S11a Trans. Box, Handbrake and Prop. Woes

With the approaching MOT I had a look at changing the rear prop on my 1965 S11a 88 as there was loads of play in the splines and investigate various issues with the handbrake. The problems I found were;
Excessive wear in rear prop splines
Wobbly handbrake drum
Oil in handbrake drum
Lateral play in the transfer box rear output shaft

Am I right in assuming that the bearings in the transfer box will have worn, causing the shaft to wobble and wear away the oil seal to cause the leak, and this wobble has also caused the wear in the prop shaft splines?

Can these items be renewed with the box still in place? If these are worn, is it likely the rest of the gearbox will need renewing?

I guess there are no quick fixes to get it through its MOT? If I just fitted a new oil seal, that would soon leak and the handbrake would still wobble and knacker my new prop shaft.

Is this an easy fix or is it my excuse to rebuild my landy on a new chassis?

Dont say that.
My MOT is due and my handbrak is oiled and my pro shafts wobbel :-(

Arggh! It was you clivees who I was counting on to help me out with this! All I can say is get yer landy to the garage in Grantham where my landy's previous owner last MoT'd it cause it must have been as bad as this then. I wish I hadn't looked so I didn't know about the problem!

Think I'm off to price up a galv. chassis and ponder on whether I can rebuild my transfer box.

HI Tinribs
just been rebuilding a s111 box tonight, your diagnosis of mode of failure is sound, but it will be a box out jobby as the bearings and output shaft need to be knocked out from opposite side, as for rest of box needing replaced ask your self were there any other symptoms, ie jumping out of gear, crashing gears, whining , noisy reverse. its fairly cheap and not too difficult to replace the seals and gaskets and the odd bearing
steve

Cheers Steve, most of that was good news! In many ways it would be good to take the whole box out as I seem to have a delayed reaction clutch so I guess there is oil in there so then I would get to check the engine and gearbox oil seals.
The only other thing I've notice about the box (apart from the noise!) is that I can shift 1st and 2nd gears without the need to double declutch. I have not ruled out yet that it may not be its original gearbox but does this become possible with a well worn non synchromesh gearbox?

Had a read through the Haynes Book of Lies and the gearbox doesn't look too complex to sort out. Is that correct? Is it just a case of knocking it apart and replacing anything worn and then putting it back together - no setting of preloads on springs and that type of stuff? Can get hold of bearings quite cheaply too and I see one of the well know parts dealers has a long list of gearbox parts on their website.

Just need to go and attack my chassis with a hammer to check the rest of the landy is worth patching up!

They are fairly easy to work on, i bought one off ebay for £20 to practice on first, thats what im on with now, you can check the what suffix gearbox from the number on the top of transfer box, the link gives a bit more info on synchomesh boxes
Land Rover gearbox history

Cheers steve! Have you bought some replacement parts or are you just dismantling and then putting back together an old gearbox? Just looking at my options and I see that Legs do a Transfer box kit at £60 before Vat and I've just been through my parts book and got nearly up to that figure on Crapdocks website and hadn't included everything. That nasty Vat always ruins good looking prices!

HI the idea was to repair the suffix b box cheaply and put it in while i renovate the suffix d, then sell suffix b later, probably spent about £30 on full gasket set, oil seals, reverse shaft and bearing and couple of other needle bearings. if youre just working with the one box its going to be off road a bit longer but as a novice gearbox builder taking notes and piccies as you go it can be stripped in a day, then another day to check the parts

Thanks steve, I'll whip the box out and have a rummage inside and see what it needs.