Well, it had to happen sooner or later!!

Pulling out from a side road today in my DSE auto into traffic, accelerate hard onto the main road, and all of sudden, plenty revs, no forward motion

Car behind brakes, beeps and goes round me as I'm sitting on the side of the road on a blind bend!!

Sitting there for a minute trying to figure out what went wrong but I already knew, I've been nursing the change from first to second lately as its been getting rougher. Clutch pack failure I'm guessing!! Damn you Datatek you were right

After trying to ring one or two mates to get a tow I tried reverse and it was working so i found a place to turn and reversed the rest of the way home.

Looks like I'll be spending the weekend taking out a gearbox.

we love range rovers

whats the mileage on the box ?

2.0_hippo said:

we love range rovers

whats the mileage on the box ?

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153,000 miles, at least 83,000 of which I've done with powerbox fitted so while it may hasten gearbox demise it doesn't mean instant death

SpudH said:

Pulling out from a side road today in my DSE auto into traffic, accelerate hard onto the main road, and all of sudden, plenty revs, no forward motion

Car behind brakes, beeps and goes round me as I'm sitting on the side of the road on a blind bend!!

Sitting there for a minute trying to figure out what went wrong but I already knew, I've been nursing the change from first to second lately as its been getting rougher. Clutch pack failure I'm guessing!! Damn you Datatek you were right

After trying to ring one or two mates to get a tow I tried reverse and it was working so i found a place to turn and reversed the rest of the way home.

Looks like I'll be spending the weekend taking out a gearbox.

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Sorry to hear that, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get my box out at some point but it's so big and heavy that I've been putting it off. I have a spare in the 96 which I want to get out and overhaul but as the car won't move that will be on my back in the field
Have you tried selecting 1st to see if it will move?

I think the box did pretty well considering.

StuckAgainSteve said:

I think the box did pretty well considering.

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I've no issue with the box failing after 153,000 miles. Mine has had a pretty hard life between spending a lot of time off road and towing. And in fairness its given me plenty notice. The shift from 1st to 2nd has been bad for several thousand miles now, I normally lift off to ease the change but I just forgot this time. The other gearchanges are silky smooth but it did bang from 1st to 2nd.

I have a spare 99 that I was going to try and get going but I'll take the box out of that now.

Thankfully I'll have the ever helpful Seanmull to help me out raise:

Hi , what is the major conversion from m51 change to m57 in to p38

You could have tried forcing the gearbox into limp mode... it would engage 3rd and stay there, as a get-you-home measure... not sure how you would do that, though... maybe Keith or Tony could opine??

Clarky130 said:

You could have tried forcing the gearbox into limp mode... it would engage 3rd and stay there, as a get-you-home measure... not sure how you would do that, though... maybe Keith or Tony could opine??

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Tony, or James martin will know better than me, but if there was no movement forward with 1st selected then there is no hope,of forcing it into limp mode as the main forward drive clutch may have given up

Clarky130 said:

You could have tried forcing the gearbox into limp mode... it would engage 3rd and stay there, as a get-you-home measure... not sure how you would do that, though... maybe Keith or Tony could opine??

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I tried low range and all the gears but no movement forward. Thinking about it now I should have tried low range in manual mode but I reckon Keith is probably right. I must ahve a look on RAVE later.

Mind you it would have saved me a 6.5km trip in reverse gear, I got some looks I can tell you

Datatek said:

Sorry to hear that, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get my box out at some point but it's so big and heavy that I've been putting it off. I have a spare in the 96 which I want to get out and overhaul but as the car won't move that will be on my back in the field
Have you tried selecting 1st to see if it will move?

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The gear box jacks are well worth there weight in gold.

defender300td1 said:

The gear box jacks are well worth there weight in gold.

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I've a 2 tonne 2 stage transmission transmission jack in my pit, fine for dropping and replacing the box in the runner, but no use for getting the box out of the doner
Plan to lug the engine, box and transfer box out of the donor in one piece on the end of my excavator

Update:

I went out today to get it ready for transporting to Seanmulls place and I said I'd just try low range manual. No go in D,3,2 but then in 1st I had movement forward! So I then tried it in normal high range and I have the same! When I was stuck on the side of the road I thought I tried 1st but maybe not (I have a bin slung around the gear lever and it sometimes gets in the way of getting into first, in my panic on the blind bend I may not have noticed it not going into 1st properly).

Anway, it will drive in 1st but not in D (or any other gear except 1st). Once moving, I can shift into D and it will drive away and shift as normal. However if I come to a stop it will not go again unless I put it into 1st. It will go right down to walking pace in D and take off again but not if I stop.

So I presume this narrows it down to one clutch pack.

This throws up an interesting dilema for me. I have a 99 P38DSE which I originally bought as a donor with a fried engine but when a good engine landed in my lap I was going to get it going again. When the gearbox went in my own that plan changed. However, I also have a non running 95RRC softdash which is rotting away in my front garden. It is only an electrical problem which is stopping it from running but its been like that for a year and a half in which time the body has deteriorated badly. I could take a clutch pack out of that gearbox which was running really well before the engine died?

Or am I being stupid, is a new clutch pack expensive or is fitting one something best left to experts

fitting clutch pack A isnt a bad job ,remove bell housing and pump housing and its first one you see ,check next clutch too ,plates should look light brown (friction material dark brown )poor clutchg will look blackish , i can get you price of new clutches ,but not a long job if a spare box is lying about to check clutch in that as a donor

jamesmartin said:

fitting clutch pack A isnt a bad job ,remove bell housing and pump housing and its first one you see ,check next clutch too ,plates should look light brown (friction material dark brown )poor clutchg will look blackish , i can get you price of new clutches ,but not a long job if a spare box is lying about to check clutch in that as a donor

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Thanks James,

I'll send you a PM when I have the box off this evening

Cormac

whoever said life was easy obviously never had a p38 auto the good box is now in spud,s machine bolted to engine and cross member in place all other assembly pending . i just hope the new box is as good as we think

seanmull said:

whoever said life was easy obviously never had a p38 auto the good box is now in spud,s machine bolted to engine and cross member in place all other assembly pending . i just hope the new box is as good as we think

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It better be, it'll be a week before I can lift my arms above my head again

PS True dedication to Range Rover ownership is helping a mate change out a gearbox even though your leg is in a cast
Seanmull, An utter nutter

to be honest i have pains where i never even thought i had parts. spud if you are that sore be nice to your wife or she will be able to slap you around the house :fencing: