gearbox locked up...

[andrew]

'70 IIA with o/d: Driving along in 2nd and 3rd mainly, ugly clunky noise, suddenly tough to shift...one block later can't shift in or out of forward gears, for the most part. When I was in gear, it would go sluggishly and jerky. Stopped in middle of road, people loving me.

Engine off. Very difficult to pry out of gear, can for awhile shift to reverse, but then not even that. In neutral, clutch or no clutch, either way cannot get into gear. Put o/d in neutral, put transfer case in neutral, only then could I push it to the side of the road, where it sits now.

Clutch is full of fluid, so no failure of lines, etc. Truck is far away from my house in residential neighborhood so not ideal to work on.

Any ideas on what I'm looking at, next steps, and how to go about it? My instinct is to tow to my house and tear it apart, and likely will find some serious ugliness in the gearbox, but I'd love to hear reasonable speculation and ideas before I do that.

Thanks in advance, any feedback and input appreciated.

[michelle]

Well, I think youve narrowed it down to the transmission!
Siezed mainshaft bearing(s), grenaded syncro assembly, I guess it doesnt matter at this point- its gotta come apart so you can remove the mangled parts. Get a friend with a tow strap, better yet a trailer or roll back and go get it before something worse happens to it!

[01birddog]

As usual keep us posted on what you find.......I really like the "Stopped in middle of the road,people loving me" part. Start every ride with this in the back of your mind. My last one was a distributor failure and was dead nuts in the middle of an intersection as i had just moved from stop light with no forward speed.Got to love these things.

[erik88lr]

As usual keep us posted on what you find.......I really like the "Stopped in middle of the road,people loving me" part. Start every ride with this in the back of your mind. My last one was a distributor failure and was dead nuts in the middle of an intersection as i had just moved from stop light with no forward speed.Got to love these things.

My last one was a snapped rear axle. Happily putting the transfer case into low range got me going with front wheel drive and through the intersection quickly enough to keep the love level reasonable.

[cedryck]

You know the drill, drain box, transfer box, look through fluid for shiny metal, pull gearbox, breakdown, I like the grenaded synchro, or locked up bearings, look for wear and work splines on main and layshafts, you will find it. Cheers.

[andrew]

After some overly complex limitations and logistics (including night time family outings to push the truck from one spot on the street to another, to mimic driving behavior so it would not get ticketed) I was finally able to get the truck towed into my driveway today. Upon draining the gearbox, shards of parts that should not see the light of day after installation confirm that there is real trouble inside.

My first question is simply this: can the gearbox/transfer case/overdrive be removed through the bottom of the truck (where gravity is my friend), or are the instructions I've read accurate? Does the whole shebang have to come out upward, through the cab?

[michelle]

Unless you have an aftermarket frame with a removable transmission-mount cross member, I think it has to come out up through the interior.

Why such a well thought out car that was built to be serviced on the side of a trail, next to a water hole or under a tree on the Savanna would have such a dreadfully awful way to access the gearbox is surely one of life's great mysteries!

[cedryck]

The rover world, full of Rover mysteries.

[andrew]

A little update on things for the curious. First, some kind soul did a marvelous job of modifying my frame to have a bolt-in crossmember, so gearbox removal was much simpler for me.

Second, see the scary and interesting pic...um, I think I found the problem. Ever seen a mainshaft break? I haven't until now. There doesn't seem to be any other damage besides the roller bearing, at least in the gearbox.

[jp-]

Wow! Now you'll have to wonder, was it the bearing that caused the failure, or the shaft failure that caused the bearing failure?