Discovery desires - rot replacement

[Rusty_Rocket]

Very nice!! That colour is unusual on the early ones- the sonar blue interior matches it well, much better than mine! The dead syncro on 2nd is quite normal I'm afraid, probably something to do with the LT77 dating back to the Rover SD1

If you ever felt the need to repair that drivers' rear 1/4, you'll find that the whole panel unbolts. It's just finding a straight 2-door example; I've been looking for months.

Fuel economy is excellent, as you've found. Mine does 30mpg, anywhere. You'll find the loose front end is probably down to end float in the front hubs or play in the swivels. All is easy and cheap to fix.

Have fun!

[Micrashed]

Good write up Ian.

Good luck with the Disco

[garethj]

Cool, glad you made it!

 

I'd make my first job getting rid of those side steps, bung them on ebay to cover your fuel costs home at least. Then look at the advanced car you've bought

. It reminds Chris Goffey of the Talbot Rancho, you can't get two better names than that on your Autoshite CV

[Lord Sterling]

Great write up DW. Glad you've found a replacement vehicle that you like. Hopefully this'll see you well.

 

What are your plans for it?

[dollywobbler]

Well, initial plan is to improve it a bit. Give it a full service, get the cambelt done etc. It's worth throwing money at the engine especially as it has serious resale value.

 

After that, plenty of greenlaning, might take it trialling (as I've always wanted a go at that) and just use it. I'll see how I feel about it come September when the T&T run out. Then it'll either be restore it or flog it for parts/break it.

[Doctormop]

Excellent pics and write up, collection missions like this are exactly why I keep coming back to Autoshite,

Thanks DW, if I had the funds I'd buy the Merc just as a way of showing my appreciation!

[cort16]

Good write up I liked the 24 type time line with the shots of the watch. It certainly seems like a smoother journey home than with the Merc.

[catsinthewelder]

Great collection writeup and it's good to hear you got it back in one piece. Could a repair panel for that rear 1/4 be fashioned from a 5 door with a bit of electric glue?

 

Despite being a bit of a 4x4 hating hippie I've got a bit of respect for these. A few years back a couple of posh familys convoying back through the snow in them gave me and the family a lift home when we had to abandon the migrane. I shared the boot of one with a large dog and decided that I liked the funky interior while I defrosted from 2 hours pushing cars around.

[meggersdog]

Great write up there.The 20 gallon tank does take a bit of filling.The steering box drop arm and it's balljoint often have play in them.Another source of steering wobble is a knackered steering damper.Looks good for it's age.I like the blue interior (even though both of mine are beige).Is the colour Westminster grey ? seems to suit the car and graphics well.

[dollywobbler]

Not sure what the colour is. I'll have to investigate. I do find it amusing that a £450 Land Rover Discovery held together with gaffer tape was less trouble to drive home than a Mercedes W124! Mind you, you can drive the Merc without thinking whereas the Disco keeps the grey cells working hard as you carefully plan your gearchanges!

 

I'll be passing my local garage today so I'll ask how much he charges for the timing belt job. I've read into it and it's distinctly DIY, but seems to require a lot of tools I don't own.

[cort16]

Does anyone know why the sills on early discoveries always look distinctly banana shaped? I didn't think even LR in the late 80's would do this on purpose?

It's a thing that's always annoyed me about the look of them.

[dollywobbler]

No idea. It does look exceedingly crap when side steps are fitted. I think they'll be coming off - completely mullered the ones fitted to the Range Rover.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I think the banana sills are down to a very light curve in the plastic trim covering them. From some angles, they look dead straight, from others they look proper dodge (terminology as used by Land Rover, circa 1989). The side steps are usually dead straight, which makes the sill cover look more curved than it is. Certainly, with the covers off, the sills are straight (or at least they should be )

 

The cam belt job is simple enough; the only tools you will need is a puller for the big bottom pulley and most importantly, a way of stopping the crank turning when you torque the crank pulley up. This has to be done to a hefty torque, IIRC 260lbft. I made a holding tool that bolts over the pulley, is about 4ft long and crafted out of a Sherpa chassis cab

As regards the actual timing up, the old drill bit/ lining up the marks method is sufficient.

[dollywobbler]

Thanks. Also concerned about tensioning the belt correctly. Not something you really want to get wrong! Getting the bolt tight again is certainly a concern. To get it undone, I'm wondering if there will be enough room to get my electric impact driver in. I am planning to remove the rad entirely as I want to flush it and the block. Impact driver has the advantage that it might shock the pulley free - I understand they can sometimes be a bit of a bitch.

[richardthestag]

top report

 

I am getting an itch on these early discos, surprised no ABS on it as rangies had it since late 80's

 

loose front end

 

feels rattly through the steering wheel or the "brown trouser" steering vibration?

 

The former I have been chasing down for years on my RRC. Sorry for teaching granny to suck eggs but might help someone.

 

Obvious shit like tyre pressures and tracking seem to affect Range Rovers more than any other car I have ever driven. Tyre pressures need to be within 1psi of each other on the same axle else it just feels rubbish.

 

Replaced front dampers and bushes, for some reason the new units never come with the big cupped washers that isolate the ends of the damper from the axle casing, this feels orrible. managed to find some and improved the situation no end. BTW my front dampers passed the bounce test but when removed they did not expand all by themselves, i.e. i compressed them by hand and they stayed compressed.

