Gear problem while driving last night

I was driving my 1976 Series III last night and it went out of gear a couple of times. Then I heard some clunking sounds and the gear stick stopped doing anything, i.e. being in any gear now feels like being in neutral. I tried playing with the overdrive and 4 wheel drive setting but no difference. The engine works fine, starts, accelerates etc. Any advice on what I'm looking for as I try to sort it out over the weekend? Thanks

I'd remove the transmission tunnel and check the stick is engaging properly with the selector rods as a start.

Where was the noise from? Chock the front wheels, let the handbrake off and try turning the rear propshaft. If it turns you've probably just snapped a half shaft.

The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere in the area of the gear stick/dashboard middle.

Forget my earlier suggestion then. Does the stick feel like it's going into gear even though you don't get drive?

Yes it goes perfectly in and out of each gear, just each gear does nothing at all and acts exactly like neutral.

Apart from the clunks when it first happened, what sort of noises do you get now, and if any, do they change when you move around the gearbox? Does the clutch pedal feel normal?

J80s said:

Yes it goes perfectly in and out of each gear, just each gear does nothing at all and acts exactly like neutral.

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Transfer box in neutral?

Turboman said:

Transfer box in neutral?

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Doh! I've had a nightmare of an afternoon, and am not fully in Landy mode.

boguing said:

Doh! I've had a nightmare of an afternoon, and am not fully in Landy mode.

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No idea what its all about, just saw his post on lz live. Often is if they say that.

Ah, I completely misunderstood. I thought the gearstick was flopping about.

Losing drive is a bit different

Back from work so had a chance to check now in a bit more detail. As described, the gear stick seems to work as normal but the gears simply don't do anything and act as if it's in neutral. However, I've just noticed that 4th gear is actually giving drive (though a bit hard to drive in 4th in the area I have it to test it properly). Reverse and the other gears do nothing. The clutch feels normal, and everything else seems fine. I've tried moving in and out of 4 wheel drive and overdrive but with no difference.

Will it work in low 4th? Sounds like layshaft or its bearing has gone. In 4th gear drive goes direct through the box, the lay gears just freewheel so 4th will still work even when lay is broken unless something jams up.

Great, thanks for narrowing that down. Yes I'm pretty sure I tried it in both high and low 4th when I was testing it earlier. If it's the layshaft or bearings is that likely to be the kind of job I can do myself or is it a bit specialist? And are those types of parts fairly available?

If you are capable of getting the box out you should be able to sort it with help from this site.

And if you're lucky, @jamesmartin will happen along and tell you which parts to buy - I'm fairly sure that there are later model parts that you can fit for a stronger gearbox. I've done one but forgotten what they were. I used two workshop manuals for the gearbox rebuild, the official Land Rover one and Haynes. The official one is far better if you can find one.