In replacing the gearbox oil in a Defender I recently purchased (and which drives and shifts very well), I found a broken e-clip (c-shaped small clip) in the screen filter on top of the drain plug. From what I can see on LT77 diagrams, there are a few of these e-clips located in the gearbox.
Question: do I need to worry about this missing e-clip? As I said, the gearbox shifts well, no noises, no jumping out of gears, etc. The oil looked very old in the gearbox (77,000 kms) so it had not been changed in a long time, if ever. I'd rather not have to pull it out and take it apart to find where the e-clip is missing, but then again, I don't want to face sudden gearbox failure on a trip somewhere...
Thank you for your thoughts.