So I did not have the Land Rover long before it started to give me trouble. I think it was more of a case of me being paranoid more than anything else. All that you read about these Land Rover things is the massive repairs and modifications that 'Owner/Enthusiasts' are always doing. I felt like I was not doing my part unless I got suitably greasy.
Actually, it all started with my first oil change. I took the Land Rover into the local 'Jiffy Lube' for a complete fluid service. Being that the Land Rover had just come from over seas - I had no idea what the fluid levels were or their age so I wanted to start out as fresh as possible.
As part of the service, I opted for the transmission drain, as well. This was partly becasue this thing was the hardest and most uncooperative shifting vehicle that I had ever driven. I was making more gear music between shifts than most tree shredders.
When the 'expert technician' at the Jiffy Lube dropped the transmission plug, he was shocked to hear and see a shower of metal pour out with the fluid. He turned and looked at me like he had no idea what to do next.
So, I looked over what pieces we could catch before it drained into the large collecting basin. (Of course, I was down in the pit with this guy. Wouldn't you be?) What I ended up with were several chewed up flat pieces of metal and one - intact - metal ball, that I supposed was a ball bearing.
The 'technician' asked me what I wanted to do next - like I had some real choice. I told him to top it off with oil and let me drive it home. That is exactly what we did, but I did not have much confidence in it after that.
I drove around a few more days on it - maybe logged up 200 miles - and kept hearing this noise. It would come and go but was definately there when I heard it. I thought it was the howl of a bearing going bad. That would go along with the loose ball I found in the fluid. Knowing that parts for a Land Rover Series III are harder to find than a philosophers stone (in Washington DC), I figured I better quit driving it before things got worse and I started to eat up a main shaft or something.
So, on August 11th, my brother and started the fun task of removing the transmission and conducting some exploratroy surgery to try and figure out what was wrong.
- August 11th: Remove the transmission from the Land Rover - or was it the other way around? Judging from the amount of the interior that I had to remove it could go either way. Work was cut short due to torrential downpour of rain.
- August 12th: Drive transmission to my workshop (local Volunteer Fire Department) in the back of my Mazda pick-up and seperate the transmission into its three major components; transmission, transfer case and front output shaft. I then started to disassemble the transmission. The seperation of these parts took some brute force and a few pry tools from the fire truck but was no match in the end. Once I got into the guts I immediately saw that the 3/4 gear syncro was bad. Here was the source of my chewed up metal.
- August 15th: I knew my supposed 'bearing howl' was road speed effected and not engine or gear specific. I began to look into the rear main bearing area of the transmission shaft. I quickly got stuck with the Haynes Manual "...a few light taps with soft faced hammer should free the mainshaft...". After beating until fatigue, I determined that I should stop and re-evaluate. Plus, I could spin the rear main shaft and it sounded and felt as smooth as could be expected, so I was not sure I was even looking in the right place. As I sat and contemplated the situation, I started to clean the various parts that laid about - to include the harmlessly simple looking 'oil spinner'. Once this was cleaned, I found that it was scored. Ureka! This was the source of the noise. It had broken loose from the shaft and started to rub on the back of the transmission housing. Whew... that was all solved. Now I just needed to find some replacement parts.
- August 17th: I called The Dunsfold Land Rover Center in the UK. There, a helpful chap named Phil Bashall told me that he had all the parts that I needed at a really fair price. From the tone in his voice, it sounded like my parts request was not uncommon and that these were common failures for the Series gearbox. So parts are order and in the mail. Now, I wait for them to arrive.
- August 31st: Still waiting on the shipment of parts from Dunsfold...
- September 5th: Parts arrived. Well, most of them. I am missing the throw out bearing - which I wanted to replace just because it was an easy and cheap preventative fix while the transmission is out and in pieces. I might try to get Dunsfold to credit me the part and source that locally. If the weather holds out, I will try to re-assemble the bulk of the gearbox on Sunday, September 9th.
The 'ball bearing' was not a ball bearing after all. It was instead a loose dedent ball for the shifting array. Since all of mine were present, I can only assume that it was dropped in the last time the transmission was serviced.
- October 5th: Things never go as planned. The events of September 11th have kept Firemanshort pretty busy but I managed to get some time last weekend and re-assmeble the gearbox. I waited on the throwout bearing as long as I could and assembled the bits without it. (Murphy's Law: it arrived the day after the transmission was bolted into the chassis!) My problem now is that the slave cylnder for the clutch seems to have gone a foul. I think some air leaked into it as it waited to be re-fit to the gearbox. When I went to bleed it - the bleeder nipple broke off!. I am also unable to loosen the actual hydraulic line to the slave cylinder, as well. I have rounded off the ears on that nut in these efforts. So I will have to remove the slave cylinder and hydraulic line as a unit and place it on my work bench where I hope I can loosen something up and repair it.
- October 29th: The old slave cylinder just did not work. I decided to replace the whole thing rather than mess about with rebuilding it. Either way, shipping was more than parts.
A new slave cylinder and a used hydrualic line were sourced through John Craddocks and then installed. The clutch sprung to life! Minutes later, the Land Rover took a voyage around the parking lot and it looks like we are in business. The rebuilt transmission shifts 100% better but leaks just a tiny little bit. All and all, I am satisfied with my first effort at gearbox repair.
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