This is the Removable Gearbox crossmember modification I did to my Series 3 Land Rover we use as a daily driver. It's surprising that Land Rover fitted a removable Crossmember to their Military series 3 Land Rovers, but this wasn't done to the civillian versions. I had the big trip to Melbourne coming up and was bloody nervous about taking poor old Charlie on a 4000km round trip with 3.5 ton behind, so I installed a second hand gearbox in the cargo area for peace of mind.
This is wonderful insurance when travelling in an old car miles from home. However, I quickly realised the gearbox couldn't be easily removed due to, what I consider to be a major design fault.
The damn Crossmember under the gearbox.
On inspection, the modification seemed simple, cut it off and weld on a few plates. Other than some small crush tubes the process was very easy. The cost was under $10.
From memory it took about 3 hours to work out what to do, then implement the design. Its pretty good insurance to know the gearbox can come out so easily, and quickly.
