drove off the drive to the edge of the pavement, pushed in clutch so I could look up and down road before pulling out.

lifted clutch and no forward movement, tried a different gear still no movement, thought clutch had gone.

checked transfer gear stick fully forward, still no movement.

put into low range and moved off. put it back into high range and it went off as normal. drove around for about 15 mins no problems.

could the transfer box have slipped out of gear or had the clutch got stuck and sticking it into low caused it to unstick?

Sometimes the transfer gear stick can pop out and in my experience its usually at very slow/ crawling speed when moving off. It's only happened to me a couple of times. If you have been able to drive around as normal then that may explain the problem. If you'd busted a rear half shaft you would only be able to move in 4WD, otherwise you'd been stuck if in 2WD high or low ratio.

sounds like that was the problem then thx, I was crawling before pushing the clutch in, see if it does it again tomorrow.

Series 2 or 3?

The generic gaiter for the transfer lever is the wrong shape for pre 1968 models and bunches up in front of the lever when in high range. This can sometimes prevent the lever from going all the way forwards, it can then creep out of gear.

Peter

series 1 1955

whilst it is parked topless I have been sticking the transfer lever in neutral recently for a bit of additional security, so that might be contributory, I guess the gaiter must move when you change.

I haven't done that before the last few weeks, had the car since 2008 and never had any problems before.