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214 gearbox needed - mines snapped in half!

Yes, thats right, my gearbox has snapped in half whilst I was reversing!

It has been juddering for a few weeks now in reverse, but I put it down to a leaking oil seal allowing the clutch plate to be contaminated, 'cos when I bought it a few weeks ago I was told the clutch had been done recently - so figured they hadn't bothered replacing the oil seal.

So I was reversing the car earlier, when there was an almighty bang- my clutch pedal disappeared, the gearstick wouldn't move out of reverse but the engine was still running.

I popped the bonnet thinking my clutch cable had snapped, only to see that the right hand side of my engine was sitting rather low. A closer look at the bell housing area revealed that the alloy gearbox casing and bell housing has snapped in half- leaving the flywheel etc visible.

The strange thing is the car was still running and not actually in gear despite the gearstick being jammed in reverse? After turning the car off, it can't be started again as the starter motor is now a good few inches away from the flywheel anyway.

I'm guessing that the cowboys who replaced the clutch haven't bothered centralising it on the crankshaft??? Any other ideas on possible causes would be appreciated, also info on what gearbox's are suitable replacements, possible sources in Yorkshire area, and how much such work is likely to cost me?

Not sure if this has any bearing on the matter? but I've just had the head gasket replaced, but the car was slightly juddery prior to that. But due to the cost of work just done on the engine, I don't really want to replace the full engine/gearbox.

Have tried doing a google search for reconditioned gearbox but not having much joy, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Lee

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Reply to
nibbles
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Lee,

I don't have an answer to your problem, but a few years ago, I bought a second hand gearbox for a Rover 416GSi from

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by mail order for £110 including VAT andnext day delivery with something like a 30 day guarantee (fromWorcestershire to Gwent in South Wales). I have used this firm on a couple of occasions and have had no trouble at all with them.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Brian G

Reply to
Brian G

"> It has been juddering for a few weeks now in reverse, but I put it down to a

More likely they didn't put any bolts back to hold the gearbox to the engine - a few good knocks (even pressing the clutch pedal hard) would make it come off the locating dowels. As for the engine still running, that's expected though as the clutch is no longer connected to the gearbox it wouldn't matter what gear it was in. The dislodging of the gearbox would have pulled the gear lever into one of the positions.

Assuming my guess is right, and that the gearbox/engine mating faces aren't damaged, then you should be able to bolt the gearbox back on and hopefully it'll still work. However, the gearboxes fitted to the square shaped

214/414 was under-rated for the engine torque and the input shaft bearing frequently wore out, causing the leaking oil seal and clutch contamination. As a proper repair involves stripping the gearbox to replace the bearing, it's likely the previous owner realised the fault and hastily put it all back together before deciding to get rid - and in doing so forgot some crucial details such as bolts!

If I'm wrong (and without seeing it, that's quite likely) then it would be cheapest to buy a complete 214/414 MOT failure for about £50 in your free-ads paper and swap the bits over. If you can go for the later shape

200/400 series then so much the better as they had uprated bearings fitted to their gearboxes. Failing that, assuming yours is salvageable and you don't mind removing/refitting yourself then it would cost around £150 to have yours reconditioned.

Darren

Reply to
Darren Jarvis

Thankyou both for your replies, have found a local garage (same one that did the headwork) to supply and replace the box for £170 so not gonna argue with that.

Think the missing bolts is very likely, as the car has proven to be bodged in many aspects by the previous owners, but hopefully this should be the last surprise for me.

It's a round shape one at present Darren, but I think its fair to say that the box isn't re-useable - check out the pics at this forum

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Lee

Reply to
nibbles

More likely they didn't put any bolts back to hold the gearbox to the engine - a few good knocks (even pressing the clutch pedal hard) would make it come off the locating dowels. As for the engine still running, that's expected though as the clutch is no longer connected to the gearbox it wouldn't matter what gear it was in. The dislodging of the gearbox would have pulled the gear lever into one of the positions.

Assuming my guess is right, and that the gearbox/engine mating faces aren't damaged, then you should be able to bolt the gearbox back on and hopefully it'll still work. However, the gearboxes fitted to the square shaped

214/414 was under-rated for the engine torque and the input shaft bearing frequently wore out, causing the leaking oil seal and clutch contamination. As a proper repair involves stripping the gearbox to replace the bearing, it's likely the previous owner realised the fault and hastily put it all back together before deciding to get rid - and in doing so forgot some crucial details such as bolts!

If I'm wrong (and without seeing it, that's quite likely) then it would be cheapest to buy a complete 214/414 MOT failure for about £50 in your free-ads paper and swap the bits over. If you can go for the later shape

200/400 series then so much the better as they had uprated bearings fitted to their gearboxes. Failing that, assuming yours is salvageable and you don't mind removing/refitting yourself then it would cost around £150 to have yours reconditioned.

Darren

Reply to
Darren Jarvis

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