Names Nick. I have a 97 nt. I joined because I have a couple questions about my drivetrain. Mostly concerning my clutch, pressure plate, and bell housing.

About 2 months ago something inside my bell housing exploded (pretty sure it was the pressure plate) and now theres a giant gapeing all around the bell housing. Pieces of it shot pretty much everywhere (hit the hood, went through the fans, through the radiator and into the a/c compressor)...sucked pretty bad. Any ways, my questions are if I can just buy a bell housing separate from the tranny case? What do I all need to rebuild the components inside my bell housing? And I dont know if my tranny is ok or not.

Thanks alot.

Welcome.

I'd jump into the performance/engine section, which has sub-forums for the transmissions. Should be able to find some good info in there. In the meantime, I don't see any reason why the bellhousing would be different between auto/manual, but that might be a decision the guys at the salvage yard make for you. On the plus side, a transmission shouldn't cost much more than $200 or so, imo.

I had the flexplate-to-clutch bolts fail once at about 8000rpm. Turned the clutch and flexplate into sawblades, pretty much. Cut a nice hole into the transmission. Cast aluminum can be a bitch to weld, but it's possible. Should you end up rebuilding the transmission at all, you might consider picking up some safing braces for the diff and a new input shaft bearing. (Or was it output shaft? Meh. It's been four years or so...)

You're in the right place.