Originally Posted by
scrambler
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but reading around the impression I got of strength in gearboxes was that Series 1 was pretty dodgy, Series 2 ok, 2a tough, 3 quite a bit weaker, LT95 (Range Rover and V8 or Isuzu diesel 1980-1985) seriously tough (and stronger again in LT95a with the Army), LT85 5-speed (1985 - 1990? - "the Spanish box") a bit behind that, LT77 little better than a Series 3 and R380 pretty close to the LT95. The big problem with the LT95 is that it's only a 4 speed, so of the 5 speed boxes, R380 wins hands down.
The history of these boxes is interesting - the R380 is a re-engineered derivative of the LT77, which was originally a Jaguar gearbox never designed for off-road stresses. What the Series 3 box's excuse is I don't know. The numbers after LT refer to the distance between the input and output shafts, in mm. R380 stands for "Rated to 380Nm of torque."
Any comments from people who've broken any or all of those?
The Series 1 box I have heard was a Rover box introduced in 1932. Obviously not designed for offroad use, it coped with the 1.6 and 2litre engines without a great deal of drama and with minor changes. However, the more powerful engine introduced with the Series 2 showed up shortcomings and it was beefed up for Series 2a including two changes to the layshaft. With these changes it coped well with the six and the diesel, as well as the petrol engine.
The Series 3 box, introduced for very late 2a station wagons (although I doubt any found their way to Australia - I think only home market), provided synchromesh on all forward gears. But this had to be fitted into the same dimensions, and a few weaknesses showed up as a result - it was basically the same design with synchromesh shoehorned in.
The LT95, although used in the Rangerover, was designed to meet the requirements of the 101 gun tractor, and is very robust as others have commented. But only has four gears.
Of course, it is often forgotten that cars almost never had more than four gears until about 1970, and for most of the motoring era up to then (say from 1900 on) three gears were the norm except for low powered cars in the UK and a few sporting and luxury cars elsewhere, plus a few French, Italian and German cars. And up to the mid twenties the best selling car of all worldwide had only two gears. And Landcruisers only introduced four gears in about 1970 - before that they were three gear.
You have to wonder why we seem to think more gears are necessary, particularly since the torque band of most engines is a lot better than it was thirty or forty years ago.
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
RoverLord
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