A413 Carnage!! Figure this one out.....???

[R/T]

The subject:

1988 A413, Wife's daily driver Lebaron GTS T1 car, 33,000 on a trans rebuild. Never beat on.

I was driving it on the express way, 70MPH or so when suddenly it was like I stood on the brakes, front end takes a seroius dive, then KLANKKLANKKLANKKLANK!!

Pulled over, called AAA, had it towed home...

After dissassembly, here's what I found:

The cast iron overrunning clutch basket is in 15 pieces, the 4 rivets holding it to the "race" are sheared off, the 6 tabs on the planetary are gone, the steel basket looks like someone beat it with a hammer...??

WTF???

All the parts are packed in there so tight, how could someting come apart??

The trans was having some issues before the explosion, but dammmm!!

[wallace]

looks like the clutch got pretty hot. what were the issues you were having with the tranny?

[RoadWarrior222]

The marzell vanes starved the cardinal grammeters? ...



... kidding, I have next to no idea... unless you had some funky incompatibility between clutches and fluid you were running and they swelled up finally and assploded it.... or got some sort of pressure lock in the return line and it built 2000 PSI...

[Reaper1]

The band that clamps the outside of the overrunning clutch looks like it was slipping big time! I wonder what that band looks like, and what the apply piston and seals look like? I bet something was out of whack and it overheated the clutch drum and it got brittle, the stress of the torque in 1st gear fractured it from being too brittle, and the rpm made it let loose from cetripital force.

[R/T]

looks like the clutch got pretty hot. what were the issues you were having with the tranny?

Main issue was slippage in reverse, I knew it was on it's way out, tried to baby it...

[turbovanman²]

Either the band was worn metal to metal, it was adjusted too tight or the band wouldn't release and basically weld itself to the drum. The band only comes on in reverse and manual 1st.

[R/T]

Either the band was worn metal to metal, it was adjusted too tight or the band wouldn't release and basically weld itself to the drum. The band only comes on in reverse and manual 1st.

Band was fine for 33,000 miles before this happened. Trans was rebuilt in 2010.

[turbovanman²]

Band was fine for 33,000 miles before this happened. Trans was rebuilt in 2010.

It could have been too tight or something wigged out in the vb and let it drag. Its also possible the rebuilder, unless it was you, didn't replace the band and said they did.

[RoadWarrior222]

Then it's still fine, this is all just your overactive imagination...


Orrrr, it wasn't fine for 33,000 but scrubbing away the friction coz it was set too tight or had release issues, got to the metal, which slipped in reverse, and finally went out in a blaze of glory.

[zin]

Well, if you're going to do it, do it well, and you did just that!

Funny how, even how even stock parts can turn into automotive gore given the right circumstances!

A good engineer is said to first design his project to "fail gracefully", as all things engineered will eventually fail, and that it should do so "gracefully".... Looks like that wasn't part of this equation, unless this is it and a less graceful failure would have resulted in a huge, all consuming fire ball!...

Mike

[Reaper1]

Well, if you're going to do it, do it well, and you did just that!

Funny how, even how even stock parts can turn into automotive gore given the right circumstances!

A good engineer is said to first design his project to "fail gracefully", as all things engineered will eventually fail, and that it should do so "gracefully".... Looks like that wasn't part of this equation, unless this is it and a less graceful failure would have resulted in a huge, all consuming fire ball!...

Mike

That was graceful!! It was still contained in the case!

[R/T]

That was graceful!! It was still contained in the case!

Yea, I was expecting a ventilated caes after that!!!

[bakes]

The roller/ springs in the Over run clutch failed it locked and BOOM the rest is aftermath. see this twice .

[wallace]

I can see that being the case. When I rebuilt mine most of the springs that retain the rollers were broken. Wonder if the guy who rebuilt your trans reused them?

[R/T]

I can see that being the case. When I rebuilt mine most of the springs that retain the rollers were broken. Wonder if the guy who rebuilt your trans reused them?

I did the rebuild, all springs were OK. At least then....!

[Reaper1]

I still don't think the overrunning clutch internal components were the root cause of the failure. The heat marks on the outside of the drum are more indicative to what happened and investigation into what caused that I believe will result in finding the actual cause. The inherant operation of the overrunning clutch, I'm fairly sure is what did the part in, but it isn't what made it fail.

[RoadWarrior222]

Well the scientific explanation is that he obviously forgot to leave out a fifth of rye on St Murphy's eve and thus got a visit from the f@ckup fairy.

[Reaper1]

LMAO!!