Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing '75 4/4 1600. Changing gearbox oil.

Right. And if you are lucky you have one with the longer second gear as used for the Lotus (or some of them).

She's flown through the MOT without even an advisory, and whilst there I've asked Richard Thorne's if they'll change the gearbox oil for me as well. Picking her up tomorrow morning and I'll get the detail on where I need to apply spammers whilst I'm there.

Cheers for the input guys.

Single rail 2000E box. I believe the sporty Cortinas at the time will have had them, but certainly not the cooking ones. Capri 1600GT had the 2000E box, and so did the Mk1 Mexico.

Somewhere later, the box fitted to 4/4 Morgans was nowhere near as nice ratios. With mine, if you change from 1st to 2nd at 6000 rpm in the first, the same roadspeed in 2nd is near enough 4000 rpm, which just so happens to be the torque peak of a standard engine. Later boxes usually have a lower first due to German towing requirements.

Ratios as fitted to XR4i boxes are about the same but it's a big and heavy box and you don't get many XR4i-s being scrapped these days.


Tony - congrats, ask Richard Thorne's where the drain is so you can do it yourself next time.

Whoops. Make that spanners...

Right. Found it then.

In about the most awkward spot. In line with the bulkhead on the passengers side, and no drain plug. Looks like I'll be getting an extraction pump then.

The good news is it is possible to open without dropping the gearbox, and the oil level inside was fine.

Cheers.

Yes, sometimes you get surprised with what comes out of the drain plug on old vehicles...Could it help by making sure the oil is a bit warm when changing (even on the gearbox)?

Maybe also (extremely carefully) attach a small magnet at the end of the "suction hose" to lift out whatever chip that shouldn´t be messing around in the box?

Tony, perhaps you take another look. On my car the drain plug sits directly above the crossmember and I can more feel than see it. That's why I have to use a ring spanner there - and the oil splashes down in a broad stream from the crossmember (like from those tanks farmers used for fertilising their fields). Always a big mess.