gearbox removal method

[RobboMC]

Does anyone have a method for removing just the gearbox without removing the whole engine/sub frame at the same time?

I believe the left side of the sub frame has to come down to get the gearbox out of the vehicle.

[Reckless Rat]

According to the workshop manual it can be done, but it involves lowering the left hand side of the subframe. The preparation is quite lengthy.
E-mail me if you need details.

[RobboMC]

Yeah but not as lengthy as dropping he engine as well. It's those little lines like "Drain Cooling System" and "Depressurise Hydragas" that I want to avoid.

I've got the workshop manual so I'll try the 'drop left side of sub frame' method. Still kicking myself that I didn't split the gearbox open and have a look inside but that's history now.
I know someone that refitted a gearbox in 4 hours ( with a hoist though ) so it is possible.

[chrisrigby]

Yer done it... undo the g/b then you'll find it moves around a bit..... to get that extra space jack up and support the engine and then undo the mountings that gives you some "wobble" space to remove it. Ok not technically the correct way to do it but it worked when my clutch arm went.

[RobboMC]

So there's no how to available so I made up my own - with reference to all those that leave their ideas here.

Also a disclaimer - I am not a licenced mechanic, but an somewhat experienced DIY self taught at home car owner. Use this procedure at your own risk.
I also assume you have some knowledge and ability; and a decent range of sockets and spanners.
Oh and you will need a ball joint/tie rod tool.

Disconnect battery - remove engine cover.
Jack up front wheels and place on four inch blocks and choc front wheels. There's a good reason for this.

To the engine bay - remove air cleaner box and all the ducts to and from the resonator.

Remove starter motor electrical leads. Leave the starter motor itself for later.
Remove the fuel filter mounting bolts and remove air cleaner mounting bracket. This one also has a trick - attack the bolt nearest the guard by standing behind the car and going in left handed. 3/8" flex drive adaptor and extensions are a must. Don't remove or break open any part of the fuel system.

Remove the slave cylinder. Then remove the slave cylinder bracket. Getting at the bracket bolts is really good fun with an extension through the holes.
For some reason the upper bolts are 13mm heads and the lower ones are 14mm. I suggest you don't mix them up.

[RobboMC]

Remove speedo cable - disconnect reversing switch - remove gearbox earth lead from inside boot wall.

Stop and have a good long drink orfwater.

Now to the wheel arches.

Jack up car and place stands under the sub frame ( for now ) and remove both back wheels.

Remove the silencer as a unit by removing the support bracket on the drivers side, then remove the heat shield. Once the silencer is gone there is
remarkably good access to the back of the vehicle. Note the 2 pieces of foam I use between the tailpipes and the bodywork to stop the pipes from scratching the paint as they come out.

Then remove the rear anti-roll bar.
I disconnected the lower attachment bolts near the hubs. It's a little less accessible but seemed easier to turn. The upper one was very tight.

Disconnect both upper ball joint nuts and split the joints with your ball joint tool.

Then place a jack under the upper arm where the abs cable clips on ( release the cable first and swing clear )
and jack the arm upwards JUST enough to release the joint. I think all this does is send a bit of hydralastic fluid forward.
You have to do this on both sides.

Release the driver's side driveshaft from the gearbox. I find the hub cap tool from my 4WD does pretty well at this, you need something wider than a screwdriver.
They aren't real tight, but need just the right amount of force to pop through the circlip.

Now to the left rear wheel arch.
Remove the brake caliper ( NOT the bracket like the manual shows ) and tie up clear with no tension on the hose.

Remove the tie rod bolt and split the joint with your tool. Remove the lower hub bolt, disconnect the driveshaft from the gearbox and remove the entire left rear hub assembly and put aside. This seems like over kill but you will see why later.

Release the two gear change cables. I found no need to remove the abutment brackets or selector linkage that the manual suggests at this point but remove them if you wish as it makes things easier later.

[RobboMC]

Remove the 4 buttress bolts and remove the buttress from the vehicle.
One bolt covered by the hydragas line is a real bugger to get at. I found lifting the line upwards in the wheel arch made it just possible.

The bolt nearest the passenger is best removed from through the wheel arch. You've heard of Rubik's cube, well this is Rubik's buttress. It does come out of the car, but not easily. Sort of roll it sideways and remove towards the exhaust manifold,
then out through the wheel arch. It does come out.

