Gearbox rebuild

Can anyone recommend a company experienced in rebuilding Landcruiser manual gearboxes ?
Basically my 95 got a bit stiff to get into 3rd - the box is now out and I would like to get someone who knows those boxes well to take a look at it
Any advice would be great !
Cheers Jim

Gearlink Limited, Units 19 & 20 Whaddon Business Park, Whaddon, Salisbury, SP5 3HF just rebuilt my nephew's VW Transporter T5 box and did a good job. They had a Land Cruiser in the car park to do next. They only do manual 'boxes, diffs and transfer boxes and they've been doing it for about twenty years.

Gearlink repeatedly tried and failed to rebuild by 80 gearbox. In the end I got fed up with them and just fitted a second hand box. Later inspection of the work they had done revealed they had put some of the parts in the wrong way round. If Frank reads this post he might chip in because this is the box that ended up with him.

Ian

Oops! I should have stuck to my usual rule about never recommending anybody. Maybe best to give these guys a miss then.

It is always tricky recommending anyone to do anything but I think you are right - I will give them a wide berth !!!
The tricky thing is the mechanic who is working on it doesn't trust the gearbox company in bristol and after fighting to get the box out doesn't want to find himself having to do it again !
Also if it was someone who specialised in toyota boxes they would know what they were looking at
Referring back to the earlier post, do you know who inspected the box and found it to be wrong it sounds like they know what they are doing ?
Cheers Jim

Forum members Frank and Jon did the inspection and then fixed the Gearlink mess. Their thread is here

http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/47695-H151F-manual-gearbox-rebuild

And that's a really useful post .... Thanks Ian

Don't use Gloucester Road gearboxes they are crap. Every one I sent down there didn't last long.

I know all about gloucester rd gearboxes, having recently had an audi with a stiff 2nd gear when cold repaired by them, got it back and it then crunched into 3rd and 4th !!!
They put it right but charged me for the 3rd and 4th syncros
The mechanic who is working on the Landcruiser won't use them any more and the transmission company he does trust will only do landrover boxes
I have heard bad things about avon transmissions as well !!!!

If most 90 boxes are stiff going in to 3rd there won't be a cure. I don't know a 90 box character but I think a lot of 80 boxes have been stripped unnecessarily to "cure" the stiff 2nd gear.

The reason we stripped a working 80 gearbox was because the factory WSM was full of mistakes and I could not rebuild Ian's box. After the rebuild this box did about 3500 miles over to Spain and back with no problem, apart from stiff 2nd gear .

Another thought on the gearbox rebuild. For the 80 for example you need to do 1 a week to remember how to fit things together properly. Ideally you need someone with you to double check. There are lots of little traps to fall in to.This, together with the fact you have to get parts from Toyota, except some bearings, means that a gearbox rebuild done properly could well be out of the question.

Hi Frank,
I don't know if it is a characteristic, I somehow doubt it, the fault happened overnight prior to that it was super smooth.
It could be clutch related - I bought the car from a Mitsubishi main dealer 87,000 genuine miles they fitted a clutch kit and DMF, within a week or so the release bearing was squeaking , I took it back, they adjusted the pedal and managed to stop the squeak for 50 miles or so, I learned to live with it, within 1500 miles it was slipping !
They said it would be caused by bad driving skills !
(I should add it is not my driving style my audi has done 200.000 on the original clutch
My dads landrover has had no clutch issues and I am regularly towing a stock trailer with two layers of sheep and can reverse it as easily as going forward so I am not riding the clutch)
After some wrangling It was replaced under warranty by local toyota main dealer who found the slave cylinder was seized and replaced that so that all made sense and all seemed fine for another 6 months then it started slipping when towing our 1970s royale caravan.
I phoned them they suggested the caravan was too heavy !! And if they found any fault other than the parts they had replaced I would be charged £105 per hour they suggested I got my local garage to diagnose it
They found there was no free play and readjusted the pedal
This solved the problem I took the caravan up some very steep hills no problems
It all seemed fine until it suddenly became difficult to get into 3rd and 4th ,
Tried changing the oil, no improvement
The car is now with a very well respected mechanic
The box is now out again the clutch looks ok but we are going to replace it anyway, the fork seemed to have a lot of play so we thought that was the issue but having ordered a replacement fork and bush it seems that has quite a bit of play anyway
The box may be ok and it could have been a clutch issue but it would be worth an expert having a look before it goes back in,
Finding an expert is the issue and in the wrong hands it could be worse !!
I have done a bit of googling and found David Beaumont 4x4 gearboxes in Halifax who on the face of it look good
Does anyone have experience of their work ?

Toyota fitted a new clutch for me and it lasted exactly one year .