Thread: Gearbox update

Well Rosemary's on the road again. I can't believe the difference, it's like driving a completely different vehicle. I can feel how much tighter the drive train is. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img] Gone are the clunks and a lot of the backlash I used to get. I was worried about the input gears before I pulled the box out, now I see the problems were all associated with the intermediate gear set.
I'm happy with it.
On another note, aquarangie recomended on another forum the use of power steering stop leaks. Claimed he used it and his power steering didn't leak and gave him no problems for approx. 2 years. I decided to give it a go and at this point I've gone from a 1ltr/6weeks leak to a couple of drops a day, and the leak's getting less with each day. Hopefully withing a couple more days it'll be gone and I can put off the steering box job for a bit longer.

Great to hear that the difficulties were more easily overcome than could have been. We're such a "worst possible case" lot, aren't we?

Well done.

Cheers

Peter

We are aren't we Peter [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] It's always good to be prepared for the worst and pleasantly surprised.

Originally posted by disco95
We are aren't we Peter [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] It's always good to be prepared for the worst and pleasantly surprised.

As they say: "pessimists are never disappointed". [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Good to hear that Rosemary is going. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

What were the early symptoms of the bearings going?

G'day OI, the first I knew there was something wrong was when towing an empty trailer, I shifted down to third to slow down and the gearbox whined VERY loudly, from then on it was pretty noisy. Probably should have stopped driving her once I got her home that day. In less than a week it started to make a sound like a pod of Dolphins chattering away (a workmates description) in the vicinity of the gearbox, by the time I'd travelled 10kms I could feel and hear it grinding and basically dying.

Now in hind sight, as soon as I'd heard the bad noises I should've checked under the vehicle, I would have seen the stake nut had come off from the rear of the housing, between the housing and the handbrake.
Before even this happened, the signs were a lot of slop in the drive train. Heaps of backlash. I thought this was fairly normal, coupled with a worn input gear. It turned out the gear was perfect, all the slop was from the intermediate shaft. So, if you have a lot of clunking and backlash you may have the same problem I did.

The good news is that it only cost me $41 for the seal set, $48 for the two bearings on the intermediate shaft, $3 for the spacer and $45.45 for the shaft.
Unfortunately it went too far and killed the housing, which cost me another $150 :roll:
Land Vehicle spares were about half the price of anyone else I spoke to (and I spoke to a lot) and had just about everything there, the bearings were expressed posted to me within a wee, free of charge.
Thank you LVS

Here you go OI, highlighted is what was stuffed, plus of course the main housing.




4 Stake nut (was missing)
13 Intermediate Bearings
15 collapsable spacer
20 intermediate shaft
21 input seal (wasn't stuffed, I coloured it accidently ops: ) Of course I replaced all seals :wink:

Originally posted by disco95
On another note, aquarangie recomended on another forum the use of power steering stop leaks. Claimed he used it and his power steering didn't leak and gave him no problems for approx. 2 years. I decided to give it a go and at this point I've gone from a 1ltr/6weeks leak to a couple of drops a day, and the leak's getting less with each day. Hopefully withing a couple more days it'll be gone and I can put off the steering box job for a bit longer.

What brand and where did you source this magic product???

G'day sclarke, I used "nulon power steering stop leaks and conditioner" cost a whole $11 from super cheap. I still have a slight drip, better than the river of fluid I had running out before :wink:
The funny thing is, I went in and bought the stuff from Super Cheap last friday afternoon, then yesterday I was telling one of the guys at work how good it was so he ducked down there at lunch time to grab some. Same store, they told hime thay don't stock the stuff and have never heard of it 8O
He went to Auto Pro later in the afternoon and got it for the same price.