Practically Classics Forum

This post encapsulates a number of questions, a while ago on the old forum I communicated with a guy 'down south' from me have feeling he could of been in Kent or Essex and he was great in answering post's regarding problems with the box fitted to my 4.2 daimler Soveriegn, briefly it was hesitant to change gear and i wasn't that sure it ever went into 1st gear, had an icident where in reverse one day it emitted a terrible grating crunchin sound, changed the transmission oil and took the sump off one day to find bits of needle roller bearing in it. This gentleman offered to be a source for bits if I got round to a rebuild. Unfortunately not long after I lost mt email archive and the old forum ceased to exist.

Question 1 any one recoginse this guy, if 'you' read this can you reply via this forum.

Tried to buy a box from eBay a few months ago, even though I heeded advice from the former gentleman thats it's better to hear / see one of these things running before you buy, any way I dropped out because shipping became a pain and was going to cost more than the box and that was £175.

There are a few advertised on eBay but scared of buying a bummer and mostly they are pick up only, and after the cash exchanges, well you know what.

Question 2 Any one got one, known good and possibly gaurentee it, at least money back if it's a dud.

Question 3 Anyone got a friend or friend of a friend who breaks old jags and may have one and would recommend.

Question 4 Should I bite the bullet and pay out serious cash and buy a refurbished re-engineered one from one of the numerous advertisers in the mag.

This will be the last job I need to do or at least source parts to do before I get the Daimler back on the road for next year, if some one has a good runner they are going to break because of the tin worm or you know some one, I would be happy to view / test with a view to buy and even take the thing out myself.

Is this a seriously heavy bit of kit and if I drop it out onto my chest is it going to kill me! last gearbox I took out that way was from a Cortina and I was 30 years younger.

Daft thought is a GM 400 box a straight swap or even a later 4 speed auto from a later Jag or elswhere, anyone done this mod

IIRC that was me, and once again, IIRC, you were the person who had the needle rollers from the gear train in the sump.

As regards secondhand boxes I'd still say it's best to drive one before you buy, as they don't respond well to periods of storage out of the car, you may be lucky but it's a pain if you're not. Also a lot of people say a box is OK when actually they don't recognise faults that they've got. Beware also of people overhauling them, it's an old box now, and there are a lot of cowboys out there.

Harvey, thanks for the prompt reply, you can contact me at andrew@ajmckelvey.co.uk , the website www.ajmckelvey.co.uk (is getting old now have loads of update to post but but never get round to it!) it has a contact us link.

The box is still in the car and unlooked at since we last spoke! not run since March. I am now in a position to take it out at my leisure and spend some time and money on it.

Advice: Should I take it out, strip it and figure out whats shot and email you.

In your experience what sort of cost am I likely to be looking at to rebuild.

ajmin wrote:The box is still in the car and unlooked at since we last spoke! not run since March. I am now in a position to take it out at my leisure and spend some time and money on it.

Advice: Should I take it out, strip it and figure out whats shot and email you.

In your experience what sort of cost am I likely to be looking at to rebuild.

I'm confident that the needle rollers in the sump were from the geartrain, that's not going to heal itself, and the only way you're going to get at those is to remove and dismantle the box. So you may as well take it out. Once it's out, providing that you work methodically in a clean environment, dismantling it into the major component parts shouldn't be a problem. I can talk you through that at the time. If you didn't have any other problems before you shouldn't need to get involved in dismantling the valve block, and you can inspect the bands and clutch plates without the need for any special tools. Replacing the clutch piston seals does require the use of a pair of special installers though. You may get away with just a s/h gearset (which I would have) and a gasket and seal kit. It's not an overhaul, just a repair, but if it cures the problem what's wrong with that? Biggest reason you might have to totally strip the box would be the removal of any debris. (This would include the converter too) But you won't know until you look. Anything in the way of faulty parts in addition the the gearset I would have in stock as well. You can make a better informed decision on which way you want to go once it's in bits, as up until that point you won't actually have had to spend any money, only time.

ajmin wrote:Daft thought is a GM 400 box a straight swap or even a later 4 speed auto from a later Jag or elswhere, anyone done this mod

Not a straight swap. The TH400 is what went into the later V12 cars. The 700/R4 is a nice upgrade and will probably improve fuel mileage.

This is a local guy that does kits. www.johnscars.com

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