it would go into third with care, but made a 'interesting' noise - i figured from what it was doing (driving, but making a ratteling noise), that the roller bearing under third had collapsed (very unusual eh?), so, carried on driving it, trying to avoid having to use third at all.
got home (80 miles) and tugged the motor yesterday.....
sure enough, collapsed mainshaft bearing and a very chewed up third and laygear.....

i have never seen a box suffer from this failiure before, out of the hundreds and hundreds that ive stripped over the years - ive done a thousand miles or so in this box, and up until the moment it failed it had never made a noise, baulked a change, nothing - very odd!