2K2CamaroSS

iTrader: (18)

Alright story time
(Note all pics were taken as the parts were found without any modification. Also bigger pics can be found here!
http://home.comcast.net/~camaro2002s...Fun/index.html )

K, so I finally get the car together to a 'close to stock' state, and wanted to drive it around for the summer. Ultimately trading/selling it at some point next year. I had a friend put a stock tune on it so I could just get emissions out of the way and then tune for the heads, cam, and airlid at a later point to maximize what potential was still there.

So Friday the 2nd was the day to get it all tuned up . Got it strapped onto the dyno and hammered out the first run up to 6000ish rpms. Run went smooth. So 2nd run was going to be just another baseline pull as well. this time brought it up to about 6150/6200 rpms, disengaged the clutch, positioned the shifter into the neutral posistion, decel began, and then the fun started. Something made a quick BANG! and the whole car started to vibrate rather violently (If I were to ever go to a hotel with a vibrating bed I can imagine it would feel something like I felt), the shifter was bouncing all over the place, and there was some smoke that decided to show up as well. Took a quick glance underneath the car and saw the pool of fluid.


Pushed it off the rollers and found the tq arm just laying on the ground, along with tranny fluid, shifter boot cover, and some metal shards.



Then just had it towed. Obviously the end of the dyno session for me, lol. So I didn't get any tuning done, although my baseline pull was 358hp


Had some time to get a better look at the carnage yesturday. Here are my findings.
-The edelbroke (as Curtis put it, haha) TQ arm broke in two places by the rear diff



-I previously thought the drive shaft was bent, but it looks like it didn't bend/twist(probably was just the angle I had when looking at it previously). The front of the drive shaft is however completely seperated from the yolk. The drive shaft loop served its purpose . Note the Y-pipe hanger bracket and how it was bent down..crazy!





-Rear end appears to be okay as well, no noise when rotating the wheels. I'll probably pull the diff cover to take a look anyway (been needing to change the fluid as well).
-The shifter could be easily moved around without catching any gear, turns out that the bottom shifter ball was dislodged from the square thingy (sorry don't know what thats called, haha).
-Tail shaft housing of the transmission is cracked in 2 different places that I can see. The top portion near the shifter plate is nearly seperated from the rest of the transmission, and there's a large crack at the bottom.





-Not sure if there is any more damage waiting for me at the engine or not. Haven't started it up since the incedent.

I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Any insight would be great. There were three points of failure (that I know of)..which one went first?

Anyone have a stock T56 M6 tranny layin around they'd like to get rid of?

Brian

socmguy

iTrader: (18)

WTH? Never seen anything like that before.

FMX05

iTrader: (3)

Now THAT is a catastrophic failure. First I have seen myself as well.

jinusow

Well, I can guess as what happened. The yoke broke first, driveshaft now is banging the sheetmetal up causing the weird vibration, the torque arm brakes from the driveshaft being loose and putting stress on the rearend. transmission starts leaking from the broken tailshaft causing the fluid to spill and burning on the exhaust.

wrencher

iTrader: (2)

I broke a torque arm at the track before.
Launching 5500 w/ a 2 step on slicks.Mine the torque arm broke & bound up the drivetrain on the launch. It broke the drive yoke for the pinion.It twisted the input yoke for the driveshaft also. The output shaft twisted as well & the VSS reluctor inside the trans exploded. All that & 2 universals, all was well again.
Went with a alston torque arm this go around, has been a great addition since.

CranMaro99

iTrader: (10)

Then the lesser amount of fluid caused the tranny to blow and crack in that amount of time?

Dayum, never seen that before.

01FbTaWs6

iTrader: (12)

I bet the front yoke broke, nailed the tq arm which broke the tail shaft housing, then from the bind on the read broke the tq arm. Either way, pretty crazy man!

hellbents10

iTrader: (10)

I would place my bets that it started with the driveshaft, yolk, u-joint.

davered00ss

iTrader: (4)

I thought someone put it in gear instead of Neutral. Let out the clutch & boom.

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

We had something similar happen on my brothers Small Block S10 with a th350 though. We were doing some tuning and took it down the road to get some heat in the motor, stopped, took off hard, shifted into 2nd and BAM, clink clink, then lots of smoke. He didn't have a drive shaft loop, but nothing happened thank god because of the shaft. But we climbed under the truck and the tranny was laying in there crooked and all broken. Total carnage was split bellhousing (came out in 4 or 5 pieces), broken yoke, bent drive shaft, alone with some other things I'm sure, it was about 3 years ago.

But in your case are you sure that you didn't put it into 1st gear or something? I know its a stupid question, but it happens. I don't see how the TA would break from the yoke breaking since theres a loop. Did the tranny ever give you any issues before?

Sorry to hear about the tranny and car man, that deffinately sucks but your car looks badass from the pics

2K2CamaroSS

iTrader: (18)

Guess it's pure speculation on how it actually happened, but thanks for the really good insight on what could have happened!!

I am positive the tranny was in neutral as the shifter was easily movable from side to side. I didn't even engage the clutch prior to all the action. I just put this tranny in a couple weeks ago and gave it some street time/experience to determine if there was anything wrong with it. Tranny felt good in my opinion.

67rsss

iTrader: (4)

Sorry about the car, but am glad to hear that you are fine! Parts can be replaced.

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

That really sucks man, and I wasn't saying that you put it in gear but that could explain why it may have happened. It might end up being one of those things that you don't end up figuring out why. But I'll tell you one thing, I'm glad I didn't order the Edelbrock TA that thing looks weak, my Spohn looks like twice the TA as that.

Again sorry about the car man, what aare you planning on doing?

2K2CamaroSS

iTrader: (18)

yeah I don't think I would reccomend the edelbrock TA to anyone.

As of right now, I plan on pulling the tranny this weekend to see what more damage I might be lookin at. If there is no damage to the motor, I'll just fix/replace everything.

ringram

+1 on that.

I dropped a driveshaft on mine and it gave the tunnel a good hammering.

Its likely it also hammered the end of the trans on yours.

SPEEDYws6

iTrader: (9)

I'll put money on the torque arm causing all that. The torque arm was in a bind from not having pinion angle adjustments on top and bottom. Being strapped down to a dyno probably didn't help it out (straps pulling on the rear end straight back). the torque arm broke, which caused the rear end to shift backwards (way + pinion angle). That put stress on the u-joints, drive shaft, and tail shaft. Causing the cracked tail shaft housing and blown u-joints.

linegtdt52

iTrader: (12)

I think speedy is right which is also why i suggest and BMR relocation tranny mount and that probably wouldnt have happened

davered00ss

iTrader: (4)

Really nice looking car though.

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

Hard to tell but I'm thinking the pinion angle was way off causing a vibration.Then at the high speed of the dyno pull the vibration broke the front yoke,locked the tranny and did the damage. Just a guess.

hellbents10

iTrader: (10)

I highly doubt the torque arm started the damage train. It was drive shaft related, more then likely pinion angle just as Slowhawk said.