Ashcroft gearboxes - quality problems

Good to hear of a company coming on and being so frank. Welcome aboard Ashcans....oops

couldnt agree more ,seems a fair bloke,and when this happens it stops all rumours before they get chance to spread,fair play for coming on here and explaining..

well thats a nice reply.
Mine was indeed a baulk ring failure but was a while ago will need to check dates. To be exact. My brother is an ex LR trained mechanic who has rebuilt boxes in the past with the LR tools he used to race with Dave ashcroft in the AWDC mid 90's. He stripped my box for me as far as he could without the correct tools.
I managed to select either 4th and 3rd or 3rd and 2nd. The gearbox never dis engaged fully and I could only hold 3rd or 2nd gear which was fun driving back to luton from Redborne ford (driving past ashcroft HQ) after a phone call a day after I was told that because it was over by a month nothing could be done. I believe Dave himself was away or wasn't there when I asked for him. So after a no go with help I asked my bro to strip it. Thats where it lays. I have every respect for Dave, Ian and his team. Way back when he would help out the awdc members for special bits and bobs. Shafts, lockers and diffs all seem bullet proof as does their gearboxes normally. I vowed never to buy another from them after the failure. My dad had an R380, couple of years ago my bro an LT77 a few months back aswell as a detroit locker and truetrac for his series he is building which have all been top notch. I had enough of dodgy gearboxes after trying a few S/H route and bit the bullet and went back for a recon box from ashcroft myself. They sorted out a cracked casing that caused lots of grief for me at the time with the guy in Markyate which I am thankful for. Still I have this gearbox under the bench all wrapped up nice and clean but what to do: probably eng up weighing it in TBH unless I can Hire the tools or make them which means some time which is rare these days.

3rd 4th sliders has fallen out and jammed, because the 3rd 4th spacer ring had broken will check tomorrow make sure what im saying is wrong Jai

spitfire enlighten us:

As Ashtrans is now a member - I assume you could PM him to see what is possible?

I dont think I ever raced with david???

jai your box failed because the 3rd/4th syncro hub sliders/shifters became dislodged and held your 3rd/4th gear offset and partially engaged.

This stopped you re engaging 4th and also put enough movment into the interlock system to stop you engaging any other gears.

I suspect the selector forks have suffered a little with your attempts to get a gear, any gear, engaged.

The box will need stripping and all bearings will need replacing at this point in time. It has been a while you know! The selector forks will need checking over to.

If you can get together and find some tools for stripping down properly I can rebuild it for you over a couple of nights easily enough.

Just for info. I have used ashcroft for several products recently. And as I have said in another section I dont have another name to suggest on the gearbox front. These guys are about as good as it gets in this field.

It is frustrating when a gearbox gives trouble because it almost always needs a strip down, special tools and knowledge and loads of dosh. Just be aware that the alternative will be over 1000 pounds for a genuine, new, if you can get one.

In my humble opinion, the best thing about a miliary recon gearbox is the crate they come in! Second hand boxes are scrap value only unless you have personaly driven the vehicle AND can watch as the oil is drained.

I am currently waiting for a modified transfer box case for my series from ashcroft. Heres to July!

well I just done an ok deal on a few landy bits So I'm willing to put in some dosh for the tools mabe we could club together and get a local landyzone set lol or possibly I could even hire some for a couple of days and get Spitfires lathe and welder working.

My gearbox was one of the ones in question. After having it rebuilt last year after the welds snapped on the synchromesh on 3rd gear i had it rebulit by dave and the team and everything seemed good. 3 weeks after the 12 month warrenty run out it went bang on the m1 :doh:

Thanks to this thread and after reading dave's reply i took it down to ashcroft and left it with them.

