A British Gearhead's View
My Electric Spitfire’s 1000 mile service……Fit a New Gearbox !!!!!
Really it’s not as serious as it sounds. At the time I rebuilt my 1980 Spitfire, which was a non-runner, I was only able to give the gearbox a perfunctory visual check. When I got it on the road a year ago, it was not a great surprise to find that the syncro cones were shot and the car flew out of 1st and reverse gears. Even my best efforts at double-declutching often resulted in mighty crunching sounds as well as raised eyebrows from passing motorists so I finally bought a used gearbox from good-old Ebay and decided to substitute it for the old one a couple of weekends ago. Here’s how it went. (My apologies to Haynes Repair Manuals)
| 1st — Remove the front 5 batteries. (No need to take the bonnet off) | ||
 |
 |
|
| 2nd:- Unclamp the steering rack and move it out of the way. | 3rd:-Take off bell-housing bolts and withdraw Motor | |
 |
 |
|
| 4th:- Undo propshaft and remove gearbox straight out the front. Isn't it great that you don't have to do anything inside the car to get the gearlever off. (Unlike the older Spits where you had to remove the seats, the carpets, the tunnel, the radio and dash support column.) | ||
 |
 |
|
| 5th:- Take the good bits off the old and put them on the new. | 6th:- Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly (Couldn't resist saying that) | |
 |
 |
|
The total time to replace the gearbox was just 4 hours which is hard to equal on a gasoline engine Spit.
Your Humble Writer,
Alvan Judson
