To the folks with manual gearboxes and other interested people
...coming back from an exciting trip on the New Zealand south island my gear shifting got suddenly worse - hard to shift between 3rd and 4th, lever seemed to be locked in the gear it was in...s*** - what's going on here ?.... I was approaching a town and pulled into a parking, stopped-though ...next thing the lever was even more locked and I was not able to shift into reverse - only 1st and 2nd left. What's that ?? Thought about a broken detent ball on one of the fork shafts... Was getting dark soon and it was not a good place to camp. So I first rang the insurance company to see if I would be eligible for a tow truck ride home. Rather expensive....it turned out and not before a automotive workshop has ruled out the issue could be fixed in town. As I always do all the work on the 60 by myself I was not keen either to have some random mechanic trying things. It was of course the weekend anyway. Than I had a brilliant idea and called an old friend who was for a time the president of the New Zealand four wheel drive association and knows a lot of people around. Turned out he knew a guy close by who might be helpful - at least could offer a good workspace. So I limped upon his invitation to his farm - and was able to pitch my RTT and have a well deserved beer.
Next morning I prepared myself to pull the top cover off the gearbox to check the situation out, It would be such a easy task if that carpet would not be held in place by the seats...ok - fnally the gear lever came off and there was the issue right in front of me: the plastic seat of the gear lever was completely detoriated and falling to bits as I pulled the lever out, some of it went straight down into the 'box. Well that was a relief - but where to find a replacement on the weekend in rural New Zealand ? A bit annoying to know that there were probably a handfull of them in old gearboxes of derelict Land Cruisers in the backyard of farms not too far away.... My very helpful host had all sorts of old vehicles - series one Land Rover - Willys Jeep - Dodge Power Wagon....some old British cars....but nothing close to the seat I needed, but he had a box full of old rubber parts including shock absorber bushes from the Dodge. The size was right and so I ground the bush in endless turns and revolutions smaller and finally fit for purpose. It worked a treat !
I safely went home which was still a days worth of driving.
At home I replaced it with the one I took out in perfect shape when I rebuilt my gearbox about 8 years ago.
What happened I believe was that I replaced my clutch prior to the trip down south. I remember that I used a grease like lubricant - in fact brake cylinder rubber lubricant on the seat when putting it back in. While doing that I thought " I should not need any lubricant here....being perfectly splash lubricated" but it was put together. Now I think that that rubber lubricant somehow reacted with the plastic material of the seat - maybe together with the Redline MT85 in there....who knows. That seat was also a aftermarket one which came in the Terrain Tamer Gearbox rebuild kit. I think it was out of one component instead of the bi-component genuine one. So - genuine or aftermarket - don't lubricate your plastic seats with rubber lubricant !
On the left of course the remains of the old one - the donor rubber - and the finished replacement.
View attachment 4169666
...coming back from an exciting trip on the New Zealand south island my gear shifting got suddenly worse - hard to shift between 3rd and 4th, lever seemed to be locked in the gear it was in...s*** - what's going on here ?.... I was approaching a town and pulled into a parking, stopped-though ...next thing the lever was even more locked and I was not able to shift into reverse - only 1st and 2nd left. What's that ?? Thought about a broken detent ball on one of the fork shafts... Was getting dark soon and it was not a good place to camp. So I first rang the insurance company to see if I would be eligible for a tow truck ride home. Rather expensive....it turned out and not before a automotive workshop has ruled out the issue could be fixed in town. As I always do all the work on the 60 by myself I was not keen either to have some random mechanic trying things. It was of course the weekend anyway. Than I had a brilliant idea and called an old friend who was for a time the president of the New Zealand four wheel drive association and knows a lot of people around. Turned out he knew a guy close by who might be helpful - at least could offer a good workspace. So I limped upon his invitation to his farm - and was able to pitch my RTT and have a well deserved beer.
Next morning I prepared myself to pull the top cover off the gearbox to check the situation out, It would be such a easy task if that carpet would not be held in place by the seats...ok - fnally the gear lever came off and there was the issue right in front of me: the plastic seat of the gear lever was completely detoriated and falling to bits as I pulled the lever out, some of it went straight down into the 'box. Well that was a relief - but where to find a replacement on the weekend in rural New Zealand ? A bit annoying to know that there were probably a handfull of them in old gearboxes of derelict Land Cruisers in the backyard of farms not too far away.... My very helpful host had all sorts of old vehicles - series one Land Rover - Willys Jeep - Dodge Power Wagon....some old British cars....but nothing close to the seat I needed, but he had a box full of old rubber parts including shock absorber bushes from the Dodge. The size was right and so I ground the bush in endless turns and revolutions smaller and finally fit for purpose. It worked a treat !
I safely went home which was still a days worth of driving.
At home I replaced it with the one I took out in perfect shape when I rebuilt my gearbox about 8 years ago.
What happened I believe was that I replaced my clutch prior to the trip down south. I remember that I used a grease like lubricant - in fact brake cylinder rubber lubricant on the seat when putting it back in. While doing that I thought " I should not need any lubricant here....being perfectly splash lubricated" but it was put together. Now I think that that rubber lubricant somehow reacted with the plastic material of the seat - maybe together with the Redline MT85 in there....who knows. That seat was also a aftermarket one which came in the Terrain Tamer Gearbox rebuild kit. I think it was out of one component instead of the bi-component genuine one. So - genuine or aftermarket - don't lubricate your plastic seats with rubber lubricant !
On the left of course the remains of the old one - the donor rubber - and the finished replacement.
View attachment 4169666
