Morris Minor Owners Club

to be frank, my gearbox is bloody knackered, its fairly loud in all gears, sometimes doesnt like engaging in first and always throws out of fourth when the revs change (though a knee against the gearstick soon stops that) you can also hear a quite, but appualing grinding/whiring noise if i let it sit in neutral.

i dread to think whats actually gone on inside there but are these ribbed boxes worth reconditoining or should i just bite the bullet and buy one off ebay or somewhere?

Just keep your eye out for a cheapo. They do turn up quite regularly...

Don't throw the old box away. Donate it to someone like John Evans who can use the parts to rebuild other gearboxes.

Probably too late now to make any difference - but is there any oil in it ?? It would cost you a fortune to recon that one - just buy another 'known good' box.

Plenty of oil, to my knowledge its been this way without getting anyworse for over two years. Before that it was off the road for the best part of twenty, so something probably happened to it whilst standing.

Problem is buying a good gearbox, how do you know until you fit it? Reconditioning one is not too expensive really, around £100 maybe for bearings etc, quite often the gears are serviceable and you can check them before you start spending.The beauty of a rebuild is you know it's ok.

From the noise description earlier - the lay shaft and/or bearings have failed - and so the gears are running partly out of mesh.. You should always reckon on fitting at least a new 2nd gear when rebuilding a box - as well as layshaft/all bearings/syncro cones - and very probably a 1st gear too. If the 1st gear teeth on the laygear are damaged (and they often are!) - then a new laygear too.........

There's one on ebay for £150-supposed to be rebuilt and only £16 for delivery but as Les quite correctly mentioned you don't really know until you fit it. John Evans does exchange gearboxes at £315 with a guarantee and is very nice to deal with.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Morris-minor-1000 ... 27b578c8dd
Regards
Declan

I've seen that, problem is how do I know its definatly reconed and not just tarted up with some wd40 and a polish? Its too far away to go and have a look and the cars not really worth having £300 spent on it! Haha hell it didn't set me back too much more than that in the first place! Best bets probably a local car being broken so I can go inspect the box...

Yes - just keep looking for one locally - and either pay very little and take a chance - or take the side cover off before buying (2 minute job with a speed brace) and look inside.[frame][/frame]

It's possible to see the 1st gear teeth on the layshaft - and the condition of the little 'dog' teeth on 2nd gear - which are the main wear parts. They should ideally look as good as the dog teeth on 4th gear - which 'never' wear. There can be other problems of course - but if 1st and 2nd look ok - the box is a good bet.