Transfer Box Transmission Rebuild, Parts Availability

[WineCountryRover]

Hello all,

My 1965 Series 2 has developed a horrific clattering sound in 2nd and 3rd gears around the shifter/transmission tunnel area. Drained the transfer box and theres some yellow sparkles in the oil. So thinking theres a rebuild to do now. I don't have the space or a barn to rip it out and try to tackle it myself so a British shop it must be.

After calling around to a few places (the Sonoma/Marin California region), everyone seems to have no issue scheduling a drop off in the coming months; however, one shop immediately said that he can't get all the parts and the ones he can are going to be months out on order.

Has anyone here recently had or heard of this issue? I can't believe with such a following that no one can rebuild a Land Rover 2 gearbox anymore and source the parts to do so. But I also don't want to feel blindsided if someone puts it into pieces and I get dreadful news it can't be saved.

[jimrr]

be optimistic, someone here will have answers! many internal parts are available.

[vlad_d]

WineCountryRover I have some good and bad news. I was literally in the same boat. I am in the Richmond, CA area (Bay Area, like you) and had a Series 3 LT77 Gearbox to rebuild. I spent about 6 months to 1 year trying to find someone in the Bay Area to rebuild it. I had lots of enthusiastic “overlanders” shops willing to talk to me about it, but they didn’t have the expertise to work on a vintage Series. There was one old guy out in Livermore I talked to for a bit, but he got sick and couldn’t do it. The local “British” car shop wouldn’t work on anything older than 10 years. The local transmission shop by my house wouldn’t do the job even after I bought 100% of the parts. And I can’t blame them. A shop business is like a shop bay losing money every day. If your car sits there, it costs them like $1000 a day of lost business they could be running. If they have to stop your job and wait 2 weeks for a special part, that $1500 profit just turned into $15k of business loss. So, they turn down the business, of make(semi plausible) excuses about parts availability.

Parts availability. I had a thread on here documenting my rebuild. All the parts are available (but not all Genuine LR, you’ll have to use aftermarket for some and the casings just aren’t made, so you use yours or another core). Here is a list of my Series 2a/3 synchro’d LT77, with supplier links(you’re ). Note: This is for the serial number and suffixes I had. Yours may differ, but the sources will be the same):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13FmnoIo10uMIkS4IwnY6APv2wqMbJN3mUgVcGm0W1q8/edit?usp=drivesdk

I will say that some of the aftermarket parts are terrible, which is just the way it goes with LR. But, most are good, and just need some lapping to fit right - which I can’t tell if that’s the expected workflow with LR since almost every part has been like that. So, take it with a grain of salt. But all the parts are available, and cost about $2500(see spreadsheet). Getting someone to assemble them is another matter.

I was doing a 100% new parts assembly, which I don’t recommend for the fitment reasons above. I sorted out all part numbers, which was no small task, but do-able by using the parts manual. My issue came when the aftermarket bell housing didn’t leave the right clearance with the case. It bound up and I couldn’t sort it. I tried for a year, on and off.

I basically came to the conclusion that I was on my own. I got this truck to have mechanical projects, and I was getting exactly what I asked for. I exhausted all reasonable local options. I realized even with local options, I’d still probably have to pay someone $200/hr to spend indefinitely on it…but, I couldn’t find anyone.

So, I bought a rebuilt transmission from our hosts. It cost about $6500. But, you get the gearbox + transfer case + parking brake all new/rebuilt. So, it’s worth it. That assembly is like 1/3 of the running assembly on a Series and any transmission shop won’t touch anything for less than $5k anyway, so, for a specialty vehicle in the Bay Area that’s reasonable. They offer a $500 core charge if you send in your old one, but I looked for shipping a transmission to Vermont and that was $1400, so I just ate the core charge and kept my old one. The transmission came after a 3 month waiting list(they charged me only before shipping). I spent 3 days putting it in, in front of my driveway, on the street. I don’t know if I’d recommend that as it was a lot, but do-able. Nothing bad happened and it was pretty straightforward, if not messy and slow. I took the opportunity to replace some other things(parking brake lever and X-brake, shift knob, rust coating on frame, etc). So, it CAN be done, in the Bay Area, with little garage space, and all the parts available. I’m as frustrated as you with the mechanic availability.

I do have now 2 transmissions, if you want them. One is the aforementioned 100% new parts(which can be salvaged for a new build) and the one that came out of my S3 which has a bad 3rd/4rth synchro. You are welcome to them. I am about to put them on FB marketplace to anyone who will pick them up. PM me if you’re interested. Probably $3k of stuff I’d give away.

I’d say it’s tough to decide what to do because of the mindf&@k of the situation. Something says this should be cheap and easy. Many stories from guys in North Carolina getting it done at the local shop for $500. But, that’s not the reality for someone on the West Coast in the US, let alone in the Bay Area where car shops just want to work on 10 year old Prius. The economics are just different. You end up paying more for labor on stuff than the new parts available costs. There IS a possibility of just buying a couple bearings and a synchro for $500 and getting a buddy to rebuild it…but that’s hard to count on. In the end, I looked at the actual cost of transmission shops and realized I’d be spending $6k anyway, and be lucky to find a shop willing to do it…or have to pay a car shipper $1800 twice to ship to them in Vermont or Georgia, etc. So, buying the one from our hosts and installing it myself was my best option. I’d probably recommend the same. Get a buddy to help. You can do it in a weekend.

[vlad_d]

Here’s some photos of the install…

I used a Harbor Freight hoist and engine leveling kit, and a winch to pull it up my angled driveway. I did it in the street in front of my driveway because I didn’t want to remove the only braking method on a slope(I didn’t trust wheel chocks alone to hold the truck while I was under it).