1976 series 3 rebuild

Few more

Mighty fine mighty fine Sam, You dun good. Be proud

Thor1950 said:

Mighty fine mighty fine Sam, You dun good. Be proud

Click to expand...

Cheers Thor

Right then, a little bit of a delayed update by a couple of weeks.

2 weeks ago I fitted my headlining (read as some mighty fine cream carpet from carpet right) stuck in place using thixofix contact adhesive. Makes a massive difference to the noise level











Then it was the turn of the Anglesey Vintage Rally where I was exhibiting the landy (identifiable as being the only exhibit brandishing an L plate )

Heres a couple of pics of it by the camping arrangements (all carried by series)







It develop a problem on the way there though of having the synchromesh go resulting in me losing 2nd gear Just revved up in first and stuck it straight into third gear, went perfectly well other than that

cheers,
Sam

That really is a good looking landy, that blue and cream is so nice.

Good looking series, you must swell with pride when you drive her

if you are after a recon box, I have been looking at these chaps to put an s3 gearbox in an s1 bellhousing to give my s1 full synchro

David Beaumont 4x4 Gearbox Specialists

Right then, today I picked up my new (second hand) gearbox out from Selwyn at Bryn Glas Garage in Bryngwran who I highly recommend for Land Rover related things.

Picked it up out of the corner of the yard under some brambles and theres a plate on the bellhousing which shows it to be a factory recon unit (hard to make it out but it reads " The Rover Co. Ltd, Factory Rebuild" )





This is the only serial number I've found on it, on the side of the main case, "5766588A", does this make it a suffix A box?





First task is to remove the gearlever.



This I did by first removing the 2 larger bolts at the rear using a 15mm spanner (the gearbox I know should be whitworth but found a 15mm spanner to fit perfectly)



I then removed the shorter bolt at the front using an 11mm spanner. (there should be 2 bolts but only one was present)



The bolts holding the main gear lever in place



The 2 smaller bolts also hold down this plate in the bellhousing



As soon as it is removed, I like to put the bolts back where they came from to avoid losing them and so I dont get confused as to what goes where



The whole gear lever assembly can be pulled off



The selectors





Next job is to remove the Bell housing, before this can be done however, the clutch fork needs to be removed. The book gives it like this



The bearing was not present on mine and the fork simply popped off the ball joint (I think the clip is worn)

The ball joint


The fork



Next up is removal of the bell housing itself



First is to remove the oil seal housing in the bell housing



The 4 upper nuts where removed using a 1/4" Whitworth socket



The 2 lower bolts and 1 nut were removed using a 7/16" socket



I had to knock the assembly with a mallet to get it free enough to pull off





There is some play in the upper bearing so that will be replaced



The layshaft retaining bolt is next to be removed



I used a socket on this and by holding the mainshaft by hand I was able to undo the bolt (it wasn't particularly tight)





The 4 fixings which connect the bell housing to the main gearbox casing are next to be removed. I used a 7/8" spanner and socket on a breaker bar to get these out. (as you can see the earlier oil seal housing bolts have been put back in place so I don't lose them)



The bellhousing was then tapped with a mallet and it started coming apart





When the bellhousing comes off it brings the layshaft constant gear and conical distance piece with it



This is how they should look on the layshaft



Bellhousing



The layshaft was then pulled out







A view inside the main casing



Reverse gear



Tomorrows job is to look at the selectors and fetch the mainshaft out to have a look at it

Right then, onto the selectors.



First I removed the reverse and 1st gear detent springs using an 11mm spanner





There is a seal between the spring and the bracket



Next was the top detent spring for 3rd gear, which cmae off using a 5/16" Whitworth spanner





Before removing the top cover, I had to remove the overdrive bracket which had been fitted to this gearbox. The nuts and bolts came off with a 1/4" whitworth spanner and socket







The 2 nuts also need to come off using a 5/16" whitworth socket/ spanner



The stud came with the nut



The cover can then be lifted off revealing the selector shafts. Be careful not to lose the 3 ball bearings that were under the detent springs





The detent spring assembly



There are 2 small rollers on top of the main casing, be careful not to lose these



