I have a sandrail, 1776 turbo with a swingaxle. The swingaxle has been acting
up a bit this year, being difficult to put into reverse (usually it takes a
brisk throw of the shifter, plus holding it in place, and eventually it still
pops out of reverse). It's also had a few instances of popping out of first,
and once today it popped out of second. I've been kinda ignoring the problem.

Then all of a sudden today while curising down the beach there was a clunk
and it lost all gears. The shifter 'feels' like it is shifting correctly, but
I get a grinding/vibration noise that sounds like it's coming from the left
side of the case and almost no power to the wheels. It's the same in all four
gears. There is a little bit of power still being transmitted to the wheels,
perhaps enough to move it on pavement or level sand. It had to be towed in.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I'm wondering where the problem lies
(i'll probably know when I dig into it). The 'popping out of gear' issues
sound like the gear carrier and shifter, but the fact that it
catastrophically lost all gears at once makes me think something went wrong
with a common part, like the the differential.

Finally, is there any chance (before I tear the thing out, which is always a
pain with a swingaxle) that it's a shifter issue? I'm under the assumption
that a misaligned/misadjusted shifter usually only affects a gear or two, and
wouldn't normally cause the loss of all gears. Is there anything I can tell
by removing the nosecone without having to tear into the guts of the
transaxle itself? My sole experience with transaxles has been in the
differential area; I've never worked with the gear carrier or nosecone.

Thanks,
Scott

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