Off the shelf, not off the bench

Gearbox exchange in Christchurch

A reconditioned unit comes off our shelf and goes into your vehicle. Yours comes back to us as the core and gets reconditioned for the next customer. It is the fastest way back on the road, and it is the reason we hold so much stock.

Why an exchange is usually quicker

Reconditioning a gearbox properly takes time. It has to come out, be stripped, be measured, have parts ordered, be rebuilt and go back in. If that all happens in sequence on your vehicle, you are without the vehicle for the whole of it.

An exchange breaks the chain. The reconditioning has already happened, to somebody else's core, weeks ago. Your unit comes out, a finished one goes in, and yours joins the queue to become next month's stock. What was a multi-week job becomes a matter of days.

What reconditioned actually means here

The word gets used loosely in this trade, so here is ours. A unit that goes on our exchange shelf has been completely dismantled, cleaned, and inspected part by part. Bearings and seals are renewed. Synchros, hubs, gears and shafts are measured and replaced where they are outside specification. It is reassembled to the manufacturer's settings and checked before it goes on the shelf. Oil goes in when the gearbox is fitted, not before.

It is not a cleaned-up second-hand box. That is a different product and we sell that too, at a different price, and we call it what it is - see used gearboxes.

Fitted here, or freighted to you

Most Christchurch customers have us do the whole job at Antigua Street. Plenty of others, especially workshops, just want the unit. We send exchange gearboxes on overnight freight to most South Island destinations, so a bench in Timaru, Nelson or Greymouth can have a reconditioned unit on it the next morning.

• Fitted at our Addington workshop, road tested before it leaves
• Or freighted overnight to most of the South Island
• Trade pricing and support for workshops
• Courtesy vehicles available while yours is here
• Approved repairer for extended mechanical warranty insurers

About the core

An exchange price assumes we get your old gearbox back, because it becomes the next reconditioned unit. Send it back with the vehicle, or return it on the freight that brought the replacement.

There is no surcharge if your old gearbox turns out to be damaged beyond repairing. A cracked case or a box that has destroyed itself is our problem, not yours - the exchange price is the exchange price. You will not get a bill after the event for the condition of the unit you handed in.

Do you have one for my vehicle?

The range is ever expanding and covers most vehicle types on New Zealand roads. The honest answer for a specific model is a phone call: we can look at the shelf while you are on the line. If we do not have it, we will normally know where to get it or we can repair the one you have.

0800 432 726 is the quickest way to find out.