Had exact same problem with corsa ive got wife brought it home saying it was making a funny noise. Took it for a test drive and it exploded. Gear bearing had jammed and started spinning in Bell housing. It blew the casing apart and shredded the gears. When i stripped it down gear oil had emulsified and bearing had completely collapsed. Wpuld advise u don't drive it. Cheaper to replace bearing than entire gearbox!

Right, I'm going to drop the gearbox oil again tomorrow night and if there's the merest sniff of any swarf etc, I think I know I've been bloody unlucky and it's got to be replaced. I'll leave the Landy in the garage and borrow my neighbour's engine crane and just get it done. I'm currently weighing up my options in terms of repair/replace, however from what I can glean from various online sources these are some considerations...

-Box is am LT77 suffix D/E (seems to be stamped with both for some reason). My truck is not a daily driver, won't be doing much hardcore offroading or regular heavy towing, and will probably do no more then 6k a year, driven sympathetically. Is it really worth the upgrade to a later suffix box?

-Tfr box is off a Disco, so should I fit a cross-drilled input gear? What about if there's zero wear on the input gear?

-I guess I should just fit a new clutch, release bearing and arm when I'm in there?

Anything else to think about now?

One more thought...if I do this in my garage, I don't have much clearance between the roof of the truck and the garage ceiling. I can measure it if needed, but probably only about 12" maximum.

If I drop the box out onto the floor, how high do I need to jack the vehicle up to get the box out from underneath?

Thanks!

Hard-Drive said:

One more thought...if I do this in my garage, I don't have much clearance between the roof of the truck and the garage ceiling. I can measure it if needed, but probably only about 12" maximum.

If I drop the box out onto the floor, how high do I need to jack the vehicle up to get the box out from underneath?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

about 8 inches on one side

Thanks James. Just to check, being an ex-mil 110 is it any different? My ex-mil SIII was a bit taller than a civvy vehicle...

Well, I had one last tinker around just in case it was anything really dumb, and I also changed the tfr box oil, just in case.

This is what was stuck to the mag plug...and bear in mind this is probably a mere 20 miles since the last oil change...



...and this was in the bottom of the oil tray, again, just 20 miles of driving. It's ally, not steel...



...and this is "the noise". Those of a mechanically sympathetic disposition, cover your ears. Obviously I'm provoking it for the recording. You'll also notice the delay from 1st to 2nd...it wasn't easy all of a sudden!


So, I take it my box is totally FUBAR'd. The one useful thing I did when I was under the Landy was give everything a healthy dose of WD40. Box out time then I guess?

Gah, for some reason I can't seem to link to where I've hosted the horrible noise.

go to vocaroo.com

...and then add /i/s04kbgFRid2D

Hard-Drive said:

Well, I had one last tinker around just in case it was anything really dumb, and I also changed the tfr box oil, just in case.

This is what was stuck to the mag plug...and bear in mind this is probably a mere 20 miles since the last oil change...

...and this was in the bottom of the oil tray, again, just 20 miles of driving. It's ally, not steel...

...and this is "the noise". Those of a mechanically sympathetic disposition, cover your ears. Obviously I'm provoking it for the recording. You'll also notice the delay from 1st to 2nd...it wasn't easy all of a sudden!


So, I take it my box is totally FUBAR'd. The one useful thing I did when I was under the Landy was give everything a healthy dose of WD40. Box out time then I guess?

Click to expand...

looks like cast iron filings on plug ,fits with bearing races spinning

Oh well! That's that then I guess!

I did look at this thread on another forum, but it looked far to scary so I ran the other way and hid in the corner...

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=52887

...I'll have a crack at most things but that just looks waaaaay beyond the capabilities of me and my toolbox!

Well, bullet bitten, and about ready to drop the box. Got all this done tonight after work, helped by a good application of WD40 to everything a few days earlier, and the loan of an electirc impact wrench thingy and a propshaft tool by my neighbour. No doubt that saved hours and hours!

good effort...lots of pain now but it will a great feeling when you've done it

I've just bought a 200tdi discovery to break if you want the gearbox assuming it's a good one, I'm picking it up next weekend

Cheers Marmaduke. Out of interest where are you based? Will a shortstick box fit a Defender? TBH as I've come this far I'm tempted to just put an Ashcroft recon box in anyway on a G/H suffix. I'm probably going to keep this Landy for life and as she has a very good, totally unpatched chassis she's probably worth spending a few quid on for peace of mind. Anyway, let me know.

Pricilla...thanks for the encouragement...it certainly helps!

