I have a few (LR) projects on the go at the moment, and a couple involve swapping transmissions. I'm looking for something easier than balancing the gearbox on a couple of jacks / stands and wrestling till everything lines up. The easiest way would be a four post ramp and a proper transmission jack, but I have neither.

The next best solution seems to be lift the vehicle on ramps / axle stands to give plenty of clearance (~18-20" under the chassis rails) to skate the transmission out, once lowered. The lowering bit would need a trolley jack with a very high lift. Also, it would need a cradle that attaches to the the transmission like those in factory manuals - easy enough to knock up.

I have an old but sound 2T trolley jack with a 15" lift which I could cut the lifting arm and extend, also extending the cradle stabiliser bars, to give ~24" lift. The base frame would also have to be extended for stability, given front castors and probably made to have a wider track.

The total load to be lifted would be of the order of 100kg, so well within the capabilities of the ram - even if the arm ended up 3x as long.

Before I cut metal, has anyone built (or vapour built) something similar and what were your experiences?

I did the very same with a Discovery. Axle stands one end and ramps at the other and go myself about 22" under the chassis rails.

Not sure what LR it is that you are discussing here, but even that height was not enough to 'skate' the transmission out. I had to remove the gear levers for added clearance. Also it has to be on the floor or as in my case a piece of carpet and then pull it out that way.....there isn't room to leave it on a trolley jack and move it that way.

I have a few off cuts of railway sleepers and use an engine crane from above to lower the gearbox onto two stacks on them.....rerig lift box remove a couple of sleepers and lower again. I had to do this because the crane didn't have the reach once the Discovery was that far off the ground.

A Series box is much easier and will come out of the passenger door if you have the floor and seatbox removed. I've only ever done a clutch on a Defender and I just slid the box back enough to make room. I have a feeling tho that you may encounter the same problem as above when removing a Defender gearbox.

Hope this is of some use to you.

Dave - in case it helps, here is an idea on ebay. Might be of some use (the idea at least).

Land/Range Rover Auto+Man gearbox remove tool landrover
Cradle for use with LT77/R380/Auto transfer assy
Item number: 120239351562

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I am in the same boat!

Cheers, Al.

I have one of those and it has worked well on a couple of gearbox changes, makes the whole thing much more stable.

I have always taken the gearlevers off before attempting removal as it's a PITA to get it out otherwise even with ramps etc.

I am just about to change defunct gearbox in daughters RR so have made the bracket to take the BW transfer off as it's again easier to take the box off in two chunks in my opinion.

But you jack mod sounds very feasible to me and should be up to the job I think.

Machine Mart have a Transmission jack head that you might be able to use. The other option is a motorbike lift.

Gentlemen,

Many thanks for your inputs. You've given me a few more things to consider.

Firstly, the vehicles are 300Tdi 110 / R380; 5.7 V8 RRC / ZF Auto; RRC / TF727.

I haven't done precise measurements yet, so will have to check what clearances I can achieve. ZF4HP22 on the bench needs ~18" to clear the bellhousing (without any levers, etc up top). Looks like the trolley jack (un-mod'ed) can get down as low as 4" to the underside of the gearbox cradle.

I noticed those cradles a while back on ebay. They look to be very similar to the ones drawn up in the LR/RR factory manuals. I'm not sure about clearance between the two front uprights for lifting a ZF auto (may be detachable uprights?). At the price, I would have to consider whether it is worth the buying, cutting, welding and painting effort to make one myself. They look to add 2" to the clearance under the bellhousing, so may need a bit of a rethink structurally.

The transmission jack head would probably work ok with regular rear wheel drive boxes. Not too sure how it would sit with a transfer box behind a main box as the bottom face is no longer near horizontal. The motorbike lift was looked into and it doesn't have the range of lift 472 > 105mm. I reckon the figures should be 700 > 100mm - quite a bit more.

Looks like a trip to the steel scrap bin and then drag the goodies into the inventing shed.

BTW: Series gearboxes aren't that much of a problem. They are small and light enough to lie under the vehicle and lower it onto my chest, wriggle out from under it and then drag it out from under the vehicle. As stated in HBOL, refitting is the reverse of removal.

I've been thinking about doing this with my trolley jack and a parallelogram frame in a shopping trolley chassis. The parallelogram would extend the working height range from 'trolley jack' to 'LR up in the air' but since work's kinda busy, it's still only an idea in my head at the moment.

IMHO anyone doing anything with landrovers needs one of These.

Once you have oil'd the on/off wheel jobby its a lovley jack, really low saddle height yet you can but it on a bumper of x-member and easily dislocate springs,.

Ity may seem a little exspensive but its well worth it, i dont think i could go back to a standard trolleyjack!

Will.

i use a motorbike lift with a ply wood frame on top of it.

Get a length of threaded rod from B&Q (yes, I've forgotten the thread size AGAIN!) & cut a couple of lengths off it.
Screw these long studs into the back of the block. When you refit the box (or engine if you've taken it out) lift up onto these studs then push the assemblies together. Once you have a couple of bolts in & done up take the studs out & finish the job.
Makes the whole operation so much easier & reduces the risk of a slip leaving the box hanging in the input shaft.