I know the official word is not to tow one of these cars over 10mph for 5 miles or whatever, but what damage will be caused if this is wilfully ignored?

I had an old car with a shot engine which was laid up in a farmyard, and in typical fashion, someone got a bee in their bonnet about it and said it had to be moved, today. Not tomorrow, not when I made space in my own yard, but TODAY. So, with no access to a trailer or transporter, with gritted teeth, I had to resort to hooking it up to the Land Rover and towing it away. Sadly, not backwards with the tail lifted, but simply on a solid towing bar, dragged in Neutral with a good friend steering.

Keeping it below 10mph sounds easy in theory, but in practice, when there were cars and lorries hooning up behind me, late in the evening, on unlit rural B-roads, I had to consider everyone's safety and chose to get the 5.2 miles traveled over asap. This meant I was pulling it at more like 30-35mph than <10mph.

So, with the car safely home, and a few months down the line, I have acquired another XJ8 which I'm told needs a change of gearbox and torque converter. The mechanic tells me that he wouldn't bother trying to use the one from the car I towed home, that it will now be ruined. I will bow to his wisdom, but what exactly is the damage likely to be? Is it repairable, ie, is it "just" a case of replacing something, or is it a massive job not worth bothering with (even now the t/c and transmission have been taken out of the car)? It always ran and changed beautifully before the car was killed, I'd like to know if it's something worth looking at rather than weighing it in with the now-stripped shell. I am one of those people who has more time than money on his hands, so just splashing out a wedge of cash for a warrantied gearbox and t/c is going to be a painful problem at the moment!

Many thanks in advance.

 

What's happening with automatic transmissions being towed is that without the engine turning, the hydraulic pump is not circulating the fluid through the transmission oil cooler and bearings. The spinning gears are still bathed in oil but its hard to say whether the bearings remained sufficiently wet, how many of them are actually spinning while in neutral or how hot it got.

 

I'd fit it and see....nothing lost apart from some time and tranny fluid. If it works you have a car, if it doesn't, you can look for another replacement.