Select third gear and the selector shafts can then be lifted out. Its a bit fiddly to do this with the shafts in place but they do come out. First out is the reverse shaft



Then the 3rd/4th shaft



This has a small pin along the shaft, be careful it doesnt drop out or you'll never find it again



First selector



Revealing the mainshaft



The bearing slides off the mainshaft



As does the 3rd/ 4th synchro hub





Mine doesnt look bad at all aoart from its missing a leaf spring (which I found in the bottom of the box)










Before drifting the mainshaft out, I decided to take the transfer box out to make everything a more manageable size



Before starting this the brake back plate needs removing. Take out the split pin in the castle nut and undo the nut (I had to use an impact gun on this as it was tight and due to lack of rear mainshaft gear I cant put in gear)







The rear output flange then just slides off





These 4 nuts holding the back plate to the speedo housing are next to be removed, again with a 5/16" whitworth spanner



Once thats off, take off the retaining nut and bracket for the intermediate shaft, again 5/16" whitworth



Using a pry bar, you can withdraw the shaft



Before taking it out fully, take off the bottom plate (check theres no oil in it first though, I forgot so ended up with a workbench covered in old EP90 )



The shaft can now be withdrawn whilst you support the intermediate gear cluster



The cluster can now be rolled out the box



Revealing the thrust washers either side





They're a bit worn so will get new ones





Gears look good



With that out of the way, the fastenings holding the gearbox to the transfer box can be removed (using you guessed it, a 5/16" whitworth socket)



Next the external fastenings were removed





Allowing the boxes to be split



With the transfer box out of the way, it was now time to remove the mainshaft.



First task is to remove the mahoosive circlip holding the housing in place



Then the mainshaft can be drifted downwards and out of the box (support the casing on bits of wood to give the shaft more room to come out the box)



Little bit of surface rust on one or 2 components but not bad







No chips on the teeth at all which is something

Next up is splitting the transfer box and front output shaft housing

First remove the cover plate using a 1/2" spanner



Then remove the Detent spring using a 5/16" whitworth





Remove the transfer selector fork pinch bolt using a 1/4" whitworth spanner





Next remove the fixings holding the housing to the transfer main case







Once the output housing is free, remove the 4 wheel drive selector





The dust cover can now be removed using a 3/16" whitworth spanner





The shafts can then be drifted out gently



Next remove the front output flange, which is exactly the same process as the rear one





Revealing the oil seal housing




Which can be pulled off once the nuts are removed



The output shaft can now be withdrawn



The bearing can now be drifted out. I used a 32mm socket on the end of a long extension bar as a drift for getting it out







Now, as I have another spare output housing which was clean I decided to use that one





I decided to rebuild the output housing as I have all the bits required to do it

The bearing was greased and pressed in the housing using the trusty old fly press





A gasket was then made for the oil seal housing (using the old one as a pattern)



The old oil seal was then prised out (put the housing pointing down in the vice, flanges resting on the jaws and punched the seal out)





The new seal





Smear the outside of the seal with hylomar blue






Press the seal in place, I like to put a smear of grease on the lip to lubricate whatever gets pushed through it.



The housing can then be bolted back on with the gasket and a smear of hylomar either side

The front output shaft can be then put in place again. The flange can then be slid on, this is a spare one I have, the mud shield on the other one was a bit mis-shapen





Washer in place



The nut is then put in place and torqued up to 85 lb/ ft

Tomorrows job is selector shafts and strip down the transfer box I think

layshafts worn hard facing is going on rev teeth ,dog teeth are chipped on 1st and 2nd gears and 3rds buggered from rust,suffix A boxes were often changed lr produced a kit to retro fit the later B suffix on rev idler with needle bearing rather than bush(only sufix A have bush in rev idler)

Thanks James Added to the list of bits to get.

