Autobox clucked?

F

flatcat

New Member
Hrmpf. I had to take the P6 out last week in the atrocious weather as the non-classic car was away being fixed.

Drove about 100 miles - the car was generally running right, although a bit hot. Since it's had a new radiator it seems to be leaking a bit of coolant. Oops, nevermind - topped up and the temperature was back to normal. But I digress.

Towards the end of the journey, the engine would die when trying to pull away from standstill - not always, but a couple of times. This was accompanied by a certain 'jerkiness' - gearchanges are as smooth as they tend to get on these boxes, but when pulling away, it felt like the clutch was slipping - only there isn't one of course, the car being an automatic.

Any suggestions as to what to check next would be greatly appreciated. Car has done approximately 32k (believeable) and seems to be on both original engine and box. '72 P6 3500 Auto, if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

FC
 
It might sound silly but check the fluid.

You will also be able to see if the fluid is contaminated.

colin
 
Replace your modern bland-box with another P6 then you'll have motoring satisfaction all the time. I never let rain stop me taking any of my fleet out. My 2 year resto'd P5B has taken us on many a wet Cornish holiday, not to mention Scotland.
 
Flat cat
I had similar symptoms in the old blue car before the rebuild. It turned out that the clutches in the gearbox were worn and one was down to the backing. The only thing was that the car had done 200,000 odd miles (some very odd) before the symptoms reared their horrible little head.
If the fluid is anything other than a nice red colour ( depends on the fluid used I suppose) then the box may have cooked. Any nasty smells, from the car that is, also indicate problems. If the car is not used that often then the fluid does go off and will need to be changed more often.
If the box is cactus and needs replacing look at putting the 4 speed ZF out of a Jag XJ 12 in. You need the bellhousing from an appropriate Land Rover Discovery to mate it up but it goes in with minimal problems, you can even use the original shifter!
I have done this mod in the past and the rear gearbox mount will need to be changed but there is plenty of room to mess about.
At the end of the day, keep the car running, old Rovers love being used.
Merry Christmas all
GUY. :)
 
The Rovering Member said:
Replace your modern bland-box with another P6 then you'll have motoring satisfaction all the time. I never let rain stop me taking any of my fleet out. My 2 year resto'd P5B has taken us on many a wet Cornish holiday, not to mention Scotland.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call my modernish car a bland box, and neither should you before you even know what it is.

That aside, I don't like driving the P6 around London during the rush hour. If you can call crawling down the A40 and the M25 at speeds measured by metres/hour "driving". It doesn't do it any good, as much as I like to drive it.

So thanks for your suggestion, but it's somewhat besides the point as we weren't talking about driving to Cornwall or Scotland here :)
 
arthuy said:
It might sound silly but check the fluid.

You will also be able to see if the fluid is contaminated.

colin
Click to expand...
I did check the fluid this morning - looks like the level is about right (didn't have time for a more thorough check). Doesn't smell burnt either, but it is brown and not the expected "red" colour. No apperant water contamination, nor did I pull out half the 'box clutching to the dipstick...

Oh well, looks like it's time to get the car to someone who knows - they may as well try to determine why it's losing coolant since they changed the radiator earlier this year. ???
 
hi,
you say the clutch seemed to be slipping, did it rev high and struggle to grip/drive. you also say the engine died, you could have a problem with something else, causing the engine to die is going to affect drive rather than it being a gearbox fault. plugs, points, condensers etc if starting to fail will cause your engine to die then pick up again, or even an intermittent electrical fault.

ianp6man
 
No, it didn't do the "high revs but nobody's home" bit. Instead it judders badly at low revs, as if it's trying to overcome some internal friction/jamming in the gearbox. If it doesn't, the engine will die.

The whole set of ignition parts is about 1k miles old - condenser, contact breaker, cap, rotor, plugs...
 
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