Glad to help.

 

Hi amaezing, thanks for all your help man! You're a knowledgeable chap.

May I ask why you think it could be the UJs? As the rough shift is only when parked or stopped and shifting in to drive or reverse.

Is it because the bad UJs move parallel with the length of the car as it drops into gear?

 

I don't think I'm smart a lot of the time. But here's what I thought as this thread went on.
My first thought was the bands in the trans were going out and sorta chattering, mine did this not long ago. These trans are weird that way. I did not want to start out by saying something horrible. So I kept it easy and not so threatening. Then you said a leak and something about forward and reverse. That bright me to the Uj has went out to the point of vibrating the seal leak. Seen it lots of times. It's not good. Seen them explode when they get to that point.
I'm not positive that it is the uj still. I was actually waiting till you looked at them hoping it was. And I'm still crossing my fingers for you. It's an easy thing to check and I'm still crossing my fingers for you.
I hope this answers your question.
Btw I owned a hot rod shop, so I have some knowledge but jags are different than other cars.

 

Well, I'm not sure if this is good or bad.

My mate came round yesterday and we lifted the car. We felt good just doing that much b/c that takes some care.

No wetness around the seal or the propeller. We couldn't test whether there was u-joint movement because on the BW12 set up the shaft is encased, or at least is in my car. We could get our hands between gaps in the casing but only enough to feel that it was good and dry in there (casing has bolts but we'd need to be on a lift for access).

However, we were amazed that the reservoir type thing into which shaft goes -- from my manual I think it's officially called the transmission extension housing -- was all wet from where the two parts of the reservoir bolt together. To touch the screws/bolts seemed tight. This left us puzzled for awhile until we just put on a wrench to see what would happen and all 16 could be turned 3 or 4 times with a wrench!! To the eye it wasn't gaping open, but to a liquid or gas it was wide open.

I will start the car and move her back and forth a bit later today but I expect this explains the leak.

Will it also explain the bump b/w R and P? I'll see what happens when I move her.

I don't think I understand how the tranny works well but the manuals talk about pressure in the system: Has mine been way under pressure b/c of the leak/soft screws?

Is this a red herring? Is it wishful thinking that closing up the reservoir right will have a big impact?

Thanks!

 

That is not the same set up I was I visioning. I couldn't answer that. Damn. Hopefully someone else here will jump in. Or start a new thread.

 

You have been super helpful, Amazeing. Thanks.

I'm positing a pic of the reservoir at the back end of the tranny and this also shows the bolts that were really soft.

Test drive and update soonish.

If problems persist I'll make a separate post and see if people have pointers.