Remove the gearbox mounting bolt. The book says with assistance, but by using a ring spanner at the top and a 18m socket from underneath on the nut it's quite possible to do it single handed.

Unbolt the resonator from the inside of the wheel arch. Raise the gearbox as high as you can without crushing the resonator. Now the book says remove the resonator, but I found that impossible. So now attack the 2 bolts that attach the gearbox mounting bracket from underneath. Loosen and remove the bolts, then remove the bracket and resonator together!

Remember this for refit time.

Remove the left rear shock absorber bolt.

[RobboMC]

Now comes what could be called a Sophie's choice.

The sub frame can't be lowered far enough with the main coolant pipes in place. These are the choices:

a) drain coolant and disconnect both coolant pipes at engine end. This choice comes with refilling and bleeding the coolant system at the end ( and probably new coolant )
so if your car is due for coolant probably take this route.

b) remove the underbody crossmember and unbolt the coolant pipe assembly from under the car. This choice comes with the removal of 22 bolts from the crossmember.

Neither is very palatable hence my reference to Sophie's choice.

I chose the crossmember route as I am keen to prove this job can be done without dropping any of the coolant or hydralastic fluids.

So remove the underbody crossmember. Now you see why the front wheels are off the ground. That extra 4 inches of ground clearance just made this step possible.
22 bolts take a long time, it's a bit like being in a traffic jam, lots of pain with slow gain. Just commit to the work and get it done.

Unbolt the coolant pipe assembly from the underside of the car and let it hang from the rubber hoses. Do not disconnect the hoses.

Unclip the left side hydragas line from under the car and from around the wheel arch if not done already.

Take weight of body with a jack under the body jacking point. I have a slotted wood block on the jack as you can see.

Also place a bottle jack under the rear of the sub frame to steady it, and the vehicle jack under the centre of weight of the gearbox.

Remove the jack stand.

[RobboMC]

Remove the 3 rear and 2 front sub frame mounting bolts. Nothing should move as you are supporting both the body and the subframe at the moment. Recover the roll bar bracket.

Now lower the sub frame towards the floor. I was able to wiggle one of the jacks out and get the sub frame onto just one scissor jack.

At this point the end of the gearbox rests on the sub frame, helping it to come down. Land the sub frame on a small block of wood, maybe 2 inches thick.

Make sure you don't stretch the hydragas line by helping it over the front mounting.

Now you can look in and see pretty much the whole gearbox. I hope it comes out through this hole!

Remove the starter motor. It's a heck of a lot easier now than at the start when the workshop manual says to do it.

Now is a good time to pack away all your tools. By this time you should have used almost every socket and spanner in your sets.
If you have got this far a cup of tea is probably a good idea as well. You will soon need that extra energy.

Now get your long extension and unbolt the gearbox from the engine. Now is a good time to support the engine and gearbox from beneath.
make sure you use a block of wood between your jack and the sump.

[RobboMC]

Now raise the gearbox so it will come out above the sub frame.

Take a large lump of wood ( mine was 4 inch square about 12 inches long ) and whack the diff side of the gearbox so it comes away from the engine block.
Once it's moved 1/2 inch you should be able to wiggle the rest by hand. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE GEARBOX SUPPORTED SO IT DOESN'T HANG FROM THE INPUT SHAFT.

Slightly stretch that hydragas line under the front sub frame mount to keep it of of the way for a few minutes.
Once clear of the engine rotate the gearbox 180 degrees end over end through the wheel arch.

Amazingly - it comes out. The gear case lands on the floor right where the hub assembly would have been. Dragging the weight of the gearbox across the hub assembly would not have been good - hence it's total removal. Also makes getting the left driveshaft out much easier.

The gearbox is now removed from the vehicle with the fuel and coolant system totally intact! And both sides of the hydragas system are still intact AND fully pressurised!

And the only jacking equipment used was:

standard trolley jack

the standard Rover jack from the vehicle

one jack stand

the bottle jack from my 4WD. I believe any other vehicle jack could be used but the bottle jack does have a nice high lift and makes life easier.

oh and a never ending supply of blocks of wood, preferable 4 inch square. If you are planning this job go to the timber yard and get 6 foot of it.

