Thread: Gearbox woe.

Hi everyone,

I have a 1978 Series 3 109 GS, it's an ex army unit which has been extensively overhauled and improved upon.

When I purchased it a few years back, I tracked down and spoke with the fellow who rebuilt the drivetrain and I was assured it was all in excellent shape, and at that point he said it couldn't have done more than 4000 klm since being totally rebuilt.

This gave me confidence.

I don't do a lot of miles generally, and probably only added 8000 more to it in all the time I've had it.

Midway through last year, I went from Melbourne to Noosa for a while, and while there, had to regularly park my Landy on a rather steep hill, so I'd just turn the wheels into the gutter, engage the handbrake fully, and it would stay there as solid as a rock. All good.

One night, I had to move my vehicle a just a few feet downhill, as the street was blocked by a broken down taxi, and the neighbours couldn't get between where I'd parked my Landy, and the taxi.

By moving downhill just those few feet, I lost use of the gutter to steer the wheels into, so instead, I just locked it into 1st gear with the handbrake on fully. Again all good.

An hour or so afterwards, I jumped in to go home and took off down the hill, slow and steady as usual.

I'd coasted down through the town and was just heading out the other side when I eased into 3rd gear and discovered an immediate and rather loud klunk klunk klunk noise coming from 3rd gear. Not good.

The vehicle was certainly not under much load, and the appearance of this noise was very puzzling to me.

Next day, hoping the magical gearbox fairies had kindly paid me a visit, I tested the vehicle again, and found that the rotten fairies hadn't called in at all.

Made a few calls to see who could sort it for me, given that I was flat out and all my time was pretty much all taken up, so looking for a suitable repairer was my only option. My enquiries led me to a place in a nearby town. Dropped the vehicle in and left it to them to get it sorted.

I did my research on these people prior, and they did seem to be the best people for the job.

It took them a while to effect the rebuild, quite a bit longer than I'd been hoping for, like 3-4 weeks.

Cost was $3k. Nothing else was touched, just the gearbox. Price seemed rather steep, but I wasn't in a position to do anything about it.

I noticed upon collecting the vehicle that it was a little bit noisy in 2nd gear, and contacted the repairer to arrange for them to go over it again a few days later, as I was at that point all packed up and ready to head back to Melbourne.

Called in on the way through, and nothing could be done about the slight noise in 2nd gear, not on the spot anyway, and seeing as the 3-4 week repair time had seriously overextended my schedule, I opted to just head on down and live with the noise.

Anyway, got down to Melbourne ok, and really haven't done too many miles in it since. The odo was on 54,000 when the box was repaired, and it's now on 56,660.

About the only thing I had to do, was pull all the trans covers off and rebolt the shifter to the box, and add a suitable locking bolt to the gearstick, as the whole lot collaped one day and I then found half the bolts missing etc. That wasn't a big deal, just an hour or so of mucking around and it was all back to normal.

Today, I cruised down to the neighbouring suburb to collect paint for the ongoing Lady resto, and when I parked outside the paint place, I noticed a bollard sitting a bit close to the drivers door, so opted to climb out through the passenger side. To do this, I locked it into 1st with the handbrake on fully, and stepped over the gearbox tunnel and snuck out through the passenger door, as you do.

Oddly enough, this is the only time I've ever locked it in gear, since that Noosa big hill parking thing. It's just not something I normally do.

After climbing back into the vehicle, I started it up and began reversing out of the parking space, and being a series 3, had to have a couple of bites at it to get around, so this was all done at idle.

As soon as I engaged 1st gear and idled forward, I noted the dreaded klunk klunk klunk noise, same as what happened in Noosa with that 3rd gear.

I got something of a crinkly brow at this point, as it was not under load, and hadn't been, so breaking a gear seemed impossible, to my way of thinking.

Now, I've heard there's a "nut" somewhere on the gearbox main shaft, and if it comes loose, that it may give different kinds of symptoms, so, thinking back, the Noosa prob may have saw the loosening of this "nut", made possible by my locking it into gear on that step hill? If the handbrake has slipped slightly, could it have done something like this?

This paint place, was on an ever so slight incline, and I did the same thing, but this time the vehicle was nose up. I do note that my handbrake isn't as great as it was before, not since the gearbox rebuild, and while I engage it in full, it can slip a little, like a couple of inches or so, before grabbing firmly.

This afternoon I spoke to the gearbox people who did my rebuild, and they seem to think 1st gear is busted, but I just cannot accept that anything could have broken, given the circumstances, so I'm now looking at other possible causes.

So now, I need to ask, is it possible that when in Noosa, when this klunk klunk klunk noise first appeared, could that have been relative to this "nut" coming loose, likely because the handbrake slipped a smidge and loaded the gear, rather than a completely totalled box as per the word of the gearbox people?

Could my locking it into 1st while on a very slight incline today, have done the same thing?

There is just no way 1st gear could have been damaged by my exiting that parking space today, no way at all.

If this "nut" came loose, for whatever reason, could it cause this klunk klunk klunk noise?

Thank you gents,

I'll have a bit of a snoop around with it today.

Regards,
Ross.