01 2.3l RWD Manual M5OD

I was driving in a blizzard when the shifter bushing shattered. I lost all transmission of power to the wheels. Also it sounded like a giant eating metal. Then I got the burning toast smell.

In the Garage, I dropped the trans and cleaned out the shards of bushings, then checked the transmission out. I slid the collars over the synchronizers by hand and checked to see if the input shaft controlled the output, it did. then I reassembled it on the bench with the cover and the forks on, cycled through the gears and the shafts were in sync with each other and locked in movement when not in neutral. Also a visible inspection of the transmission appears to be near flawless. So I reasonably assumed I had fixed the issue. (Forgetting the toast)

Re mounted everything, despite the absence of the terrible noise from the shards and a new bushing, it was as if I had done nothing since the original incident. No transmission to the Tires in any gear.

I checked movement on the slave cylinder, it was good. I was ablle to depress the clutch, shift into gear and release without the engine stalling. EXCEPT 4th gear which caused a stall.

So I dropped the trans again, THis time I took a closer look at the clutch, expecting a flat burned away disc. To my eye it looks just fine.

Ive attached pics. PLEASE HELP!!!

I thought I knew the issue but Im wrong. Now Im lost.

The engine sounds perfect and has no issues reving

 

I assume clutch pedal felt the same, not easier to press down?
Although extremely rare, pressure plate can be locked back all the way so never clamps clutch disc to flywheel

When you turn input shaft manually in different gears the output shaft responds accordingly?

I don't see any obvious issues, the input shaft gear could strip leaving you with only 4th gear, because its direct drive, but fairly obvious when that happens

And drive shaft doesn't turn when "in gear" so its not a differential issue(ring and pinion)

 

Answered in quote

 

"accordingly", Output shaft rotation should change depending on what gear is selected, i.e. 4th is 1:1 ratio, 1st 3:1

If input shaft turns output shaft then transmission part is working

So either input shaft is not being turned by engine, or output shaft is not turning drive shaft, or driveshaft/pinion is not turning ring gear/axles

 

I feel like I remember times when it felt like it wanted to grab, then the sound of metal slipping on metal.

Also though isnt the toast smell a dead give away about the clutch?

Is there a way to diagnose the driveshaft or differential in the shop without operation?

 

it attempted to grab when I had everything mounted after cleaning out the bushing and with ne slave cylinder.

 

Makes me think something broke in transmission.