Technical No drive, fault finding

[Mr Wild]

I lost drive on my Punto on Friday night after its seen me good to over 100k miles.

Clutch is overdue, but I don't think it's the culprit. I need some advice on fault finding as I really don't fancy pulling it apart needlessly in this weather.

I gather if it's a CV or the diff, if I put it in gear and give it the beans I'd expect the speedo to rise which would indicate the clutch and gearbox itself isn't at fault.

I get a rumbling noise in neutral, which goes away when the clutch pedal is depressed or the car is placed into gear, but this makes me believe the clutch is not at fault. The porthole on the bell housing is almost useless for inspection.

My driveshafts aren't turning when in gear with both wheels on the ground. It could still be an inner cv. This will be my first port of call tomorrow when I start taking it apart as I gather the spiders are prone to failure, and the transmission suddenly went when I was on full lock.

Any other tips to identify the root cause prior to my stripping it down.

 

[Ziggy122]

be cheaky and play it safe

jack the car up - Put it in gear and see if the wheels spin

if 1 only 1 spins - Gently slow it down with your hands, the other wheel should spin up
if it doesn't the differential isn't distrobuting the power and probably had died

i had a Diff blow up on me, it veered sharply to one side - jammed = Stalled and due to the motion - free'd up and i coasted back to where i normally park - only to find a rotten smell and my gearbox fluid now leaking everywhere over the road.....

Ziggy

 

[dave]

have you done 100k miles on the same clutch?

*if you have abs you speed is read from a hub, not gearbox

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I don't see how you can rule out the clutch.

 

[Mr Wild]

Clutch was last swapped at 39k. So is due to be replaced.

Put the car up today, put it in gear and the wheels span, seemed to be working normally as couldn't stop both sides by hand, wobbled the left wheel and suddenly the drive went completely on both sides, tried rocking the wheel back and forth but can't get the drive to engage again.

Took off both drive shafts, nothing wrong with the spiders and their bearings. Took all the bits off the gearbox and roped up the engine ready to drop the gearbox off at some point this week.

Can hear a whistling/ticking noise coming from the bell housing. Ordering a few bits so I have them ready for the weekend, fingers crossed the weather stays relatively warm.

 

[Ziggy122]

So there was drive when there was no load (wheels in air)

When you wiggled and applied pressure - it stopped and wouldnt come back again

to me it sounds a sure fire thing like the meshing or a tooth is missing somewhere allowing the drive to stop when it hits a certain point

Ziggy