Lost power to the wheels

[SergioM42]

Driving on the hwy, 4-5 shift then suddenly lost all power to the wheels and engine is free revving in any gear. I had the car towed and raised it up to check the driveline.

Result: Diff is working ok, problem seems to be between transmission output flange and crankshaft. The shifter feels normal when rowing between all the gears, including reverse but again the car behaves like it's in neutral. I can put the car into any gear while idling or revving up without using the clutch. Clutch pedal feel is normal.

Any ideas what sort of fix I'm looking at?

Car info: 91 318i, oem dual mass flywheel and getrag240.

[TobyB]

How about the trans output flange itself? The nut can work loose, then the splines
get chewed up, and you lose drive. But it usually starts vibrating before that happens.

Catastrophic clutch failure is unusual, but can happen. Usually, again, with noises.

It'd take quite an internal failure for the box to just give up. Once again, noise...

huh.

t

[SergioM42]

Update:

Pulled trans off and was pleasantly surprised to see the clutch disc had failed instead of the trans. The clutch is a sachs unit, interesting it would break like this.