Was told few days later the pinion needed replacing and they are on back order till end of june so was trying to think what i could do for a month n half with no car (landy my only drive)

Yesterday i had a phone call saying my box was all ready to collect so thought that was a good result and went down to pick it up. Spoke to dave and he was very helpfull along with everyone else i delt with there. Dave explained how bad i had destroyed my box and it was due to low oil so my fault although i checked it recently i may not of tightened up the plug i dont know?

Still i just want to say thank you to dave, beatrice on reception and everyone else at ashcroft transmissions for there help and support

Gibbo-phil said:

Dave explained how bad i had destroyed my box and it was due to low oil so my fault although i checked it recently i may not of tightened up the plug i dont know?

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that's very convenient for Ashcrofts ......

Did they fit a second hand part then? as he had no stock until the end of the month i thought

Yes they had to fit a second hand pinion but new lay shaft and other bits

Sean said:

that's very convenient for Ashcrofts ......

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It may or may not have been "convenient" for Ashcrofts, but they did the honourable thing and, it seems, to Phils satisfaction. What more can you ask?
At least they came on and discussed the problem.
We are still waiting for Britpart!!!

I dont see a problem with second hand parts.

Most reconditioned gearboxes contain second hand parts. Only the parts that have been inspected and passed OK, are used. Exceptions will include gaskets, seal and bearings. All parts that fail inspection will be discarded.

This is the reason it is called reconditioned. If gearbox repair companies replaced every component they would be selling NEW gearboxes! And at a price most customers would find hard to justify.

Any experienced mechanic will be able to tell if the gearbox was run without oil. Just as mechanics can tell if you overheat, abuse or fail to service your engine. Internal evidence is hard to dispute and almost impossible to fake.

A gearbox letting go due to lack of oil is a major rebuild and many new parts.

My personal feelings are ashcroft have been very generous if events stated previously are true.

Well, not had a gearbox from them but bought a CDL kit for the Disco....

I fitted the said item and for those who have gone before know it is a painful progress!
I finally got everything re riveted and started to tighten up the 4 frame bolts.. I was rather dismayed to have 2 shear off!! Especially since there was the best part of 8mm of thread still exposed...

Upon a strip down again I found that the frame wasn't quite the same construction as the original - only 2 of the bolts go through and through the other 2 are drilled and taped into the leg of the frame but only to a short depth..

Bit annoyed as there was no warning from Ashcroft that I needed to find other bolts and not re-use the originals.

Living in the arse end of nowhere when it comes to technology and also obviously having a car out of use it was a long slow process and expense I didn't need to locate, send off the frame and get someone to drill out, re-tap the thread and then me having to re drill the mounting plate a tad larger to accomodate the bolts...

Emailed Ashcroft and got a big fat - no interest - see ya..

So I for one will not be recommending them or using them again...

Customer interest/ service - nil

James

Good afternoon I have found this thread today - and how very timely indeed

I was travelling on the M25 @ 60mph and my 5th gear failed on my LT85 gearbox - behaving like a neutral, with grinding noises coming when taking off in 1t then 2nd etc...so had to drive 30 miles in 4th gear hoping for the best . This is an exchange box supplied by Ashcroft as part of a gear + tranny box exchange done on Jul 1st 2009, apprx 25k miles ago - at great cost.

Whilst the box is obviously out of formal warranty and I did get indeed the great service and efficiency I was expecting from the Ascroft brand at the time, I must admit I was disappointed that such heavy duty unit failed on motorway just after 20k miles (mainly motorways, and some light green laning) , having been treated very well -

Called in today and was quoted either a full exchange again @ approx £1,2k or a fix @ £550 - I must admit a straight exchange out of the question - please could anyone pass this onto Dave to see what can be done to help out - because a) such investment should not only last 3 years and b) being about to leave for Morocco this is not really boding well for the reliability of the boxes - at least in my experience, of course better on the M25 than the desert...

