Land Rover 90 gear selection problem

Hi, as i am new to land rover ownership i hope someone may be able to help. my 1986 LR90 2.5TD has the lt77 gearbox and has doen 82k miles from new. In the past week it has been getting harder and harder to get into gear. sitting on the drive tonight i fully pressed the clutch down and carefully selected 1st gear, but there was grinding noise, as if the gear was not fully disengaged. How do i find out if it is the clutch or gearbox that is at fault?
Any suggestions welcome.

Hows your clutch fluid level?

and have a play with the nuts on the master cylinder output shaft

and start saving/planning to fit a new clutch/release arm

Clutch fluid is fine, and hasn't moved in level over the period the gear change has got worse. tonight on the drive home from work, even with the clutch fully pressed in it was biting and i was moving forward, dont know if this helps at all with any suggestions.

Clutch fork about worn through at the pivot point?

GRATCH said:

Clutch fork about worn through at the pivot point?

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i tried to break that option to him gently

pistolpete101 said:

Clutch fluid is fine, and hasn't moved in level over the period the gear change has got worse. tonight on the drive home from work, even with the clutch fully pressed in it was biting and i was moving forward, dont know if this helps at all with any suggestions.

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B&B clutch inc fork £80 ebay.

After reading about other peoples similar problems, that was the conclusion i was slowly coming round to.i am reasonably handy with a set of spanners, is it a difficult job?

pistolpete101 said:

After reading about other peoples similar problems, that was the conclusion i was slowly coming round to.i am reasonably handy with a set of spanners, is it a difficult job?

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It shouldn't be too hard as long as you remember where everything came from. It will be time consuming though.

Ultimately i am looking at doing a 200tdi conversion,does anyone know if i would have to change the clutch to do this, if so the transplant may have to be brought forward as i don't want to be taking the clutch out twice.

pistolpete101 said:

Ultimately i am looking at doing a 200tdi conversion,does anyone know if i would have to change the clutch to do this, if so the transplant may have to be brought forward as i don't want to be taking the clutch out twice.

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You dont have to but while you have the engine out it'd be silly not to...bring the transplant forward.

pistolpete101 said:

Hi, as i am new to land rover ownership i hope someone may be able to help. my 1986 LR90 2.5TD has the lt77 gearbox and has doen 82k miles from new. In the past week it has been getting harder and harder to get into gear. sitting on the drive tonight i fully pressed the clutch down and carefully selected 1st gear, but there was grinding noise, as if the gear was not fully disengaged. How do i find out if it is the clutch or gearbox that is at fault?
Any suggestions welcome.

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PP, not long after I got my defender, I slowly lost some gears then I got stuck in 1st gear. It turned out to be down to "the dreaded grubscrew."

As I'd just bought it and needed some other stuff done, I put it into a local garage, but as far as I know (from other posts on here) this is a really common thing and dead easy to fix. Apparently, there is a grub screw in the linkage which comes loose and you loose your gears. Some have stopped the problem from re-occuring by fitting a jubilee clip over the hole so it doesn't come out again.

I hope this helps.

Funnily enough, I have noticed lately that my little high/low gear selector has an awful lot of free play (like stirring porridge) and I was wondering if this might be a similar problem.

Ron.

You guys don't think it could be a hydraulic problem?

I'd have said if you don't think you have a fluid leak, maybe the clutch master cylinder is at fault. I don't have any experience of landy clutches, but I'd have thought that if something wore through and broke, it would be more of a sudden break rather than getting harder and harder to put in gear over time.

Sean said:

and have a play with the nuts on the master cylinder output shaft

and start saving/planning to fit a new clutch/release arm

Click to expand...

have you done this yet ?

if it where just clutch it wouldnt grind it would just not go in ,baulk rings worn out need rebuild dont buy second hand will be in similar state

I used the clutch from my 90td[it was only a year old] when i put a 200 in. Do both at the same time,that way you will save taking gearbox out,lots of info about putting in a 200 on this forum.

pistolpete101 said:

Clutch fluid is fine, and hasn't moved in level over the period the gear change has got worse. tonight on the drive home from work, even with the clutch fully pressed in it was biting and i was moving forward, dont know if this helps at all with any suggestions.

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Sorry, I didn't read this post - nuttin to do with the grub screw then. Maybe worn seals on the master cylinder - this could allow the fluid to leak back into the reservoir without losing any and therefore not letting the slave cylinder operate properly.

Thanks everyone that has suggested things to check, i'm going down the route of checking the clutch release arm first and will report back with the findings. Can anyone recommend a how too guide for changing it.

if release arms gone pedal will be on the floor,if master cylinder leaking clutch pedal will be wet ,if clutch grabbing gears will jam ,if grating baulk rings worn

i would be more inclined to check the clutch reservoir. if the fluid is gone it will prob be the slave or the master cylider, the fluid from the slave will go into the clutch bell housing and the fluid from the master will leak into the footwell. if the fluid is still there it could be the master and the piston seals are allowing fluid past. this is the easier check rather than taking the gear box off. master and slave can be bought for little money and changed quite easily. if when you take the clutch slave cylinder off the push rod is free and moving then the clutch release fork is fine as this is attached to the fork via a plastic clip.