Series III - 2.6 6Cyl Gearbox removal help

This could be a stupid question but how do you get to the fixings on the bell housing and flywheel housing? The bulk head is in the way.

My Landie is at my local garage, in France, and the french mechanic wanted to charge me €1000 to remove the engine to get to the gearbox just to look at it. I printed off 37.20.01 from the manual and 76.10.12 and 76.70.06 (He has not removed the floor plates yet as they are rusty and covered in some sticky black insulation).

I understand the floor plates need to come out to remove the gearbox, I'll probably have to order some new ones, but will that allow access to the bell housing? I can't see how though.

Any help would be grateful, also in baby language as I'll have to translate that into french, should be fun.

Cheers

Yes you need to remove the floor plates, tunnel and the bottom part the bulkhead/firewall where the tunnel attaches. This gives access to the full 12 bellhousing nuts.

You will also need to remove the entire seatbox to lift the gearbox up and out through the doors. However, before you do the seabox, check if the gearbox crossmember has been converted to a removable one as on military Land Rovers of the time. This allows the box to be dropped instead saving a lot of time. (A popular conversion in the day as it made changing boxes quicker).

The 6 Cyl gearbox sits around 3" further back in the chassis which means there is slightly less wiggle room. If I remember correctly (its been 20 years since I had a 6 Cyl 109 and changed boxes and engines), then if you have an overdrive you may have to remove that from the box first in order to get enough room to get the input shaft out of the flywheel. Also, in case you are not familiar, the 6cyl engine/box combo has a different bellhosing stud layout to that of a 4 cylinder engine. So if replacing the box with one from a 4 cyl you will ave to swap the bell housings.

Thank you for that, I appreciate it.

Regards

Looks like I'll have to do it myself. The French garage mechanic doesn't want to do it as it looks too much like hard work.

SWIMBO is not amused as the mechanic told her it was too rusty round the floor plates and that we should sell it to an enthusiast who could deal with it properly. Got to convince her that I can do it. 😕

It is not hard, just very time consuming the first time you do it. It helps to have a friend as well.

You are going to require ostensibly 7/16, 1/2, 9/16 & 3/8 sockets and spanners.

Start by getting the floor out, you may need to angle grind the original speed screws off so you can see the bell housing.

I would suggest at this stage also removing the seats and seat box. Yes some of the bolts WILL shear.

This will give you access to most of the box.

Next after CHOCKING the vehicle disconnect the prop shafts, remove the hand brake lever.

If you have an overdrive fitted then remove this from the back of the box which is about 6 WHITWORTH nuts and it's lever bracket.

Now you can try undo the gearbox mounts. Sometimes it is easier to remove the mounts from either the box or the crossmember as getting to the rubber themselves is awkward.

Finally undo the 12 nuts around the gearbox. Note that the clutch slave cylinder is on a bracket on the right hand side of the bell housing, disconnect the sleeve that connects the cranked arm into the gearbox to the thrust bearing. You do NOT have to disconnect the hydraulics just push it to one side.

I would also recommend removing the gear lever as it gets in the way.

Use a price of timber between the flywheel housing and the flywheel cross member to support the rear of the engine before trying to separate the gearbox. Now use a hoist, several blokes etc to withdraw the box through the passenger door.

As a hint undo the door stay so you can open the door further for better access.

If you end up changing the gearbox make sure you use the original thrust bearing unit from the 6 cylinder box as they have the correct depth. The 4 cyl look the same, but it hurts when you have to pull it apart again as the clutch wont release!

I highly recommend replacing the clutch while you are in there too, also check the rear crankshaft oil seal on the engine and replace it if confident.

The first time I did this it took 3 days in torrential rain outside the house. But you can get it down to 1 with experience 😀

Remember to get a good selection of replacement nylocks, bolts and washers in either imperial or metric (M6 & M8 mainly). Plus some replacement speed nuts and screws for the floor.

Hope this helps

BTW the most time is spent in actually dismantling the bodywork just to get to the gearbox.

If yo do have a removable cross member then you can get away without removing the seat Base which takes the most time.

I am referring to how I did my S11a 25 years ago. I am not sure if you have a S11a or S111 so am not sure if they changed the clutch release mechanism on the 6 cylinder gearbox as the did with the 4cyl on the S3

Replace the gearbox mounting rubbers too if you can get them

Bring it up here, I'll give you a hand.

If in doubt angle grind off the bolts and replace - it's quicker! A dremel or similar is useful for those difficult to reach bolts. Floor panels should come out easily as they are big screws into spire nuts, seatbox comes out fairly easily with a bit of grinding, engine lift through door to move gearbox back once you've removed gear linkages, propshafts and handbrake. It is possible to do it on your own but allow a couple of days.

The spire speed screws that hold the floor down respond to a farly hefty clout on the head beforectrying to undo. They undo easier than normal nuts annd bolts. When putting things back use plenty of copprr grease and any future work will be much easier.

Peter

Thanks guys, I'll show this to the missus. Wish I could get it up to Normandy, might take a while though😄 cheers. Got a friend who can help either the shifting and my mums hubbie has done a few gearboxes, albeit on tractors, in his time and is coming over for a week end of April.

I'll let you know how I get on.

marcus28 said:

Thanks guys, I'll show this to the missus. Wish I could get it up to Normandy, might take a while though😄 cheers. Got a friend who can help either the shifting and my mums hubbie has done a few gearboxes, albeit on tractors, in his time and is coming over for a week end of April.

I'll let you know how I get on.

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Im no expert and did mine in 2x 7hr days. Not hard or trchnical, just a lot of spannering and faffing.