Commander Gearbox Wanted

[Anthony Duffield]

I am looking for a gearbox for my 1990 water cooled Commander, any condition considered as long as it is all there.Tony

[johnbirchjar]

Nova Enginering in Sussex will make you one,(I was quoted about two and a half grand for one about seven years ago,they were in Petrborough then)The August edition of "Classic Bike" did a lengthy article on them,very interesting it was too.rgds,J.B.

[Anthony Duffield]

John,Thanks for the reply, I read the article very interesting and good that high quality engineering is still being practised in the UK.I was hoping to find a used but good gearbox that I could fettle over the winter, my gearbox is ok but sounds very agricultural, but from what I have read and been told they all sound the same.Thanks AgainTony

[johnbirchjar]

You can "fettle" all you wan't,the gearbox will still be "agricultural"( we Norton rotary owners learn to live with it, ),the upside is that they very rarely let us down ,J.B.

[commando-rotary]

on a recent vmcc week my ip2 gearbox was noisier than ever and was a bit worrying upon myreturn engine out gearbox stripped could find no issues replaced seals etc as a precaution. in the meantime was recommended a transmission oil by redline sold by demon tweaks I went for their 75/250 grade, I cannot recommend it enough my gearbox is now totally silent. so next up commando gearbox oil change as that is sometimes a little noisy. it is expensive at £18,60 a litre but if it makes the gearbox that quiet it must be lubing it much better. regards DG

[johnbirchjar]

Sounds like the answer to our noisy gearboxes,has anybody else tried this magical oil?J.B.

[Anthony Duffield]

J.B.Perhaps this should migrate to technical? in any case thank you for your input which is greatly appreciated.My gearbox rattles when in neutral and in gear with the clutch pulled in it becomes less quiet when taking up drive and whines in all gears except fifth.Regarding oil; I use the grade as originally recommended I would consider using the Redline 75/250 oil and having read various threads on various forums it would seem to be the answer to noisy gearboxes, DG seems to think it is ok so perhaps worth a try.Many thanksTony

[James]

Does anyone have any more updates on the Red Line 250w gear oil?

[James]

I changed the transmission oil on my Classic from 85/140 to the Redline 75/250 and the rattly noises on deceleration almost completely went away, I am calling it a success.

redline oil 75W250.jpg2.jpg

[Clive603]

After the gearbox on my first Commander did teh hardening failure thing at a silly ow mileage (30,00 ish from memory) I switched to Castrol R40 following advice from a friend who assisted with a supercharged Vincent sprinter back in the day. Apparently R was the only thing that ould keep an AMC box together for more than a few runs. An AFV greagox design specialist from MVEE agreed that R was good choice. His ideas of better options being basically unobtanium for normal folk.

Second Commander is up to nearly 100,000 without issues having been run on R allies life except for delivery mileage. Changed the oil about an hour after I got home. When the bike was Supremed Richard was very impressed with the condition of the gearbox innards. As I was already spending significant money I asked Richard to send the parts up to Oerlikon-Balzers to have one of thier anti-wear coatings applied.

Should see me out. Change action is better than the box on my Yamaha GTS 1000A.