SD1 Gearboxs at the right price.

[RAW-SEWedge]

Have resently been potentially offered a 3.5 rover engine and gearbox with spare heads, cams and a spare gearbox for potentially not much cash.

I was interested in the gearboxes with a view to re-con'ing one as a swap out for mine but I'm not sure if the early SD1 boxes are all the same and if they will fit.

Are there any gearbox gurus out there that know if these boxes are all the same and is there anything I can look for to identify one that will fit an early Griff 500 ?

[greenv8s]

There have been several versions, from what I remember the LT77F would have been current at the time my V8S was built but no idea if that was the version fitted. They also come in different gear ratios. Don't know enough about the differences to know whether you can tell from the outside what you've got, but I do know there are quite a few ex-military boxes around which are an old spec and the wrong gearing (for me, anyway) and you can recognise these because they're painted green.

[NHyde]

Just had a new box fitted to the SEAC , and various people advised ( Dealers and Specialists ) that the only one to fit is the "Vitesse" box .
SD1 has the same ratios , but not the tuffened ratios , so could self destruct , and the LT77 out of the Sherpa has the wrong ratios anyway , so be careful

[RAW-SEWedge]

OK, so if I can find the model number of the Rover Vitesse box then I should be on to a winner.

The box in mine is supposedly a re-con box, this was done prior to me owning it so I can't comment but the service receipts hint at it.

2nd gear syncro is poor and first gear selection when hot is sometimes very hard. I noted the leyland logo on the base when I was underneath (The old "Flying Arse-hole" symbol) do you think this could be a Sherpa van box then ?

[tubbystu]

From my pukka Rover Sd1 workshop manual (which I acquired when I had a twin-plenum Vitesse), there is no specification difference quoted between manual gearboxes for any of the range, though the diff ratio's are very different.

Unfortunately it doesn't list part numbers but I woul dthink you need one from an Sd1 to be sure.

My Sd1 gearbox also had the spining sphincter logo too....

Hope this helps.

[Boosted Ls1]

I think the 'ones to have' are the later versions with a larger diameter filler plug. Or, get one rebuilt by Ken Tomlinson (he designed it, I think).