I'm looking at towing a 350 4 speed car about 500 miles and it is 1/2 as expensive to use a dolly as a trailer for 1 way drop off. Can you safely tow a muncie in neutral or do I really need to pop the drive shaft as U-haul suggests? When I drove a tow truck 30 years ago, we used to pop 4x4s and manuals into neutral and hauled them with no issues. Automatics we picked up most of the time from the back and locked the steering wheel with a strap. If I do have to drop the drive shaft, is it better to remove it completely or strap it up between the mufflers?
I don't see the problem putting a manual trans car on a tow dolly in neutral and going down the road. There's nothing that's not going to get lubricated doing it that way as you're going down the road.
I was pretty sure a muncie wouldn't be hurt since it has no pumps or anything. I don't plan on removing the drive shaft. Thanks for the feedback.
i worked for a towing company for 12 years we always pulled the drive shafts or towed them backward and tied the steering wheels straight. we had a few drivers be lazy and not pull the shafts and burn the rear bearing out of a few. they were 5 speeds i guess since the input shaft wasn't slinging oil around. id be safe and pull the shaft
For that distance, pull the driveshaft and plug the end of the trans. The trans internals are lubricated by oil splashed up by the cluster gear..... which is driven by the input shaft.... which only turns when the engine is turning the trans. Cluster gear won't turn and lube everything if it's in neutral and being towed.
yeah if the cluster gear isn't turning you will burn it up. For as long as it takes you would be foolish not to..
I've been told by folks I really trust on these things that the counter shaft isn't turning in neutral and so the rear bearings aren't getting greased, so pull the drive shaft.
I stand corrected. Sounds like lubrication requires the engine to be running, like most modern day cars. Pull the shaft. It's only four bolts. You can get a cap for the trans from any trans shop I would imagine for next to nothing.
I know this would be maybe a once in a lifetime situation, but I read a story that a guy while towing a beetle of all cars in neutral, it somehow got bumped into gear. He didn't find out until it was far too late. I think cheap insurance is to remove the driveshaft.
A couple months back someone on a facebook group I'm in posted a Ford Fusion that was flat towed by a motorhome (I guess some FWD transmissions are okay with it? ) but the guy left the car in first gear after hooking it up to the motorhome and proceeded to drive it down the road. At some point the engine completely came apart and the pictures looked pretty catastrophic. How many rpm you think that crank was spinning at 65-70mph going down the road? Not sure what kind of motorhome, but it must of had some pretty good torque.
Just clean up the thread, we towed it on a trailer. It has G70-14 tires on it. My dad wanted to drive it home but I wasn't comfortable driving 30 year old tires at 75MPH for 500 miles, especially since the car hasn't been driven but a few country miles a year in the last 20! $400 for a trailer wasn't too bad and I still got 13MPG in my Tundra. I have another question but I'll start another thread on that.
What he said! I don't think that any automatic trans has had a rear pump since 1968ish, and manual transmissions don't spin lube from the driveshaft. I would use a dolly for a FWD car, since the rears only coast. Trailer is the way to go, just to be sure.
the saturn s-series with auto trans can be towed. there is a lever u can release that will safeguard the transmission.