Any help gratefully received

GG - Weybridge, Surrey

The Mad Hat Man said:

I am still not able to post for some reason, please could you post this on my behalf,



Hi All,


I am more than happy to discuss these issues and be totally open with you,

Yes we have had quality issues in the past and I have made some very expensive mistakes in both monetary terms and reputation but we have always tried our best to resolve issues with the customer in a fair manor and learn from these mistakes,

In the last 18 months we have had 2 reoccurring warranty issues :

1) The moly coating flaking off some LT77 baulk rings, causing poor shifts, looked fine on inspection but after approx 3-4 months the coating started to come off due to poor bonding by the manufacturer, baulk rings were quarantined as soon as the problem was recognized and we switched supplier,

2) Our usual supplier ran out of a bearing for the LT230 intermediate pin and the replacement ones came in unbranded and the goods in guy didn't notice, they went on the shelf and were used, these turned out to be no good and we started to see failures within 3 months, again parts were quarantined as soon as the problem was recognized.

I don't think either of these issues are related to the failures discussed in this thread but I can't be sure as I have no details of these failures as yet.

There is no truth in me sacking a member of staff for sabotaging gearboxes.

We do not replace all parts when rebuilding units or this would not be 'rebuilding' it would be 'assembling new' and the far higher cost would reflect this.

Our company stance when a unit fails after 12 months is never 'tough it's out of warranty', we offer what we call an 'at cost repair' this means if you bring the box to us we do the labour free of charge and charge the parts at cost, a typical repair is either FOC or upto £ 100. This is what we would offer to both Jai and Phil if they wanted to bring the boxes to us.

Regards
Dave Ashcroft

I should add that the Highlighting is not on the original from DA, but my doing.

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DefenderItalia said:

Good afternoon I have found this thread today - and how very timely indeed

I was travelling on the M25 @ 60mph and my 5th gear failed on my LT85 gearbox - behaving like a neutral, with grinding noises coming when taking off in 1t then 2nd etc...so had to drive 30 miles in 4th gear hoping for the best . This is an exchange box supplied by Ashcroft as part of a gear + tranny box exchange done on Jul 1st 2009, apprx 25k miles ago - at great cost.

Whilst the box is obviously out of formal warranty and I did get indeed the great service and efficiency I was expecting from the Ascroft brand at the time, I must admit I was disappointed that such heavy duty unit failed on motorway just after 20k miles (mainly motorways, and some light green laning) , having been treated very well -

Called in today and was quoted either a full exchange again @ approx £1,2k or a fix @ £550 - I must admit a straight exchange out of the question - please could anyone pass this onto Dave to see what can be done to help out - because a) such investment should not only last 3 years and b) being about to leave for Morocco this is not really boding well for the reliability of the boxes - at least in my experience, of course better on the M25 than the desert...

Any help gratefully received

GG - Weybridge, Surrey

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It is amazing what an email to DA can do.......

Hi,

thanks for bringing this to my attention, I have logged on but I am not able to post for some reason, pls could you post this for me :

Hi GG,

I did indeed get this question relayed to me this morning by one of my staff but she did not mention it was a box we had supplied, I was just asked what would cause a LT85 to loose 5th and grind in 1st and 2nd, I suggested it could be the 5th syncro spline but it could also on reflection be the layshaft sheared where 5th attaches, this would cause both issues,

either way, as mentioned above if you would like to send the box in we would strip, inspect and offer an 'at cost repair', ie cost of parts only,

sorry you did not get this answer earlier,

regards

Dave Ashcroft

Good evening Mad Hat Man and thanks so much for transitioning communications with David Ashcroft, who also had responded minutes later to an email i had sent to the Company contacts - great customer service, even outside of business hours, so very appreciated both for timing, efficiency and quality of response.

True to the brand name's expected customer care level, an appropriate follow up has been agreed and hopefully pending my logistics to get box out & ship away all should be resolved relatively smoothly - so for now thanks for your help and there is hope for the coming 4k miles South Europe / morocco trip GG

Giovanni

no probs - dont thank me - its down to Dave.

I have noticed in all the treads about months , but none on milage.