Lagonda Rapiers

4 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

REMARKABLE! My Gearbox has just arrived at it's destination in Germany.

Now at the conclusion of what has been a HORROR three weeks I can think positively again!  In all probability sending my gearbox away, may in fact have been totally un-necessary!
It was just within the last few days, while looking for something else, that I discovered a short notation in the Gearbox section of the Rapier Register "Spares" Price-list.
                          "Star spring for top gear (ends to be filed to fit)"  
                             
I have not encountered this vitally important piece of information anywhere else in almost 50 years of owning and working on Lagonda Rapier cars and-or have completely over looked it in the past.
The Star Spring is there solely to keep the two halves of Top-gear" (a cone clutch) apart, preventing it from dragging,  when not in use.
During my frustrating attempt to rebuild the gearbox with the newly relined (Asbestos Free) bands and top-gear cone and a new "Star Spring"; that I found that, I could assemble the entire gearbox only to have it "lock-up" during the almost last task of fitting the front cover (nose piece). I have lost count of the number of times I went through the process starting from the very first action of fitting the bands to the base of the gearbox and proceeding carefully from there only to have the same result, time after time. I even enlisted the aid of my fellow Rapier owner and friend Bruce, all to no avail. I finally gave up sending the gearbox "Air freight" to Preselector Gearbox specialist Peter Meyer in Germany. This in turn prooved to be one of the worst two or three weeks in my life. The Gearbox was"lost in transit", Rather than taking three or four days to travel from Australia to Germany it took the best part of a month.
Going back to the very beginning, all this became necessary because the Australian Border Force (Customs) had during the later part of last year started a "war" on people bring Vintage and Classic Cars into Australia, Impounding Cars and dismantling them at the owners expense in order to discover whether or not the vehicle had any Asbestos ( a banned substance) hiding in Brakes Clutches or in the Rapiers case the Preselector Gearbox. How could this affect me?  I hear you ask.
In the past we (My wife Helen & I) have taken the Rapier to Europe every five years to use as transport and to take part in some very enjoyable events during three months holiday. This year 2019 was to be the last of these.  
It would have been while re-entering Australia at the conclusion of our holidays that the Rapier may have been subjected to one of these rentless examinations at the hands of some frustrated Border Force Official. It was to avoid any unpleasent outcome of such a search that I had earlier, at the end of 2018 replaced all the cars brake linings and at some considerable inconvenience and expense had new "Asbestos Free" linings fitted to the gearbox bands etc. This in itself required the sending of a set of Gearbox Bands and a Top Gear Cone to England to be relined with the correct Asbestos Free material.
The finale outcome and real tragedy of this story is that due to the delay in delivering the gearbox we have missed the window for shipping the car to England so that it would be there waiting for us to arrive for the start of our holidays, This means that the car will not be going anywhere, making this whole exercise a waste of time AND a considerable amount of money.