Possible clutch problem or ???
 

I guess the honeymoon is over with the '87 turbo. I'm driving down the highway around 60 mph and downshift, then the car pops out of gear, goes into neutral and I cannot get it back in gear. If I shift out of neutral into any gear there is a horrible grinding sound which subsides when I push down on the clutch pedal. Clutch has pressure and feels normal.The noise sounds like it is coming from the clutch area right below the shifter. Sound familiar to anyone?:(

clutch
 

Can you peek in there through the inspection port or remove the starter to have a look? "horrible grinding" sound doesn't sound real good though. Does the clutch still transfer power?

Hi, could the grinding be coming from your transaxle?

So far, I had the car towed back to my place, couldn't get it in the garage by myself. It's up on jack stands and it snowed four inches last night. Anyway, I'm going to crawl under there this morning and take a look. It seems like the clutch is working, it just won't go into gear, the shifter seems a bit loose. Also, it was hard sometimes to get it in reverse. So I'm hoping it's some kind of linkage problem. Noise is definitely not coming from transaxle. This happened all at once, like a bolt fell out or something.

Steve,
Pull up the leather shift boot and check if the clip at the end of the shaft is there. If it is check for left to right movement on the shift lever. If it feels too sloppy you may have the "hourglass" shift pin that can be fixed or replace the shift lever.

Just a thought.

John_AZ

I have checked the shift lever and it is working ok. If I put the car in 1st gear( or any other gear), I can still turn the rear wheels by hand, as if someone was depressing the clutch pedal. When the motor is running, I have to depress the clutch pedal or the grinding noise starts, even in neutral. When this first happened, I could put the car in neutral, release the clutch and there was no noise. Now it does it whenever the clutch is released, regardless of the shifter position. Sounds like the flywheel is rubbing against something, but it stops turning when the clutch is depressed.

Throwout bearing bit the dust it sounds like to me.

thrown out bearing
 

It IS sounding like a throwout bearing. Is the sound a kind of "howling" ? Or is it like marbles spinning inside a steel can? In either event, I think it is safe to say that it may be time to drop the EX, transmission, TT, and take a look at what is behind that bell housing. A peek up the starter hole or the inspection port with a mirror on a stick might give you some information. But at this point you are in for the long haul clutch job WYAIT. How old is (was?) the clutch? Clutch job on a turbo 944....:( Sorry to hear about it buddy.

Good news...I think.... I was totally wrong, the noise is coming from the rear. Hard to tell unless you've got another person outside. I put the car in gear and let the clutch out and it started to move forward and then slipped out again. Something is turning but not engaging the rear wheels. The CV axle on the driver's side has some play in the shaft side to side, the other side seems OK. Weather's too bad to do anything else today, tomorrow I'll pull the axles off and see what happens. Hope that's what it is. Thanks all!

K then
 

check the transmission linkage on the top of the TX. The CV's loosen up a lot on these things. Go under with a 6mm hex and see if they are all tight. Glad to hear that the noise is moving to a less expensive neighborhood.;)