R380 5th gear

**jonesy61** · 16th June 2010, 07:53 AM

G'Day everyone,
Here I am in sunny BrisVegas and my baby has her guts all over my brothers driveway. Have struck a problem that sounds rare. Hope someone might say they have seen it happen before and what may have cause the issue.

OK the symptoms. Wife drove up from Melbourne to Brisbane. 5th gear slid out once at Narrabri and thenonce more at Gundi and then starting making a noise about 50km from Warwick. Stopped couldnt then get 5th gear. All other gears engage OK. Recovered from Warwick and pulled gearbox out. Drained oil and found it had been filled with diff oil. I admit I am slack and only ever put trannie oil into filler and just checked it was full..not type of oil that was already in there. Anyway, the problem. The segmented spacer that goes against 5th on the mainsahft had shattered to about a dozen pieces. The locator ring is gone and that had allowed 5th to float along shaft. Damage is to the rear housing inboard from bearing surface and scouring on mainshaft around oil passage(I think that is what the hole is) immeadiately forward of roller bearing.

My problem. Has anyone had this segmented spacer break up? And, would having ultra heavy weight diff oil as opposed to ATF by the culprit?

Jonesy

**jonesy61** · 25th June 2010, 05:37 PM

Anyway, fitted a second hand box for cheap and got her home. This box feels way lighter than my old box in shifting and appears to not have this lash if you back off in top. Glad to have it going, just the same

**101RRS** · 25th June 2010, 06:51 PM

You should not be using ATF in the box - stopped being Land Rover specs about 1996 and replaced by MTF 94 at the time - now Castrol SynTrans MTF is the best option.

Garry

**jonesy61** · 26th June 2010, 09:01 AM

Thanks for that, Garycol. Will check out some prices and set myself up for an oil change. Is there any danger with running ATF?

**slug_burner** · 27th June 2010, 12:01 AM

Originally Posted by jonesy61

Thanks for that, Garycol. Will check out some prices and set myself up for an oil change. Is there any danger with running ATF?

No danger other than probably not the best that is around. Some people swear by it. I am pretty sure my mechanic puts this in mine

**101RRS** · 27th June 2010, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by jonesy61

Thanks for that, Garycol. Will check out some prices and set myself up for an oil change. Is there any danger with running ATF?

Not sure there is "any danger" afterall it was spec when the R380 first came out. ATF does not lubricate quite as well as a quality MTF but it does suit to make a good gear change and suits the internal oil pump. However Land Rover did replace it as spec as soon as a better oil came available so there must have been a reason for that.

However normal "garden variety" gearbox oil cannot be used as it will be too thick to be pumped by the internal pump - as said Castrol SynTrans has all the required qualities and makes for a good gear change at all temps (here in Canberra -5 in winter to 40 in summer). The equivalent oil in other brands I understand is also OK but never used it myself.

Garry

**vnx205** · 27th June 2010, 10:11 AM

Surely thousands of Land Rovers went for years without problems with ATF before LR changed the spec.

**justinc** · 27th June 2010, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by vnx205

Surely thousands of Land Rovers went for years without problems with ATF before LR changed the spec.

They do, and there are 1 or 2 troublesome LT77 and R380s that we still run ATF in during colder months without any issues.

JC

**camel_landy** · 7th July 2010, 05:41 AM

Originally Posted by vnx205

Surely thousands of Land Rovers went for years without problems with ATF...

...and there were plenty which destroyed themselves too.

M

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