The A will not move
 

Working on a club members coupe. He backed the car out of the garage and put in it first gear, let out the clutch and nothing happened. I removed the floor boards and look in the inspection cover to confirm the clutch was working. Depressing the pedal you can see the through out bearing contacting the fingers on the pressure plate and working as it should. Next I removed the tower from the transmission. With the car running when I release the clutch the input shaft in the tranny turns. I next removed the top have of the clam shell that covers the u joint. visibility is limited there is only a small hole that I could look in to. It appears the joint is turning but with the rear wheels off the ground there is not movement. I next pulled both brake drums thinking he broke a axel key. Both keys are in tact and in contact with the drums, however with the drums off the axel will not turn. Is there enough room inside the clam shell for the unit to come apart? And am I correct that to remove the clam shell for inspection we need to remove the rear end, or motor. Is it possible for the bolt to come out and the shaft to separate? Any help is appreciated. We plan to look into this more deeply on this Thursday.


thank for all your responses.


bob

Re: The A will not move
 

First,don't run that car with the shift tower removed.At the least it will sling a ring of gear oil around the inside of the car.I saw it happen on a coupe,it got the door panels,seat,headliner,the complete inside.They tried to have it cleaned,but in the end the interior had to be replaced.The way those gears are tipped to the rear if it is run without the forks holding them,they can drift rearward and everything locks up.Some call it getting in two gears at once.

Re: The A will not move
 

Don’t go taking things apart. It’s probably your gears are in the wrong place. Put car in third, move the gears around until you can push it. That will clear the rear end.

Re: The A will not move
 

Does the car have an overdrive? If so, check to see if the shift lever is in neutral.


Tom Endy

Re: The A will not move
 

no over drive. Also the trans was low but not empty on oil. I was carful to just let the clutch out enough to begin the movement of the gear's. This is a new car to this member. It was just purchased at the end of last season. We as the club are still in the process of helping him iron out all the kinks.


There is a problem with the shift tower in that the gear shift touches the dash when you select reverse or second. You can see a definite bend in the lever. That was my first though in that it was in between to gears. I took over an extra tower I have just to check that. When the two slider gears ( the one's the forks go into) are in neutral the trans is in neutral correct? If not what do I need to do. Also we had the trans with shift tower installed in neutral and pushed the car back into the garage. It rolls free and easy.

Re: The A will not move
 

If the universal joint was spinning , it would seem that the problem would have to be the backend . if the universal joint spins , so would the driveshaft and so on . I once had all the rivets that hold the hub of the clutch disk in place to all strip out, it would crank and run but when I let off the clutch it wouldn't move but would still rev up as usual in gear . I first figured that it was a stripped axle key . I checked and the axle keys and hubs were fine . I went ahead and removed the backend and transmission and discovered that the rivets in the clutch hub had all stripped out . This was the first and only time that anything like that had ever happened for me . A friend at work asked me if it would climb radio station hill . I said that it would do better than that. Wayne and I got in the coupe and headed for the hill . Radio station hill is VERY STEEP . We climbed nearly to the top and I stopped the coupe . I said how about that ? Wayne said what are you doing with a frightened look . I put her in first gear and took off to the top of the hill . The next morning going to work , when I stopped at the last intersection before I got to the shop , that was as far as it would go under its own power . It was like it was out of gear . I didn't have to walk very far to reach the shop where we got the wrecker and went after my model A . I've learned better since .

Re: The A will not move
 

When the car is in gear is the speedometer working. If so, I would say problem is in the back of car.

Re: The A will not move
 

Purdy, when that happened to you do you check to see if the trans was turning? My though is if the rivets all were stripped the friction material would not connect with the pressure plate.


I did not check to see if the Speedo was turning. Good thought!

Re: The A will not move
 

Um. Speedometer and driveshaft work together. If the speedometer shows forward motion and the hubs up on jacks are stationary, I guess you could say the problem is to the rear of the driveshaft.

Transmission is in neutral when the two "forks" of the left/right gear shifters are matched together and "midway." They might be matched with gear three engaged and gear one engaged (or conversely reverse engaged and gear two engaged.)

Joe K

Re: The A will not move
 

The friction material or clutch lining stayed in contact with the pressure plate . The clutch lining rivets were all still in place . the metal flange that rivets to the center of the clutch disk had all of its rivets stripped off .This is the part that the splined end of the transmission main drive slips into . The transmission wasn't turning because it no longer had real contact to the clutch disk .

Re: The A will not move
 

Stripped pinion gear?

Re: The A will not move
 

If riveted style universal joint, it could have come apart.

Re: The A will not move
 

Take the fill plug out of the rear. On jack stands put the car in gear and see if you can see oil moving or the ring gear move in the rear. I had a drive shaft brake once. I had movement at the speedometer but no movement at the rear. Could only be one thing. Broken drive shaft. When I got it apart that was what it was.

Re: The A will not move
 

Joe K


If the two other gears are engaged even though the shift forks indicate the trans is in neutral wouldn't the car stall when the clutch is released?
Also there was not bang or noise when he shifted from reverse to first. Remember he backed the car out of the garage, shifted gears and no forward motion, also no rear motion. It's like something came apart! but what?

Re: The A will not move
 

If the driveshaft is turning which is easily confirmed by noise and vibration you can also pull the filler plug in the rear end to see if the ring gear is turning. If so and the car is not moving you have a broken axle. If the axle was working a break spot it could have hung on and not taken much to have snapped at that point. If that is the case he is extremely lucky.

Check the Above and report back.
Larry shepard

Re: The A will not move
 

Will it work in third?

Re: The A will not move
 

I think you have a sheared key way on the rear axel. Ed

Re: The A will not move
 

Bingo!

Re: The A will not move
 

Post #1 says keys are good........................
Paul in CT

Re: The A will not move
 

pull your speedo drive off the torque tube put the trans in gear let out the clutch and look up in the speedo drive hole and see if the drive shaft is turning if it is turning then your U joint is good. sound like it is in the rear end.