[Brady]

Hello everyone!! I have a (?? age) maytag performa that has been great up to about 3 days ago. The boss threw in a load of dirty's.. it filled.. it went into agitation and it sounded like there was a train in the basement!! After taking the front off and checking the operation of the motor, then making sure that the dogs were not all busted - it was agitating but not at a "regular" pace.. I think that this is coming from the transmission.
when I tilt it back I can move the transmission pullys in both directions freely but I do hear a slight grind when I go counter clockwise for agitating. I took the auger off and started it up - with a little (LITTLE) pressure on the shaft, the grinding turned into drive shaft, metal on metal loss of teeth sound.
My question is; does this thing have a coupler or bearing or something that the shaft seats into?? or am I looking at a new transmission? I am pretty handy (at least I have been told) and if I can get pointed in the right direction I can fix this.
Thanks for any help that you can give!
We cant afford a new machine.

Brady