Another Lottery Ticket?

Dealing with disappointment is an everyday thing when you're restoring a classic vehicle. In a way, it's a lot like computer programming: sometimes dumb little things keep you stuck for hours, and other times you run into showstoppers that are a big challenge to overcome. 

One of my showstoppers came when I began pricing out my gearbox components. You might remember a few posts back that the partial list I had, before I realized I had to add a transfer box output shaft (and other stuff) came to $2300. Which, any way you slice it, is a lot of money.

Could I source some used parts and maybe whittle away at the list in the meantime? 

I put up a post on my local LR club website and had a few responses. My thinking was that if I found a gearbox I could use, perhaps there would be some useful components inside that I might be able to leverage to take down the list of parts I needed to buy. 

I eventually came across a post from a collector in South Surrey, near where I live, who had two Series 1 gearboxes available. After doing some research I learnt that the gearbox internals between the late 50s and and early Series 2 gearboxes were the same, or similar enough; it was worth taking a look. 

Unfortunately they were not kept in the best condition. One had moisture inside and had clearly rusted internally. The other looked okay-ish, so I paid my $100 and wrestled the thing (dragging it) around an obstacle course of treasures and leveraged it into my truck. Not easy to do: these things are heavy!

Unfortunately, in the process of moving the gearbox I bent something in the rear output housing -- not sure what -- and oil started to leak out. Not a great start to my plans. Things kind of went downhill from there.

The first task, though, was to clean up the gearbox as much as I could, so out came the hose and some degreaser:

I had a little of the oven cleaner left over, so I used that until the can kind of gave up the ghost.

Then, it went up onto the work cart (I use a cart from uline with wheels on the bottom for this kind of thing) for an inspection. 

Still pretty gross. 

Time to drain whatever fluid is left: 

... and take a look at the underside of this thing. 

Ooooh, boy. 

This gearbox might be even yukkier than my last one. 

Start by taking off the small assemblies discussed in the last post; the transmission brake and the hi/lo selector lever & linkage, above and to the right. I had to get a wrench in there to find out where the nut was. It was entirely covered by sludge! The photo I took, above, is after I started loosening off the components. You can kinda see below into the yogurt container where I had to scrape off material just to see where the fasteners were. Gross.

Time to remove the linkage and the mounting feet:

As you can see above I also removed the front output flange, hoping -- hoping! -- that it would be serviceable. [Editor: It was not.] 

I also took off the selector shaft cover. Then it was time to work on the rear of the gearbox. Off with the inspection plate and mainshaft bearing housing, and the transmission brake drum and backing plate:

Not too difficult. I have found that Mike from Britannica Restorations' removal tool works great for this purpose. It's thin enough to get in between the aluminum components and broad enough that it won't mar them as you pry with the tool. You can buy one from him or just make your own by hitting up your local hardware store. 

Neat old gasket:

Wonder how long that's been there. 

Anyway, once that's done, remove the other mounting foot and take a look at the speedo housing:

It's an absolute shambles. So caked on with leaking oil and dirt. In some cases, the fasteners cannot be seen at all there's so much material gummed on there. Is that a frickin' stick I see? 

Barf. 

Flip the gearbox on its side for the next bit:

I sense there will be much cleaning in my future. 

Let's start by trying to get to some of the fasteners around the transfer case sump:

In the photo on the right there's a fastener in there that you can't see. It looks like there's nothing there, but trust me when I say there's a nut that needs to come off. Where do you even put your wrench? 

Maybe it's time to take a minute to see if we can uncover the nuts:

The removal tool again coming in handy, this time as a scraper. The smeg was so thick I needed the tool to start lifting it off the transfer case. 

Here's how much I pulled off of just that one small section of the transfer case:

Yikes. 

Eventually, I was able to remove the sump cover and get to the intermediate shaft. Unlike my last transfer case, this one came out fairly easy without a fight. Some gentle heat with the torch and  out it came. 

The shaft itself was trashed, with deep wear grooves in it, but it look at least like the intermediate gear is okay. Maybe it can be reused. 

Once the intermediate gear is out, the nuts holding the transfer case on to the transmission can be accessed and removed. 

Et voila. Just like the manual says, you now have the transmission and transfer case separated into its major assemblies.