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Refurb or exchange gearbox?


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Morning all. Just got my gearbox out. It works, but it is very very ropey. Reverse a nightmare. Part of a tooth in the oil change. Very noisy in 1,2 and 3. Overdrive not working (not oil). 

So, should I have it refurbed? Base price £ 1100 plus vat, plus plus plus.  Or exchange. £ 1200 plus vat all in. 

Any thoughts? 

Matt 

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1 hour ago, Matt1969 said:

Exchange is Rimmer, refurb is overdrive services from Sheffield. Overdrive services were recommended on an earlier topic on this forum. 

ORS Every time no contest.

Stuart.

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2 hours ago, Matt1969 said:

Morning all. Just got my gearbox out. It works, but it is very very ropey. Reverse a nightmare. Part of a tooth in the oil change. Very noisy in 1,2 and 3. Overdrive not working (not oil). 

So, should I have it refurbed? Base price £ 1100 plus vat, plus plus plus.  Or exchange. £ 1200 plus vat all in. 

Any thoughts? 

Matt 

Take it across to ORS as you live in the area and have the 3 needle roller bearing mod done to the lay gear as well as per Stag. They charged me £1250 incl. VAT. they use all decent bearings from known suppliers ,no Chinese junk? 

Bruce.

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I had my gearbox & OD reconditioned recently by Pete Cox, it didn't cost anything like this much, was more like £850.

Ian

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So guys what do you class as a “proper refurb”then. Is there a specific schedule of requirements laid down somewhere? 

Its not just necessarily the big boys that are good at what they do there are also bit players who do the work to a very high standard for pin money because they enjoy what they do and can do it well. 

I really would be interested to know what a refurb consists of.

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7 hours ago, Matt1969 said:

Morning all. Just got my gearbox out. It works, but it is very very ropey. Reverse a nightmare. Part of a tooth in the oil change. Very noisy in 1,2 and 3. Overdrive not working (not oil). 

So, should I have it refurbed? Base price £ 1100 plus vat, plus plus plus.  Or exchange. £ 1200 plus vat all in. 

Any thoughts? 

Matt 

Have it overhauled by ORS Sheffield.  Just had my GB and Type A overhauled by them and the service is first class. Very happy with the end result.  Didn't want to go the exchange route; better the devil you know and ORS will talk you through what needs doing to your box.

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17 hours ago, iani said:

I had my gearbox & OD reconditioned recently by Pete Cox, it didn't cost anything like this much, was more like £850.

Ian

Yes but did you ask what make bearings does he uses? If you price up the cost of the original type bearings, £850  looks too cheap to me ? As I had a unknown TR 6 come to my house 18 months ago with a just rebuilt gear box, under 400 miles, done by the Guru whining away in the low gears. The Guru had been caught out by one of those soft layshafts that plagued the market for over 20 years. He went away a very unhappy camper when I told him what it was?

Bruce. 

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2 hours ago, astontr6 said:

Yes but did you ask what make bearings does he uses? If you price up the cost of the original type bearings, £850  looks too cheap to me ? As I had a unknown TR 6 come to my house 18 months ago with a just rebuilt gear box, under 400 miles, done by the Guru whining away in the low gears. The Guru had been caught out by one of those soft layshafts that plagued the market for over 20 years. He went away a very unhappy camper when I told him what it was?

Bruce. 

I am satisfied that he has built a lot of TR gearboxes over the years Bruce and he should know what he is doing. If I have any issues I will take it back to him, several hundred miles on it already and I'm still happy with it. I could have paid over £2k outright for a gearbox & OD from the same source but sold via a forum member, would that have made it any better? they were all worked on by the same chap (Pete's son in the main I think nowadays). I did consider ORS for mine but it was easier for me to take my box to Pete's and when I had an S type Jag box & compact A type OD rebuilt for my E-type they told me they don't actually do the gearbox rebuild themselves, it goes to some local chap, ultimately it's always a bit of a gamble.

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Dropped off at ORS in Sheffield. Was very impressed. I was clearly handing over the gear box to people who did this day in day out. It was great to look round the workshop with loads of very clean classic car gearboxes. Looking forward to getting it back, but not looking forward to refitting it! Thanks for the info folks. Matt

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Also worth talking to Mike Papworth. 

I was on the second attempt to get my Gearbox refurbed. First rebuild (reputable company) lasted <10K miles.

