850 gearbox / final drive

I have a problem with an 1996 850 2 litre 20 valve with manual gearbox. It recently 'locked up' whilst gently rolling, and now makes a nasty noise when driving - sounds like the transmission, noise is related to road speed. With one front wheel off the ground, the other on the ground, I can spin the free wheel quite easily [do these have an LSD?], and although in neutral it sounds like it's trying to engage a gear, i.e. the dog rings are almost engaging. Any ideas aanyone ?

[Simon Linton]

I'm sorry not to offer a solution, but a strong suggestion - get it into a garage pronto!

If a gearbox is a) locking up and b) making mechanical protest, then it needs urgent action to prevent collateral damage.

Frankly, if you've been driving it, it may already be too late to salvage, but you never know.

I hope it's simply the clutch failing to disengage fully or slipping on engagement, but your description sounds a bit more serious than that so you may have a selector fork failure, or whatever passes for them in the 850 box.

It's not a job for roadside repair in any event; get it sorted soon or be prepared to pay for a new box.

Thanks for the message Simon but don't worry, the car is not being driven ANYWHERE at the moment - it'd be pretty dumb to keep driving it like that! According to someone I spoke to it could be due to a pinion / the pinions in the differential breaking up, requiring either a rebuild or replacement final drive. Whatever, it sounds pretty expensive to me ! Is this a weak point with these transmissions ? Has anybody else had the same problems ? My local main dealer hasn't come across it before.

[markas]

hi ya,

The gearbox in the manual version is very reliable and you seem to be a bit unlucky. I have a tad short of 180k on mine and only recently had the clutch done.

mark.