Gearbox advice

[toby noble]

I've noticed some strange noises (don't you hate those..) from the gearbox over the last week or so...

I can hear it more clearly than I used to especially in certain gears under load, and I swear I can feel the teeth on the cogs through the gear knob when going forward slowly in first couple of gears.

Car is an '84 280i with the 5 speed ford 'box, but only done 65ooo miles.

I haven't checked oil levels and there's no sign of leakage/loss and it would have been filled after a new clutch was fitted recently.

Anyone?

1. Do I need to sell the other kidney?

2. What are recond boxes worth? (assuming they're available at all...)

[njhucker]

Might be worth checking the rubber gaitor before you do anything else. If it's split it will let though the sound of the box.It' surprising how much noise comes from a split rubber!!!

[dickymint]

i split a rubber once and some months later one hell of a noise came out of the gearbox

[taz200i]

Your gearbox is probably a ford type 9 as fitted to sierra's, capri's. So replacements are plentiful and cheap. The problems are choice of ratios. The type 9 is limited to about 160 BHP so on a 280i, driven as it should be driven, it's life may be shortened.
There are several people offering uprated boxes, such as Quaife

[taz200i]

just found this website for BGH gearboxes
http://members.aol.com/dvandrews/bghpage.htm