Transmission experts, I've got another noise puzzle for you.

The car is a 95 Talon esi, manual transmission.

I was coming home from work the other night and all of the sudden there was a loud bang sounding like I ran over something rather large. However, I had clear view of the road and know that there weren't any obstructions. Following this loud bang was a scraping sound that seemed to go in unison with the spinning of the wheels. Then, It certainly sounded like something became detached because there was a short clunkety clunk sounding off from the undercarraige.
I pulled over to the side of the road and instantly noticed that the front wheels weren't recieving any power. I pushed my car the 50 yards or so remaining to my house.

Upon examination, I found transmission fluid leaking all over the place. I wen't back to the scene of catastrophe and couldn't find whatever it was that fell off.

I then took my car down to a neighboring service garage and the mechanic said it was either the clutch or transmission and not a broken axle. He can't get it in to drop the transmission for a couple of weeks along with any other reputable mechanic in the area.

Here's the details..

The shifter operates normally and can be put into gear without any extra force, however, when you let out the clutch it makes this medium soft grinding/rattling noise sounding like either gears slightly grinding or parts rattling in the bottom of the transfer case and won't budge. When pressing on the accelerator in any gear, the rattling or grinding noise gets louder. When you push the clutch pedal back in, it goes away.

If any of you chaps think you might have an idea of what the culprit may be and whether or not this can be resolved without a transmission swap, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Could be the throwout bearing.

Not the TOB. Car doesn't move. From your description, all of it seems to point to differential. Gotta pull her and take a look.

You can look around in the mean time and see where all the tranny fluid is coming from. You might just find a hole.

Captain Caveman

96 RS Turbo 11.414 @ 119.62 MSNS, Crower 2 NA cams, BW366, 10.5 comp, UDP, 60mm TB, W/A intercooler, 3.55 tranny 567.9whp 430tq
97 RS NA 13.188 @ 103.87 MSnS powered 12.5 comp, Crower 3's and 219.4whp with 175tq
98 RS DD 12.5 comp on stock ECU, LTH, Crower 2's, Koni, GC, Hypercoil, DG hats
99 OZ 5sp Stocker 15.856 @ 85.97
99 GS stocker auto 17.7@77mph!

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It certainly makes a lot of sense that it would be the differential. I was quite puzzled when the clutch seemed fine and I could put it into gear with ease and still no power to the wheels.

I'm guessing that loud bang I heard was either a gear slipping or dissintegrating and the grinding thats going on now is from the differential gears slipping against each other.