Upon disassembly it was clear the shafts had not been replaced just sleeved. Mike's comment was that for a gearbox that was running this was probably the worst he had seen.

Cheers

Tim

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Tim D this brings me back to my question of what is a gearbox refurb? And spec? 

It would appear that there isn’t a definitive answer due to the variety of budgets and rebuilders. So should a refurb be of just the parts that are broken or worn out or an inspection with a view to giving the customer a estimate of the works NEEDED to be done to make the box a runner again? Perhaps this is why the estimates vary so much?

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2 hours ago, elclem1 said:

Tim D this brings me back to my question of what is a gearbox refurb? And spec? 

It would appear that there isn’t a definitive answer due to the variety of budgets and rebuilders. So should a refurb be of just the parts that are broken or worn out or an inspection with a view to giving the customer a estimate of the works NEEDED to be done to make the box a runner again? Perhaps this is why the estimates vary so much?

One of the problems is the use of non original same spec bearings? Big cost savings can be made by going Chinese? This is a trap for the unwary! If I remember correctly one of the bearings in the GB or OD is £110, its Chinese equivalent is £15. I have seen some of these Chinese bearings for wheel bearings and they are horrible and often they are marked up with European manufacturers marks to fool the unwary? I reported one well known TR parts supplier to trading standards for tis practice.

Bruce.

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Hi

On hindsight, wish I bought a car with OD, but now I have gone too far to change my car I will one-day make the move to an OD conversion, but I am some way off from this due to not having the spare cash right now.

Rich

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Yes o/d is the way ahead. Bruce no names no pack drill on the supplier? 

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46 minutes ago, AarhusTr6 said:

Hi

On hindsight, wish I bought a car with OD, but now I have gone too far to change my car I will one-day make the move to an OD conversion, but I am some way off from this due to not having the spare cash right now.

Rich

Rich,

ORS do conversions to O/D on non O/D gearboxes. It may be economic to look around for a non working O/D unit for sale with a view to it being refurbed by ORS and added to your current gearbox? They do come up for sale!

Bruce.

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4 hours ago, astontr6 said:

Rich,

ORS do conversions to O/D on non O/D gearboxes. It may be economic to look around for a non working O/D unit for sale with a view to it being refurbed by ORS and added to your current gearbox? They do come up for sale!

Bruce.

Cheers

If anyone see's one, bear me in mind!

Rich

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To fit a overdrive to non overdrive box is a world of pain and expensive. Been there done that. Best off buying an overdrive box and maybe having it checked out on a test bed to see how it goes? If it ain’t broke.............

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Hamish - thanks for your link - I do sell uprated overdrive gearboxes and have been watching this thread with interest and actually some concern because I think only part of the story is being seen in some cases. 

Many of the prices being mentioned are for rebuilding someones existing gearbox - that is a no risk option on the rebuilders part because he charges for the cost of the parts needed plus his labour and profit - if nothing much more than bearings, gaskets and normal wear and tear parts are required, then obviously the cost is not going to be that high. Alternatively  a fairly trashed gearbox will be a different ball game altogether and could even result in a writen off casing - who will pay for that? Well, you will, not the supplier! And then how long have you got to wait before you get your box back - it can be quite a long time.

To try and compare that situation and the prices involved with an outright sale is like comparing apples and pears - they are simply not the same. 

Even on an exchange basis, there is quite an element of risk involved from the suppliers perspective, and that is why many suppliers quote prices as "from X" and make a surcharge which is refundable once they have stripped  down the box and any non wear and tear defects will be charged accordingly, so you don't know to start with what your potential cost exposure might be.

All the gearboxes and ODs I sell are uprated so that's another potential apple and pears scenario when making price comparisons, but at the end of the day, its a free world ( supposedly) so you can spend your money where you want. The only reason I supply any gearboxes is because I believe they represent good value for money - I've got an ebay listing for an uprated J type TR6 box, fully rebuilt and outright for £1495 - that seems a bargain to me and it's outright, but then again I'm likely to be biased!

So are my units expensive? I don't think so but that's not my call. All I can say is I'm glad it's a hobby, not my business!

Keep on TRing 

Cheers Rich

 

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Personally I'd pay a competent mechanic to dismantle my  GB/OD apart and inspect it. Then we could discuss what has to be done to bring it up to scratch and prices. Given the high cost of labour, I like to use quality components  and accept that you get what you pay for.

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