[RobboMC]

I now suggest to render the vehicle safe. Block up and support the engine, same with the lowered sub frame. make sure your trolley jack is secure
under the body, or block it and remove the jack.

Put away all your tools and then comes the final step in my procedure:

Sorry about the picture rotation.

If you've got your gearbox out in 1 day you deserve this at the end. In my case a decent Strong English Bitter, I made myself but that would be another complete thread.

[RobboMC]

Reflections:

Unbolting and lowering the sub frame was the easy bit!
Didn't need excessive jacking equipment, just that extra bottle jack from someone else's car. Buying a bottle jack is cheaper than paying a mechanic.
Didn't need to jack the car up very high at all, just a few inches with the trolley jack once the 4 inch block was in place.

The most difficult parts were getting the bl**dy resonator out and the air filter bracket. I feel like chucking the resonator in the bin
and fitting a B&G air filter system. It's a horrid thing to get out.

The starter motor can be a challenge until you work out the combination of spanner and socket. Same applies to the diff side engine to gearbox bolt.
The 1/2" tools seem too big to fit, and the 3/8" tools aren't strong enough. I have a high quality 3/8" breaker bar as well as a 3/8"-1/2" adaptor.
In short, you need every possible socket/ratchet/bar/torque wrench/spanner combination available.

The rest is pretty straight forward although the crossmember is a lot of bolts. Work from the side rather than from below
to keep the tool close to the level of your heart to reduce the effort required. I can't see why 22 are needed, I reckon about 6 would suffice.
I pretty much used every size socket and spanner in my sets from 8mm to 19mm in both 3/8" and 1/2" drive and the full range of long, short and flexible socket extensions;
and the associated ratchets and torque wrenches.

Don't need to rebleed the coolant system or repressurise the hydragas. That's gold!

[RobboMC]

I also now think the 'remove starter motor' instruction is in the wrong place. Why not disconnect the starter motor wiring and then unbolt the starter motor
after lowering the sub frame when doing the rest of the gearbox to block bolts? Or simply leave the whole lot; wiring and all, until the resonator comes out and there's a mile of access room. I'll be doing this in reverse when putting it back in.

[RobboMC]

Now replacement is the classic - reversal of the removal procedure.
I followed the exact procedure for refit in the workshop manual but changed the order in a few places.
There are some things that MUST be done in the correct order. I found out the hard way, gaining a lot of 'experience' along the way.

I did replace the starter motor before bolting up the sub frame, was it any easier? Well not really although access with the socket
drive via the still empty wheel arch was a breeze. Getting the nuts onto the bolts is still just about impossible. These
should have been captive nuts on a steel bracket like the exhaust side.

Once the gearbox was mated up to the engine and bolted in ( easier said than done believe me! ) bolting up the sub frame was easy.
I replaced the ball joint along the way as the old one was so stuffed I couldn't bolt the suspension arm together again.

The resonator/ gearbox mount /buttress combination is a real pain to refit and the air cleaner is less so but still annoying.
And the gear cable abutment brackets do need to go back on before the shift bracket with the roll pin ( That bl**dy roll pin goes in LAST!)

But everything seemed to take twice as long to fit as it did to take apart. Nothing lines up and almost nothing just bolts in easily.
Make sure you have a full bottle of Loctite on hand for the cross member bolts and grease whatever all things the book says when replacing.

Filling up the gearbox with new oil before refitting the silencer also made a lot of sense.

All in all a great experience that I won't be repeating in a hurry.
If your mate asks you to help him refit his gearbox tell him you are on an overseas holiday.
If you're not, book one and go!

[Bovrilman]

Remove speedo cable - disconnect reversing switch - remove gearbox earth lead from inside boot wall.

Stop and have a good long drink orfwater.

Now to the wheel arches.

Jack up car and place stands under the sub frame ( for now ) and remove both back wheels.

