I've noticed that the gear lever on my thirstymatic V8 gets stiffer and stiffer to move as things warm up. It's kind of always done it but it's recently got worse. I gave the exposed bit of teleflex cable underneath a bit of a a clean, but it hasn't really helped.

Is it just a worn cable, or grease drying up somewhere, or a sign of annoying, difficult and expensive repairs in the box itself?

Check your earth strap.

Here's why.

Not Range Rover specific I know but had similar issues with the cable on an old style SAAB 900 combi. Which got ignored due to lack of roundtuits. A very bad move. Turned out that the earthing straps between engine and battery were failing so significant potions of the starter motor and other currents were going via the gear change cable. Which got hot in protest and semi-melted the nylon liner. Of course in the initial pull back from park to drive things were still bit soft so it moved pretty free. Going back to reverse or park after a the newly melted into place liner made the cable a bit stiffer but not terminal in feel. Don't recall ever using manual change mode during driving with that car so what it was like when hot and driving I know not.

You know how the story ends!

One day, running late on return schedule, 150 miles from home the cable melted good and proper on start up freezing things in park. We didn't get home in daylight! Subsequent examination showed the earth straps between engine and the rest of the car had both fractured. Still seemed to be hooked up on a casual pull but just the weave holding things together.

Clive

That's certainly something to look at. I'd have expected it to be stiff to move with the engine cold and not started yet, though?

That's an epic tale 😁

Epic tale,
Also a car that was lucky it didn’t catch 🔥 ..
When you think how big a battery cable is in comparison, it must of been getting quite warm,,