'77 El Camino 400 Trans Problem

[Quadrasteer]

My son is stuck at college, 6 hours from home with a trans problem. Loud noise at front of trans, sort of a whine with scraping. He removed the metal inspection pan (I was hoping that it was bent and rubbing on the flywheel) and says that the noise is definitely at the front. The noise goes away when it's put in gear. He was driving it with the noise but now when he puts it in gear, foward or rev, it dosen't move. Sometimes it goes in gear but not for long. I was thinking it might be a cracked flex plate, converter or front pump, any way of knowing for sure? The trans had synthetic fluid, and is still red and does not smell burnt. He checked for a stretched shift cable and shifted it from under the car but found no problem.

[snoman]

My son is stuck at college, 6 hours from home with a trans problem. Loud noise at front of trans, sort of a whine with scraping. He removed the metal inspection pan (I was hoping that it was bent and rubbing on the flywheel) and says that the noise is definitely at the front. The noise goes away when it's put in gear. He was driving it with the noise but now when he puts it in gear, foward or rev, it dosen't move. Sometimes it goes in gear but not for long. I was thinking it might be a cracked flex plate, converter or front pump, any way of knowing for sure? The trans had synthetic fluid, and is still red and does not smell burnt. He checked for a stretched shift cable and shifted it from under the car but found no problem.

 

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It is likely either the front pump or the torque converter needle bearings have gone bad. My first bet is the torque converter. In either case the longer you drive it the greater the chance of toasting the complete tranny. Tranny need to come out now.