Well, I was tempted to change the bellhousings over but after a soak in petrol, and liberal amounts of GT85 (love that stuff) the original release bearing freed off. It was basically chock full of mud. I kept spraying GT85 in until it came back out clear and felt right. I know that it will probably not last terribly long, but I reckon it will still last a lot longer than the shitpart one.
After re-adjusting the brakes which were probably a death waiting to happen (think nothing one minute, total lock up the next, randomly) and topping up the gearbox oils (for now, intend to do a full oil change later) I went for a quick blat and I can say it's a million times better.
If you recall I could only manage between 15 and 20 MPH on the M62 up the hills and it would not accelerate, it always felt like there was something dragging rather than a lack of power. Well, now it will accelerate decently and I managed 50 MPH from junction 20 to Junction 19 on the M62 earlier. I didn't have time to go further but early indications are it's cured.
The new gearbox is, comparatively, silky smooth apart from dropping from third to second where it grinds a bit, although this is absent mostly if I double declutch. I can live with it for now. The clutch is a lot better than before, I can even hold it on the bite (impossible before) and speaking of, the bite point is a lot more predictable. The master cylinder is on the very end of the adjustment though, don't know if that is right.
Just the terrifyingly lethal steering to sort out now, and it ought to be a thoroughly nice Land Rover. After that I'll be onto 'enhancements' (like paint that doesn't look like it was just thrown on, and door seals that...seal)