Remove the silencer as a unit by removing the support bracket on the drivers side, then remove the heat shield. Once the silencer is gone there is
remarkably good access to the back of the vehicle. Note the 2 pieces of foam I use between the tailpipes and the bodywork to stop the pipes from scratching the paint as they come out.

silencer x.JPG

Then remove the rear anti-roll bar.
I disconnected the lower attachment bolts near the hubs. It's a little less accessible but seemed easier to turn. The upper one was very tight.

roll bar.JPG

Disconnect both upper ball joint nuts and split the joints with your ball joint tool.

ball joint.JPG

Then place a jack under the upper arm where the abs cable clips on ( release the cable first and swing clear )
and jack the arm upwards JUST enough to release the joint. I think all this does is send a bit of hydralastic fluid forward.
You have to do this on both sides.

releasing susp arm.jpg

Release the driver's side driveshaft from the gearbox. I find the hub cap tool from my 4WD does pretty well at this, you need something wider than a screwdriver.
They aren't real tight, but need just the right amount of force to pop through the circlip.

Now to the left rear wheel arch.
Remove the brake caliper ( NOT the bracket like the manual shows ) and tie up clear with no tension on the hose.

Remove the tie rod bolt and split the joint with your tool. Remove the lower hub bolt, disconnect the driveshaft from the gearbox and remove the entire left rear hub assembly and put aside. This seems like over kill but you will see why later.

hub.JPG

Release the two gear change cables. I found no need to remove the abutment brackets or selector linkage that the manual suggests at this point but remove them if you wish as it makes things easier later.

I am currently doing this right now on my car, its been a pain and i still haven't finished, is it at all possible to remove the gearbox without removing the LH Hub? I have removed both of the lower nuts and the driveshaft from the hub, but for the life of me i cannot get that upper tapered ball joint out. I don't have the right tool admittedly but i do have the claw pin pusher type tool but i just cannot get a grip around the underside. I also tried using brute force with a hammer, block of wood and the nut at the top of the thread to avoid damaging the thread, didn't seem to work...

I would also like to say that on my car the gearbox has a ground lead connected to one of those gear change bracket bolts that is impossible to get to without removing the gear actuator thing. I'm just going to cut the wire and make a connector (If there isn't one already, i'm not really sure) I think that will be easier

[RobboMC]

Hi Bovrilman,

In my experience the answer is no. I don't think it's possible to get enough slack to remove the passenger side driveshaft
without removing the top ball joint connection.

I got this segment of the procedure from a very well known German mgf website and I don't think it would be there if it wasn't needed.

If you need the right tool then get the right tool. You are still saving huge money over paying a mechanic to do this job. My ball jint splitter
came from Super Cheap Auto and didn't cost much, A$15-20 from memory.

Are you doing the clutch or rebuilding the gearbox? You might get enough room to change the clutch without removing the hub,
but if you are trying o get the gearbox clear of the car I found the space where the removed hub came from essential in getting he
whole gearbox out through the wheel arch.

Also, don't remove the driveshaft from the hub! Leave the hub assembly intact and withdraw the hub and driveshaft assembly as a unit.

A warning though, if it's stuck that hard then using a splitter is likely to terminally damage the ball joint. Replace it while you are in there,
and that means a big expensive socket.

[Bovrilman]

Hey RobboMC

this is a very late reply i know, i do not go onto these forums much. I did eventually get the upper tapered joint out eventually, I think i borrowed a ball joint removal tool from a friend. The rest of the disassembly and reassembly went fairly smoothly and i found that the throw-out bearing was very stiff on the shaft that it slides on causing to much bend in the slave cylinder bracket. I replaced it and also the clutch assembly while i was at it. Great transmission removal guide btw!

[RobboMC]

Thanks Bovrilman

I've had a lot of help from people on this forum over the years teaching me all of this so it's a credit to them as much as mine.

[Rob Bell]

Nice instructions!

[Rich in Vancouver]

RobboMC
Thanks for doing this how-to.
I will be doing this job over the winter and was not looking forward to dropping the subframe. The thought of lifting the car high enough to clear the engine in my narrow garage scares the liver out of me. Lots of weight and physics involved there!
Just today it occurred to me that it may be possible to remove the box alone and the how-to popped up after a quick search. The job will be a bit different for me as my other winter jobs include having my spheres regassed and replacing my PRT thermostat and hoses with the standard setup, so the fluids will be out which should (may?) help.
I have done a lot of mechanical work so no worries with the re and re, particularly with your instructions on the lap-top.
My big challenge will be stripping the gearbox to replace bearings and synchros, as I haven't done a lot of gearbox work
I'll be sure to post how I make out!