The 110 has blown its gearbox again as er my other thread asking what the noise was (link). Happily stripped it out in a few hours (the advantage of a recent rebuild) and have now dropped it to ashcroft for what will be its third rebuild from them. while there the discussion of what box would be best for my needs came up, I currently run a 50A as that is what was behind my TD engine originally. The TDI engines had an uprated box, however the layshaft in these uprated lt77's is no longer available so if that is not good the box cannot be rebuilt, it is available for the 50A that I have. Ashcroft were trying to sell me, at great cost, a stumpy r380 as that would be better for my needs, is a better match for tdi, and they can rebuild it with an uprated bearing set on 5th. This all sounded very good until the question of life span came up:
From our great gearbox oracle James martin the lifesplan of an lt77 was somewhere between 60-100k miles.
Ashcroft also said lifespan 60-80 so agrees with James.
Based on when I last had mine rebuilt and the mot mileages the one that has just blown has done between 80-110k (cannot be bothered to dig out the paperwork invoice that i wrote the actual mileage on)
All of the above points to the lifespaln of an lt77 being correct at somewhere between 60-100k miles
When I then asked this question about the r380, which is a newer designed box, would have the HD bearing set on 5th, and cost nearly 3 times as much as getting my lt77 rebuilt because i would need to pay them for the core unit as well, i got the same answer and that the lifespan was about the same.
Both gearboxes having the same lifespan does not sound right, although they are the experts, and based on that I said to rebuild mine again and I would do my research in the mean time. No point paying a lot more money if there is no advantage in terms of how long it lasts (i know the gearing is slightly different and would be a slightly lower first and higher 5th which would be good). Does that sound right to the people on here, are both boxes really equal in terms of lifesplan?
Also if it is a route I want to go down I can then find my own r380 box so I do not have to pay for the core unit and just for the addition parts (stumpy bell housing, etc) and rebuild. Having said that are all r380's equal, and therefore any box form any vehicle will do, or do I need a specific box? I know it will need a stumpy bell housing and a different diff lock leaver to my lt77 etc but the lt77 had lots of different variants, is this the same for the r380?
From our great gearbox oracle James martin the lifesplan of an lt77 was somewhere between 60-100k miles.
Ashcroft also said lifespan 60-80 so agrees with James.
Based on when I last had mine rebuilt and the mot mileages the one that has just blown has done between 80-110k (cannot be bothered to dig out the paperwork invoice that i wrote the actual mileage on)
All of the above points to the lifespaln of an lt77 being correct at somewhere between 60-100k miles
When I then asked this question about the r380, which is a newer designed box, would have the HD bearing set on 5th, and cost nearly 3 times as much as getting my lt77 rebuilt because i would need to pay them for the core unit as well, i got the same answer and that the lifespan was about the same.
Both gearboxes having the same lifespan does not sound right, although they are the experts, and based on that I said to rebuild mine again and I would do my research in the mean time. No point paying a lot more money if there is no advantage in terms of how long it lasts (i know the gearing is slightly different and would be a slightly lower first and higher 5th which would be good). Does that sound right to the people on here, are both boxes really equal in terms of lifesplan?
Also if it is a route I want to go down I can then find my own r380 box so I do not have to pay for the core unit and just for the addition parts (stumpy bell housing, etc) and rebuild. Having said that are all r380's equal, and therefore any box form any vehicle will do, or do I need a specific box? I know it will need a stumpy bell housing and a different diff lock leaver to my lt77 etc but the lt77 had lots of different variants, is this the same for the r380?
