Five Speeds of Neutral

During today's autocross, while accelerating away from a slalom, I heard a snap / crack and I lost power to the wheels. Now I have all neutral all the time. I hope I didn't snap my Quaife, Drive axles look ok. What else could it be?

Something bad. It's coming apart, just do it.

I hope it is not he Quaife. They are out of production ($1300 when you can find them). The MP unit (also Quaife) is almost $1800. I don't want a Phnatom Grip. The only thing left is OBX, but I have no idea whether or not they are any good.

whats the car?

guessing that it is a FWD. Sounds like it is time to take it apart and see what you got. Have another car to drive for a while?

the car is a 1999 Neon DOHC 5-speed coupe. It is not a street car at all. It is my dedicated FSP autocross car.

If I remember right the neon diff had a problem with a pin sliding out and eating other parts, but not sure if that can happen with an aftermarket diff or not.

either way, time to open it up

Towing it up to my friendly neighborhood transmission guy. I spent extra on the Quaife for the perceived quality. I am going to be pissed if it failed. I was coming off something more like a series of offsets rather than a true slalom. I was (I'm guessing) at around 35 mph and stood on the gas and she just let go.

input shaft or the shaft that drives the Quaife or it could simply have been a driveline.

BTW, the Quaife should be warrantied for life, unlike the OBX knock-off (though I've heard they work fine once assembled properly)

Is it warranteed even if it fails while racing?

I haven't ever heard of a quaife failing.

I would want to be sure it wasn't one of the axles, under one of the boots perhaps?

Don't think so. When I put the car in gear and let off the clutch the car goes nowhere, can be pushed freely and it sounds like marbles in the transmission. If one drive axle broker the Quaife should direct power to the good wheel.

If it is the Quaife, it is warranteed even for racing.

Moparman wrote: Don't think so. When I put the car in gear and let off the clutch the car goes nowhere, can be pushed freely and it sounds like marbles in the transmission. If one drive axle broker the Quaife should direct power to the good wheel. If it is the Quaife, it is warranteed even for racing.

The Quaife is a torque-biasing differential. If one side is broken, it acts like an open diff.

Yup, that is they don't work as well for rallying.

But a broken tripod would have 6 or 8 ball bearings that could rattle around in the boot, etc.

Besides, neons are known to blow axles on hard launch with slicks. If no fluid came out then you likely popped a CV joint. Typically an internal failure that would cause a lack of drive would also split the case open and make a mess on the ground.

No fluid. I had the happen when I grenaded a diff on a modified 3.0 Dodge Spirit. Don't ask.

Broke the axle at the drivers side wheel. Confirmed when I had it on the lif this morning. Need advice on how to fix and what parts should I use?

I almost suggested a broken axle/CV - I had that happen on my old Jetta at a rallyx & had the same result...but you said you have a Quaife, wouldn't you still have had drive to the other wheel, or do those need some load on both wheels to work?

quaife needs load on one wheel to direct power to the other

I haven't check the aftermarket for a while, I used an OEM axle from a dealer when I broke mine. Junkyard axle will probably work too. Rebuilts may not be an option because your core is probably no good. You may have a broken motor mount or bobble strut, the the engine/trans angle changes too much and the CV joint binds up, that's usually the failure. I seem to remember something about a PT Cruiser/Dodge Stratus swap but that might be for the 2nd gen Neon.

Motor mount and bobble strut look ok. No excessive movment that I can see.

Could be the clutch. I know it's unlikely that it would break while it was already engaged but when I shattered the clutch in my A2 gti I had 5 speeds of neutral as well. The spring holders were all sheared off so the inner plate just spun freely.

And yes a torque biasing diff will act like an open diff if one wheel has zero grip. Since it multiplys torque from the side with the least grip to the side with most, if you have zero torque on one side then you still have zero on the other.

Just change the axle as per the FSM.

Loosen the wheel, jack the car up, brace the axle with a screwdriver through a slot in the brake rotor and remove the axle nut.

place a drain pan under the transaxle and inboard CV joint.

remove the lower pinch bolt for the balljoint, leverage the control arm away from the upright and remove the axle.

Replace the axle and reinstall using the proper torque specs.

Keep in mind that on the older TD's the driver's side axle had to be shortened on the inboard spline by about 1/4" when used with the Quaife units.

Since the Neon's are essentially the same transaxle in a slightly different case, I'd be concerned that this would be the case for you as well. So make note of the inboard spline compared to the new one and modify to match.

In reply to fiat22turbo:

Hmm I don't recall that we had to shorten the axle to fit the Quaife before. I wil ass Chris at RedShift as his job did the actual install.

Moparman wrote: Motor mount and bobble strut look ok. No excessive movment that I can see.

You wont know til you put real torque on them. Are they OEM? Any inserts?

New OEM mounts an the MP bobble struts. All put in in 2005. Less than 500 miles on them as the car has only been autocrossed since installed.