What Happened???
 

Alright this is the deal, my friend has an 86 n/a. Today he was driving it and came to a light. When he went to put the car into first the car wouldn't go into first at all. Then about 5 minutes later it would go into first but wouldn't go anywhere. It made a huge banging sound from the tranny or diff. Second gear works and so does all the rest other than reverse. Reverse just goes about 2 feet and the it feels like its hittin a wall and bounces back. Also it is making a metal on metal sound even when the car is in neutral and the clutch is released. There's fluid in the master cylinder res.. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Check oil level?

In what?

bump, its very important

When was the last time you checked the gearbox oil?

In all honesty, never. He's only had the car a few months and i mostly maintain it. Not always by choice. What is involved in checkin the oil?

when my tranny lost a few teeth i drove it for awhile still. eventually it got so bad that reverse gear did exactly what happened to you. it goes for a couple feet then hits like a wall and bounces.

your stuck with pulling the tranny our....

i also had the griding noise when the clutch was engaged through that period

Sounds like there are two problems:

1. Throwout bearing bad

2. Transmission bad

Replace/rebuild the tranny, and replace the clutch and throwout bearing (as well as pilot bearing) at the same time.

check the oil level. prob the best to pull the tranny and see what suprise you have

I'd start looking for a used tranny. They can be had fairly cheap.