At the minute the cost of it is roughly around £215 for bearings, seals, thrust washers, gears, layshaft etc.

not bad considering , you rarely find many that dont need a lot of parts

Right then, disassembling the mainshaft

I strted at the front end and worked back, starting with third gear. The first job to do is to remove the snap ring (basically a circlip but without the helpful little holes to get a pair of pliers in). With help from my Dad I removed the clip with 3 thin screwdrivers, its a bit awkward but doable





You can then withdraw the thrust washer and the third gear



Then withdraw the distance sleeve and bush



Then you can withdraw second gear and the thrust washer as well as the front synchro cone



Next I removed the rear mainshaft bearing/ oil seal housing. I had to use a set of pullers for this as I didnt want to damage anything.







To dismantle the rear part of the mainshaft remove the thrust washer



It has 2 grooves on the forward face (facing the front of the gearbox)



First gear can now be removed



As can the first gear bush



The rear synchro cone is removed



As is the first-second synchro hub which looks decent according to my granddad (hes done quite a few of these in the past), it certainly operates freely enough but I think I'll swap the detent springs and things whilst I'm at it and give a good dose of looking at




The components split into front of mainshaft and rear, all cable tied together to keep them in order



Next attention turned to the bellhousing again. I slackened off the nuts for the bearing carriers at the back of the bellhousing before knocking the bearing through, again using a suitable socket as a drift





For the layshaft bearing carrier, the tab washer first needs the tabs knocking flat





The nuts can then be undone using a 1/2" socket



The lifted off lock washer



The rear washer holding the studs can also be removed



and the bearing knocked out





Thats it for the mainshaft, attention then turned towards stripping the transfer box

First task with this is to remove the speedo housing by removing the 6 nuts and spring washers using a 5/16" whitworth spanner again



Some of the studs came out with the nuts, as you can see one is longer than the rest to go through the thickest part of the housing



The housing can now be pulled off





Between the housing and the transfer case are some shims. On my spare transfer box, there were 3 but on this one there are 4



The worm gear. This isnt fixed to the shaft but interestingly it runs off friction



Shall carry on with stripping it down tomorrow

So far the list of bits to change are:

Gaskets,
Seals,
Bearings,
Detent springs and balls,
Thrust washers,
1st gear,
2nd gear,
3rd gear,
Layshaft,
Bushes,
3rd/4th synchro hub (on closer inspection the teeth were worn)

Gear lever will get swapped off my old box as will the handbrake back plate and drum

There can be 1 or 21 shims, the castings were never spot on , nor was the machining so to set the end float and or tighten the gear box they shimmed them out individually as they assembled them, looking good so far, brings back some memories them pics

Does the speedo drive gear not get clamped between output flange and rear bearing when fully assembled hence when speedo flickers the output flange nut being tightened is a common fix.

Blackburn said:

Does the speedo drive gear not get clamped between output flange and rear bearing when fully assembled hence when speedo flickers the output flange nut being tightened is a common fix.

Click to expand...

yes only thing holding speedo gear tight to shaft is rear output flange

Great thread and some really useful photos and comments.

Fantastic mate .... Its really great to see someone of your age (yes I know there are others) doing this ............ I'm hopefully getting hold of a 1959 Series 2 soon and as I'm layed up at the moment due to a bike accident its been great reading this .. so thanks all round

Right update time, stripping the transfer box!

Before removing the shaft, I checked how far into the casing the bearing sits (6mm) as a reference for when I refit the bearing





The shaft is first drifted rearwards with a mallet



The large circlip is then removed



Next I drifted the bearing inner race off the shaft (apologies for the blurry action shot)



Then the circlip holding the thrust washer and the gears in place was removed allowing the shaft to removed



The thrust washer



With the shaft out I could then drift out the other bearing race



(This next bit is from my other thread showing the various bits of the shaft) as I forgot to take photos this time

"The order the bits are on the shaft





Bearing outer race, inner race, circlip holding gears on and thrust washer



High gear





Low gear





Shaft with bearing



"


Today I sorted out the workshop to get ready for rebuild



and immediately set about making a mess sorting out the parts I have





Rebuild starts tomorrow

amazes me how intricate these gearboxes are, what a feat of engineering

Right, havent forgotten this thread honest. Been busy sorting out the gearbox, it had a couple of issues and so all that took priority over the thread. Ive got the photos on photobucket now so when i get the time to put text to the pictures the thread will be back in action