Broken Down

This is a sight that our neighbours have seen twice recently, it's becoming some kind of common occurence - but it's to be expected since we have done 6000+ miles since we got him in October.
Going to the local classic mini meet, and just getting into the town it was being held in it started a god awful squeaking noise - something that can only be described as a loud EEK EEK EEK. First thought that it was the prop UJ's needing greasing or it failing again (we'd bought a second hand one to get us by - silly as a new one is only £35, but when it's your only car needs must and all). It was too late to turn back and worry about getting home or not we'd arrived and went into the pub.
Eventually we left at 10.20pm and got into Toni, all was well to start with, but after about a mile down the road it started again, we'd just got to the roundabout before our turning off to the road home and he completely locked out - leaving a nice number 1 on the left hand side of the road and smoke everywhere. It was obvious that we weren't going to get home tonight - so the AA was called - we ended up with a repair van instead of just a lift - after much discussion with him he'd called the centre and got a flat bed on it's way to us - estimated time was 11.50pm - so we weren't going to get home until 1am. We got lucky and the flat bed arrived at 11.10pm and loaded us onto the back - unfortunately the AA previously had moved the Land Rover onto the grass verge to get us 'out the way'. Meaning that once we had got loaded to the flat bed we where stuck in the mud in it! A lot of muttering and swearing by the driver of the flat bed whilst he tried to think of many ways to get us out - he'd tried wood, grit and sheer determination - and eventually called another one of his colleagues to pull us out. Whilst sitting waiting Chris came up with the idea of winching to a lamp-post which was behind us - this got us pretty much unstuck and just as this happened the other truck turned up - after an hour of this most frustrating amusement we where on our way home!

Current guess of diagnostics is that the rear differential is dead - haven't had a chance to check properly yet - but a quick check showed that there was too much play in it.

We've now managed to get a daily runner, something which we where talking about on the way to the meet - maybe that's why he broke down?

Replaced Prop

Bearings had gone in the prop - lots of lovely play in it - was a five minute job to do 8 bolts and then it was out, new one in and do the 8 bolts up again.

Running nicely since we got the muff - gets up to a normal temperature and manages to stay.

No other problems to report!

Box done and dusted

Everything is now back in and so far so good without any major problems, a little bit of clutch fade, but that is probably due to the fact that the clutch had the usual grease they pack them in.

Fingers crossed that it's alls well that ends well.

Day 3 - Bolts

And here is the little baztard that looks like the cause of the problems...


When the box was put together/rebuilt no lock-tight was put on the threads so eventually it worked itself loose. As it got to the end of the thread it wedged against the bearing cover and pushed the shaft back and forth as the threads span round (which caused the juddering).
Thankfully it hasn't damaged the threads in the shaft and another bolt will just wind in a torque up without any trouble.

Another bonus is that the friction plate has very little wear so I only need to replace the pressure plate and bearing (already ordered), good thing to as the friction plate alone costs over £120!

There is one unknown left and thats the transfer box rear output oil seal. It only lets out a few drops here and there but if its easy to do then it may as well be done while the box is out.

Day 2 - Gearbox Out

After getting the bench out yesterday, the next big job was to take the box out.

First was to take the props off (you can just see the rear one is off). This revealed another possible head-ache. When the last bolt was taken out a large glug of transmission fluid followed, could be a knackered oil seal on the output shaft....



With the props off we could start unbolting the bell-housing and mounts. Everything unbolted easily and the box seperated from the engine without to much fuss, what did slow us down was one of the mounts not wanting to seperate, we ended up taking the whole mount off the chassis.

And out it comes....



With the box out of the way we could see that the diaphragm 'fingers' were badly worn, you can see the wear ring in the centre. This was caused but a worn thrust bearing (pictured below)




And all that is left is a large hole....


With the box safely on the ground we will be able to investigate the cause of the problems. We have already noticed that the input shaft has a little to much play in it so who knows what else we might find, lets hope nothing to scary!

Day One - Removing Interior

So it starts and we are now properly stuck at home.

Tonight's task was to get ready to take the gearbox out, which took longer than expect - the amount of bolts holding the 'bench' in. Something that should have only taken an hour took over 2 hours.

Reckon it's just the release bearing, but obviously can't order parts until it's out and we know for sure - not too sure how long it's going to take us - labour wise not too long, just getting the chance to get down and get to it.

Thanks to John for lifts and help.

Here are some pictures from today.

Nice clean chassis and awful grubby gearbox.

Offending object rather nicely coated in grease/mud/grim!

Completely stripped - ready for gearbox removal.

New Muff!

Having serious problems with cold at the moment, doesn't get up to temperature at all. So to solve and keep old Toni warm - we bought him a muff!

Works a treat and he now managed to get up to a normal level on the temperature gauge and we don't end up freezing!

Gearbox woe

Over the last few days we've had a very loud squeaking, which can only be described as someone riding a bike very quickly with a rusty chain, you can mainly hear it when you shift into 2nd and then slightly into 3rd. The noise changes with road speed but goes away when the clutch is pressed. Previously it has sounded like it has had a squeaky release bearing.


Coming home from the workshop this afternoon (after making progress on Mutley I may like to add) he started juddering really badly! One very sick landie!