So anyway, tonight I have got the box out. I split the tfr box off when still in the vehicle, although in hindsight this may have been more hassle than it was worth. At least it meant I could slide the respective boxes out without having to jack up the vehicle. The good news...the mainbox output shaft was absolutely fine, which also seems a bit odd in some ways, especially as it shows "86" on the case which I assume is the age, she's a 1986 motor. I would have expected some wear, especially with a TDI. The Disco tfr box also seems fine, and has a cross drilled input gear which is good news (and may account for the good output shaft). The Borg & Beck clutch seems in very good order, although I'll check it against a brand new one to see how it's wearing, and if there is any visible difference I'll replace. I have a feeling it's pretty new though. Release bearing seems fine although I'll almost certainly change this anyway. And it also has a heavy duty clutch fork which is good news. And the props/UJ's are all fine...the UJ's feel loose/free, but there's no perceptible wear or movement in them. It would be nice if all of these bits are OK so I can save a few quid!

However the spigot bush is totally mullered. It has a big crack in it, isn't round, and came out with just my finger. Now I'm a bit baffled to be honest...a couple of people when I described "the noise" said "spigot bearing", however my understanding a spigot bearing makes noises as you release the clutch, not when the engine comes "on cam" for want of a better description. I've already ruled out anything engine related, but I just want to be 100% sure it is the box that's knackered, and not this poxy bush. I'm probably only getting nervous in case I do all this work and don't cure it...however the debris in the freshly changed oil looked pretty conclusive!

Did anyone else listen to the noise file...any more thoughts?

Anyway, I reckon I'll strip all the bellhousing etc of the main box tomorrow, and whip the bottom off the tfr box and give the internals a bit of a clean in some gunk or similar. I hope this is a good idea and doesn't land me in the same boat again!

So I reckon I'm about 8 hours in so far. I'm confident on beating some of these 30 hour horror stories I've been reading! I'm also feeling fairly chuffed too...I'm one of those dreaded laptop wielding BMW driving IT sales execs, so I've given myself a little gold star for having got this far working totally on my own.

disco short stick wont fit a defender without much modification ,g suffix is best box

Thanks James, that's kinda what I thought.

Fair play for cracking on dude pretty certain with your attitude you will get it sorted sharpish

flat said:

Fair play for cracking on dude pretty certain with your attitude you will get it sorted sharpish

Click to expand...

Cheers chap!

OK, the gearbox is in the back of the car now. I'm under serious time pressures with this...we are moving house at the end of the month and I really need the Defender back on the road for then. I'm also on holiday next week so my plan is drop it off at Ashcroft on the way to the airport and get a new one sent up in time for next weekend and I can spend a few evenings putting it back in. But if I could get some more advice off you technical people that would be marvellous!

Firstly, this picture of mechanical horribleness. At the back, we have a FUBAR'd spigot bush. I take it this is just a standard part...or does it matter that I have a mish-mash of Disco 200Tdi engine and I'm swapping my longstick suffix E LT77 for a G/H?



At the front, on the left, rather worryingly is something I fished out the bottom of the transfer box when I took the bottom cover off. I'm 99% sure it's the bottom of the selector thingy off the hi/low lever, the bottom piece of part 10 in the below drawing. I took this assembly off, and the fork thingy is present and correct (and all that stuff was working fine before I took the truck off the road), but at some point that lever and cover mechanism (held down with 6 bolts) has clearly been off as there was a badly applied instant gasket stuff under it. So, I reckon at some point it's snapped off, some orangutan has taken the lever off, replaced the broken selector, and not looked for the snapped off piece or bothered dropping the bottom cover off. Thank feck it didn't end getting tangled up with the rest of the internals! Can I just check that those in the know agree with my diagnosis?



The piece in the middle of my photo is magnetic, same as the swarf catcher thing in the main box. Where has this come from as I didn't think there was a swarf catcher in a transfer box? Or is it the end of a mechanics pick up tool once he'd given up on trying to find the fork selector thing?

Thing on the right...no idea, probably a piece of that selector again.

Next picture is this one...



...and unless I'm mistaken this is a perfectly good cross drilled transfer box input gear with no wear which will happily live again. Are we in agreement?

And finally some of the clutch. Now I don't have a new one to compare it to, but to me this looks pretty good and can probably go straight back in. Any comments, or should it be a certain thickness (I can mic it up to check). Having come this far I'm happy to change it if needed, however as the Landy really won't be doing many miles, if this is perfectly serviceable, I'm very happy to make a saving here...





And lastly one sorry looking 110 cab! Need to keep going...we'll get there!

spigot bust is std 8566l
input gear is good
looks like that lever plus some other bits, magnetic piece has been snapped of t/box sump plug presumably by the debris from lever and low gear
id fit a new clutch plate

Thanks James, I really appreciate your sage advice. Any recommendations on clutch kit makes or any to avoid?