Southeast Overland
Get lost! Go explore!
A friend's son called me over a few days ago and asked if I would help him fix his transmission on his 03 Land Rover. I told him fixing an auto tranny on a Land Rover is probably waaaay above my head but I would be happy to look at it.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I was shoveling mulch and the kid comes over and asks if I could help...I say sure. Kid is a nice kid and I wanted to help if I could.
Now for a little background. Kid was mudding in a stock Land Rover with basically bald rear tires. He got stuck...got unstuck...got stuck immediately again and then broke his front driveshaft. A friend could not pull him out so he called a tow truck. Tow truck driver made kid sign a release that no damages would be the tow truck driver's fault. Kid signs release and driver drives into woods and pulls truck out. On the way to wherever the truck was being towed to a loud "clunk, clunk, clunk" sounds comes from the Land Rover. Kid tells driver to pull over but driver says "its OK." Kid lets driver keep driving. Kid doesn't inspect Rover until later and finds damage.
Well my friends - ends up the Land Rover was still in 4 wheel drive and the broken front driveshaft had not been removed. Said broken front driveshaft had a fun time bashing the hell out of kid's tranny. Kid tells me that the tranny is leaking fluid and tranny won't catch a gear. Kid bought Rover about 6 months ago used, maybe a little more, and never baselined the fluids so kid doens't know if tranny was low on fluid before or if this is a result of the tow incident. No fluid was in kid's driveway so fluid leaked out somewhere else. Kid has not noticed fluid anywhere on the ground.
I went under the truck and the tranny pan was as I said beat to hell by the broken driveshaft. Tranny pan gasket was ripped almost in half. Kid says that is all that is wrong. I figured that fluid was just leaking past the almost completely torn gasket. I pulled out some body hammers and hammered the lip of the tranny pan back to almost perfect. Kid wanted to reinstall the old gasket but I told him I would not - he had to get a new gasket. So, right before I leave I roll under the Rover to take a look at things...and...
...the broken driveshaft took a chunk of metal out of the tranny's upper aluminum housing. I told the kid and kid says "I guess that's why the dealership said the tranny was cracked."
I'll get pics to document everything tomorrow. My camera's battery was dead yesterday.
So...kid barely has enough money to buy a gasket and fluid so he definitely doesn't have enough money to get this fixed right at the dealer who wanted $800 to install new plugs and wires. Kid said something about wires being tucked way behind the engine...who knows. Kid wants to pull a tranny out of a junk yard and install but I told him I wouldn't be able to help with that. Kid also thought it would work to super glue the gasket back together and it would be good to fill the tranny pan with fluid before you try to install it back into place.
Now here is the current plan (get a load of this). Since the upper tranny housing is cracked and kid doesn't have money to have the dealership fix we are going to try to JB Weld the crack which truthfully is not a crack but more of a missing chunk of metal. We then will use Mr. 'gasket in a tube' to seal between the area on the pan I beat the snot out of to straighten and the tear in the old gasket. Then Mr. Gasket Maker will also be used to seal between the missing chunk of tranny housing and the crack in the old gasket. Kid doesn't want to buy a new gasket now b/c I told him I doubted this method would work. Kid wants to be able to drive the Rover for a couple months before he has money to spend on the right repair. Oh, kid also said it was OK to drive the Rover without tranny fluid as long as you stayed on the highway because you wouldn't be shifting gears much.
I give this on-going repair a 1 out of 10 for a successful outlook/repair and a 7 out of 10 for redneck booty fab.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I was shoveling mulch and the kid comes over and asks if I could help...I say sure. Kid is a nice kid and I wanted to help if I could.
Now for a little background. Kid was mudding in a stock Land Rover with basically bald rear tires. He got stuck...got unstuck...got stuck immediately again and then broke his front driveshaft. A friend could not pull him out so he called a tow truck. Tow truck driver made kid sign a release that no damages would be the tow truck driver's fault. Kid signs release and driver drives into woods and pulls truck out. On the way to wherever the truck was being towed to a loud "clunk, clunk, clunk" sounds comes from the Land Rover. Kid tells driver to pull over but driver says "its OK." Kid lets driver keep driving. Kid doesn't inspect Rover until later and finds damage.
Well my friends - ends up the Land Rover was still in 4 wheel drive and the broken front driveshaft had not been removed. Said broken front driveshaft had a fun time bashing the hell out of kid's tranny. Kid tells me that the tranny is leaking fluid and tranny won't catch a gear. Kid bought Rover about 6 months ago used, maybe a little more, and never baselined the fluids so kid doens't know if tranny was low on fluid before or if this is a result of the tow incident. No fluid was in kid's driveway so fluid leaked out somewhere else. Kid has not noticed fluid anywhere on the ground.
I went under the truck and the tranny pan was as I said beat to hell by the broken driveshaft. Tranny pan gasket was ripped almost in half. Kid says that is all that is wrong. I figured that fluid was just leaking past the almost completely torn gasket. I pulled out some body hammers and hammered the lip of the tranny pan back to almost perfect. Kid wanted to reinstall the old gasket but I told him I would not - he had to get a new gasket. So, right before I leave I roll under the Rover to take a look at things...and...
...the broken driveshaft took a chunk of metal out of the tranny's upper aluminum housing. I told the kid and kid says "I guess that's why the dealership said the tranny was cracked." I'll get pics to document everything tomorrow. My camera's battery was dead yesterday.
So...kid barely has enough money to buy a gasket and fluid so he definitely doesn't have enough money to get this fixed right at the dealer who wanted $800 to install new plugs and wires. Kid said something about wires being tucked way behind the engine...who knows. Kid wants to pull a tranny out of a junk yard and install but I told him I wouldn't be able to help with that. Kid also thought it would work to super glue the gasket back together and it would be good to fill the tranny pan with fluid before you try to install it back into place.
Now here is the current plan (get a load of this). Since the upper tranny housing is cracked and kid doesn't have money to have the dealership fix we are going to try to JB Weld the crack which truthfully is not a crack but more of a missing chunk of metal. We then will use Mr. 'gasket in a tube' to seal between the area on the pan I beat the snot out of to straighten and the tear in the old gasket. Then Mr. Gasket Maker will also be used to seal between the missing chunk of tranny housing and the crack in the old gasket. Kid doesn't want to buy a new gasket now b/c I told him I doubted this method would work. Kid wants to be able to drive the Rover for a couple months before he has money to spend on the right repair. Oh, kid also said it was OK to drive the Rover without tranny fluid as long as you stayed on the highway because you wouldn't be shifting gears much.
I give this on-going repair a 1 out of 10 for a successful outlook/repair and a 7 out of 10 for redneck booty fab.
was not impressed.
