatively smoothly.

I understood Joe's point! It is a LOT easier but like you say you never know the Quality of "ANYTHING" nowadays. As you may have figured out, I do not care about the easy way it is the BEST way I want to do things. If it is a failure then most likely (After thinking about the shafts) one could have been damaged when the 1976 had the 130 MPH Get off and broke the left side Swingarm (Trailing arm). It could have cracked a ball housing and I did not see it when I took the apart and cleaned everything and repacked them! I always use a good semi synthetic and Molly Grease and have never had a problem in the past and as I stated, we seriously drive our vehicles! Thanks!

[MikeD930]

Vincent,
You mean you used the same CV axle from the '76 that had a damaged trailiing arm?!? Well then that may explain why the CV failure is the most likely culprit in this case. Like others said I'm sure your SC is becoming more robust as you worked out its problems ever since you bought it. So, don't sell it just because of minor problems!

[911pcars]

Vincent,
Although being stuck on the road isn't entirely stress-free, let's not get too excited. Tow it home or to a repair shop and diagnose the issue. I know many strive to diagnose long distance, but get some eyes and hands on it to confirm before buying axles, CV joints and/or .....? If your garage is like mine, you'll be glad you won't have to store spare axles and CV joints.

Sherwood

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by MikeD94

So, don't sell it just because of minor problems!

Vincent is in the third stage of grieving - "Anger" Let him have his moment. He will be fine.

He ain't gonna sell that car.

He has one CV joint bunged up (fingers crossed). For circa $100, some stinking dirty hands and a Saturday afternoon he will have it back in action.

If he wants to just get it done in an hour on Friday night with plenty of time to go to the disco clubs, the pre-packaged axle is the way to go.

[DanielDudley]

Don't buy anything until you KNOW what the problem is.

At the end of the day, it is just a car, so figure out what is wrong, do the simple stuff first, and don't be afraid to park it when you need a break.

[Vincent Hill]

This place is like a Family! Some know you too well and others well enough! The worst part is Most of you were "Right"! Not an easy thing for me to say!

I towed it around to my back yard and a Friend of mine and I pushed it into the yard under the Car Port and Jacked it up and put it on serious stands so I can even turn sideways and not touch anything. As "John Walker" first said, the axle / CV Joint can break and everything stay in place. I could not imagine how until I watched my freind turn the right wheel and saw the shaft turning inside the Boot and the Boot not moving at all. Another reason to keep your Boots in excellent condition.

Since it was almost Midnight when I did this and my friend had just got off work I stopped right there.

"Mike D94" I also think you nailed it because the more I thought about it the more I am convinced that the Half Shaft had to take a lot of punishment when the Trailing Arm broke just to hold the wheel on in place not to mention the blow that broke the arm an damaged the wheel. When I cleaned everything and regreased them there is simply no way I could have seen an internal fracture of anything and this may just have sealed my one Fate.

"SHerwood" are those Google Photo's not able to see inside my house too?? For sure you must have seen my place and the hard decisions I am always making on what to throw out and what to keep! Saying that, I think the trunk of the Porsche can handle a spare CV Joint and Boot along with a tube of grease.

"Bob Kontak" I did not see your Psychiatry License and have to admit that NOW "This" was not the cars fault and more likely the Owner.

As Dudley suggested, NOW I can go about buying what I need and I am replacing Both Half Shafts with all new parts AND getting a spare.

Last, I am totally breathing now because the thought of going into the other Transmission then the out and back in of the engine and trans along with what else is on my plate was more than I cared to think about! Thank you everyone and I will take pics of the shaft when I have it out.

[Joe Bob]

Hope you like nasty grease.....dirty filthy job. Good luck.

Done it a few times. That's why I went with a total replacement package. Eric has the items for a VERY reasonable price. I think you should reconsider.

[john walker's workshop]

one of the few jobs where i put on rubber gloves.

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

one of the few jobs where i put on rubber gloves.

Somehow I am STILL not there "Yet". When finally finished, I use the De-Cholorinated Brake cleaner and then with the Orange Punice and then Colgate Green Dish soap and a serious hand Brush. It still takes a few more days before My hands are "CLEAN"! I have gloves and may try them but I "HAATEE" Gloves

Joe Bob, Even if it was a New Shaft I would STILL need to clean everything out and KNOW that everything was perfect inside. From more than 15 years of racing Motorcycles I Simply cannot trust ANYTHING!

Thanks again everyone

[Joe Bob]

My replacements have lasted 4 years of some pretty hard driving....good luck.