Gearbox kaput on 20 year old Jimny

It sounds like my gearbox is kaput - lots of rattling and various other noises as I get to 4th gear. The Jimny is 20 years old now and has covered around 65k miles, so not too bad. I've only owned the vehicle for a couple of years. Now I'm wondering whether it's worth getting the gearbox fixed or letting the Jimny go for spare parts. Not being particularly mechanical, I have no real idea of the state of the rest of the engine/transmission, etc, except that it drives OK. The only other "issue" is a large hole in the driver's side chassis, but it's not an MOT fail.

Any suggestions? I've read on this site that a gearbox can cost over £600 to fix.

Pete

Hello Peter - I see you're in fabulous Pembrokeshire - I spent many happy years there and still return (RAF Brawdy)

Sorry to hear of your g'box woes. Everyone here will have their own opinions, but I always think that the cheapest car is the one you already own.
If you buy another - you could well be buying someone else's problems and be in the same situation or worse.
If the rest of the car is sound and it's only the g'box, and you like the car - why not get it replaced.
I have the rather suspect R72 g'box in mine and Mr Clutch quoted me roughly £1k to replace it - I just wanted to get a ball=park figure on what to expect.
your nearest Mr Clutch is
144-146 Rear of City Road
South Glamorgan
Cardiff

You have the earlier gearbox to the ones that usually give trouble and as such you'll have less trouble finding a gearbox and you can buy a whole rusty old Jimny for £300 with a good gearbox to steal from it.

Kirkynut

Asked at the local garage and they can't book it in for 5-6 weeks they are so busy! Anyway, they kindly gave me the number of another local garage that can take a look. Just hope it's not more than fifty quid

I think it probably will be a bit more than 50 quid! A rebuild of your existing box is probably going to be in the 500 to 900 quid bracket depending on your location that is also likely to have a labour charge for removing and refitting the box. There's also going to be an additional hundred ish quid for a new clutch at the same time as its sensible to do it all together. Alternatively as suggested by Kirkynut a good replacement box could be found for a fraction of the cost of a rebuild but it will still have labour and a clutch.

Buying a donor for £300-400 would only make sense if you could collect it, swap gearboxes and get rid of the rest of donor car by youself. I suspect a donor one will not be safe to drive and wont't have MOT, so unless you can get these sorted for cheap it will cost nearly like have it repaired. Also consider that a used one may will last another 20K miles only as you don't know it's condition. If I were you I 'd get it replaced by a reputable garage. Being refurbished it will serve many-many years with no problem. Also get the hole patched and you'll be sorted. Perhaps all depend on condition of your car.