Newbie needs help

Today on my way home from work my car (89 Sunbird) just croaked. I put it in gear at a stoplight and it would not accelerate and when it is in gear it makes this constant loud cranking sound like something in my steering or gears is just getting chewed up. It is not noisy in park, the noise is only when it is in Dr or rev. i have no drive. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Transmission replacement MAY exceed the value of the car!

Unless there is something you really like on this car, I would be car shopping.

Later,

It might just possibly be your torque converter has failed.

If you are lucky, you could pull the transmission, and just replace the converter.
It may be okay if the broken converter did not contaminate the fluid and the rest of the trans with metal shavings.
However, as pulling the trans is $300 on its own, you may as well rebuild the transmission too, to be sure.

And as KC says, it might be more than the car is worth.