Delboy45

Hi, forgive me if any of this is academic - I'm fairly new to this game but a fairly competent mechanic and avid tinkerer! My year-old DST recently suffered a pretty spectacular front end impact, bending chassis plate, wrecking lower arms, smashing fuel tank, banana-ing front driveshaft etc. Anyway, all parts replaced with new and transfered onto new chassis plate, painstakingly put back the mirror image of where everything was before.

Engine, as always, was up like a good un - started about 3rd pull BUT! Gearbox failing to engage. Engine appears all as was but some visible tooth grind to center diff main cog on 2-3 teeth but has more than enough to grip. It IS mating with main drive gear from engine but neither is turning, even at top end of throttle. Hasten to add that I shut all down immediately after discerning the issue. I'm not all that familiar with how the "clutch" works in these cars - any advice would be gratefully recieved.

Mark _australia

iTrader: (2)

The clutch is basically 3 or 4 litle 'shoes' that fly outwards with centrifigal force as revs rise, so they hit the inside of the clutch bell.
Really very simple.

Pull it off and if there is a probelm in there it will be easy to diagnose.

beidle99

iTrader: (9)

Is the front diff in the correct way? If its flipped your front wheels will be pushing the car in reverse while the rear diff will be pushing the car forward.

j_blaze14

iTrader: (34)

[QUOTE=beidle99;9368310]Is the front diff in the correct way? If its flipped your front wheels will be pushing the car in reverse while the rear diff will be pushing the car forward.[/QUOTE

+2

Delboy45

Thanks guys, your posts are most welcome. In a strange way, they led me to put the car down for an hour and think it out. Another symptom I remembered was that when it revved high, it felt like it was gonna stall - leading me to believe that something was impeding movement.

Cup of coffee later...had a real up close inspection underside with a trouble light and revealed that the main central diff wheel was juuussstt fouling the edge of the cutout in the chassis plate! Doesn't take much to stop that sucker going round! DST back to roaring happy and looking forward to a burn later today.

Re: that main gear - any chance those 2-3 rough notches are going to give me trouble? Was thinking maybe ordering a replacement as a pre-emptive move...