Hello everyone.

I'm Thomas from Copenhagen, Denmark.

I've been dreaming about Land Rovers for about 40 years, and now I don't wan't do dream anymore.
I've been very close to buy a SIII 88", but by accident I tried a 90" …
"Bad" idea!

Land Rovers are not cummon in Denmark, and Land Rovers for less than 5.000 £ are rare!
I've found a '87 90" with a 300 tdi-enigne but …

There are some issues.

The worst is that the car needs to go above 38 mph to be able to go to 4th, but at that time the car easely goes into 5th.

Is this car a "no go"?
 
Do you mean it physically can't go into fourth, or it will go into fourth but it struggles to pull?
 
People sometimes have funny ideas about what their Land Rovers are capable of. I knew a woman who claimed her 110 Defender TD5 wouldn't go above 50 mph. I managed to get it up to 70 (and beyond) with no trouble at all on my own. You'd usually be putting it in 4th on the way up to 30 and by 40 you'd be thinking about 5th. It might be the owner rather than the car. I have another friend who seems to do as much driving as he can in 3rd gear. Some people are just funny that way.
 
What are the symptoms? Is there any crunching or grinding? How is going from 2nd to 3rd? Can you put it in 4th from neutral ( at a standstill ) - try holding the lever slightly to the left or right.
It may well be that 4th gear is knackered, but let's eliminate the simple things first!
 
There's also a bit of a knack with some of those gearboxes. When I bought mine I had difficulty going from 2nd to 3rd, as if it wouldn't go into 3rd. I soon worked out that if I momentarily let go of the lever before pushing it toward the dashboard the springs would find the right place for me and it's not a problem. Another possibility is the clutch. Those R380 gearboxes resist changing gear if there's any drive getting through at all. This is good because it makes it more difficult to grind the gears, but it can affect the ease of gear changing in some gears and at lower speeds.
 

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