S54 Transmission dead?, need help identifying problem Options

[easternpiro1]

Hi all, I wanted to get as much feedback as possible before I replace or rebuild my Transmission.

As it is well known, 3rd gear is notorious for grinding in the GT transmission. mine grinded for sometime but only if I accelerated hard.

One day I was driving normally and chose to pass a slower vehicle in front of me. what happened next completely confuses me.

when shifting down from 4th to 3rd I got NO response, it was as if the car was in neutral. I tried each and every other gear to find that no gear worked (motor revved but no response)

Upon further inspection I noticed that the speedometer still worked while the car was in gear (when car was jacked up and on ground) I also noticed a SLIGHT grinding noise while the car was in gear as if a moving part was spinning and barely touching metal.

I figured my axles were bad, so I jacked the car up again, and slowed down the drivers side wheel to see if my RPM changed any (it did not)

I noticed that only one wheel would spin, and the passenger side would not. When I tried again (using an old deflated basketball to slow the tire) the basketball got sucked under the wheel, and got stuck causing the passenger side axle boot to tear off, and my axle to pop out of the hub. (this tells me that the axle was attempting to spin)

I was told by a friend that my differential is blown. do any of you know this to be true? any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

This post has been edited by easternpiro1: Feb 12, 2015 - 1:50 PM