One wheel up 5sp trany question, differential gear issue?

Got a question about the diffrential/ trany (5sp),

I had one wheel up in the air last week (front of course) and noticed that when I spun the wheel I could feel the gears of the trany or differential quite clearly as I rotated it. Almost as if I could feel each tooth as it meshed. I don't remember feeling that on other aspires but maybe my memory is just slipping. Is it normal? it was a very distinct but light thunk thunk thunk as it turned. Didn't seem to be the cv either. This car seems to have a broken engine mount too but maybe its not the engine mount, maybe its something in the trany trying to give me a warning???

I am still in the fix an repair stage with this egg on items like this and the engine mounts.

Actually this summer when I had to change out the flywheel (yea that's right i had to have the flywheel changed cuz it broke, can you believe that?) the guys who did the work at the junk yard put regular 80-90 gear oil in the trany. I caught it right away (0 miles) but they said thats what was in it. Couldnt tell if it was CYA on their part or the truth but maybe it had gear oil in it instead of AT fluid.

any thoughts?

So the other drive wheel was still on the ground then? I suppose you might have felt the meshing, but it might have been the meshing of loosening cv joints too, did you think of that. What choice do you even have at this point? You don't want to pull the trans just to take a look right? Even if you did that, then what, you've got no good spare diff to substitute the possible bad one with. If you started looking right now, you might be able to find someone with a spare good diff for the future, but I kinda doubt that. The next best thing would be to stockpile a replacement trans!? I had a line on a trans, and I know how you like your eggs, but I haven't heard back from that guy. He was supposed to pull it from his car and then call me back.
I just called a guy in Colorado (dsm's only) to get some spare trans parts for a DSM project car we're preping for ice racing.


We wanted a spare diff for it just to weld up into a locker.
This guys sells me a good diff with all the spider gears and good bearings for $20!
Yeah, that's what I said...and he seems to have plenty more of them.

$20 bucks for a spare diff in an egg would be great! Like you said though I dont think its gona happen.

I have had some real poor incidents happen with this car since I've owned it & I am beginning to think its jinxed.

I am not normally one to go for that sort of thing but sometimes the coincidences are hard to ignore. Its really getting that way with this car and there is evidence that its not a new thing to the car either. Not to go into it in boring detail, the recent events have included TWO accidents in the month of October. Its all smashed up right now and I am thinking maybe just sell it as is and find another. The answer to this trany issue would be the clincher.

The other wheel was down as you guessed. I don't think the cv's are going out because there is no sign at all of clunking in turns what so ever. There is a major klunk like a bad motor mount though. It occurs when power is transferred to the wheels from a situation where it was not. My fear is that its not the mount but lash in the drive train instead. Feeling the meshing or lack of smooth meshing of the gears really drove the fear home with me.

As for options, I do have a line on a trany if I need it but its in the trunk of a car. It is a lot of work to get it where it would need to be not to mention the dollars involved to get it there. Id just as soon get a new car and let someone else mess with it. Its just not worth it to me.

This car is nice cosmetically and I love it for that reason but that's about all I can say good about it. In comparison to other eggs I've owned this one scares me even if the mileage is low.

Guess I will jack up Ziggy and see if it feels like Kermit did. I have to make a trip to get to Ziggy. Its stored in a garage in a different town.