 

Replaced bushes on panhard rod and also the radius arms, red polybush caused all manner of rattles, blue are much nicer. But if I had a 10tonne press I could have saved myself a world of agro and money and fit original land rover rubber bushes.

 

Check the intermediate steering arm ( the bit that connects the end of the steering column to the box) there are 2 UJ's and three pinch bolts, on the v8 they sit stupidly close to the exhaust and pattern parts are made from butter. the UJ's are not serviceable and any play whatsoever will feel orrible through the wheel.

 

You can check the steering box for play but it is astonishingly easy to crush the internal bearings by over tightening. Do this as a last resort and only if there is too much play at the steering wheel rim.

 

Front wheel bearings, make sure you use the giant d washer, they are pennies to buy and stupid to recycle. Without it or with a crappy part the bearings loosen over time. You will also need the giant land rover box spanner to get to the bearing nuts under the drive plate.

 

check front CV's dont knock on lock to lock driving, nice and easy to replace

 

check prop UJ's for play, these knock around quite a lot even with slight play in them, I was attracted to cheap GKN UJ kits on the bay that were nowt but cheap pattern parts made out of lard.

 

steering damper, remove it, make sure it compresses and then extends by itself, they should be pretty tight to install, having the steering on full lock gives you some more room to play with.Rreplace bushes if they look suspect, mine were heavily oil contaminated and soft like a pillow. I had issues with a Britfart damper which made the problem worse. Got money back and replaced it with a decent branded item and all is well again.

 

track ends, there are four of the buggers, you won’t get your halfords balljoint splitter on to remove them so I use a trusty 3lb hammer to bang the steering arm and the ball joints always pop out quite easily. Usual checks for tightness, play etc. Last time I simply could not be arsed to heat the damn things up to 2000degrees to get the ends off so I bought new steering track arms with ball joints already fitted. The additional cost was easily covered by not investing in blow torch gas, sticking plasters and huge quantities of beer to drown my sorrows.

 

Dunno if your disco has anti roll bars but the two links on each bar are prone to wearing out. I have found through bitter experience that when you buy new parts, take them apart and check that the factory has applied any grease to the workings. They never seem to put enough in, I load em up, reassemble and so far they have lasted longer than 9k miles.

 

Brown trouser bump steer at over 55mph is normally down to all of the above but mainly swivel preload and steering damper. Swivel preload is a pain in the arse to set up as you need to strip down the hub to its basics. Check for play in top and bottom pins, the top one normally goes first (make sure it is not play in wheel bearings ). Then as per mr Haynes measure the load (using a spring balance) to pull the front hub from lock to lock using the track arm. Adjust the load by adding / removing shims from the top pin. Once set up the car is transformed. While you have the hub this stripped it would be silly not to replace rear hub-ball seal and all the other bits and bobs in this area. There is also a seal inside the axle tube that stops axle and hub oil from contaminating each other. I use one-shot but then I don’t do wading, if you want to go wading stick with the factory EP spec stuff and change it regularly.

 

I still get a faint rattle at 65mph through the steering wheel but at no other speed. I am suspecting one of the zillion bushes on dampers is causing resonance issue. For now CBA

[Rusty_Rocket]

^^^^ that's a very good checklist for the old Disco death wobble.

 

Re the big crank bolt...

Undoing is usually much simpler as you can jam your breaker bar into the chassis and flick the key (pull the feed off the stop solenoid first), which normally cracks the bugger off. Also, if it's had a belt before (likely), it has probably not been torqued up as much as it should have been.

Tensioning is as anything else- I don't remember any problems with that part of it at all. To be honest, the belt/ rollers/ tensioner are all very heavy duty and gloriously simple, I've seen them running fine with a belt blowing about in the wind.. so it's not an over sensitive setup that you can go too far wrong with.

 

Removing the rad and intercooler is a very good idea- you'll have all the space you need then which makes the job easier still. Check the water pump while it's off (they're cheap) and go easy with the belt cover bolts- they can snap due to rust. Viscous hub is undone clockwise. Beware 'blue box' parts, no matter how cheap they are..

[dollywobbler]

Yeah, it's very much a rattle at motorway speeds. Coming onto the A roads, there was barely anything. Did have an advisory for a front wheel bearing last MOT (2000 miles ago in September) so that seems a first port of call, as well as greasing all that needs greasing. I reckon it might need shockers too. I know it's always a bit of a shock going back to something with beam axles front and rear, but it feels a touch uneven. Then there are the brakes, which seem to pull to the left - duff caliper no doubt.

 

I reckon I might have a go at the timing belt then. The tensioner requirement seems to be for 20NM, which needs to be applied constantly while you tighten the adjuster - that was my concern. My 'click' torque wrench isn't going to be much use.

[RobT]

Love the blue interior and 80s BL parts bin-ness of it, great purchase Ian

[dollywobbler]

You can spend hours playing "guess where that was originally fitted."

 

Just wondered if any of you Landy fans knew a good forum to use - one that isn't too tainted by ONE LIFErs, chequer-plate fetishists and people who blindly think that a Land Rover is the ONLY good vehicle on the planet.

[cort16]

If you google "one life live it" it's nearly all fuggin Land Rover's that come back in the image search. Is this some kind of land rover meme I don't understand or are they just all fannies?

[skattrd]

My brother (barmatt) can usually be found on landyzone, I've used it occasionally and it doesn't seem too bad.

[dollywobbler]

My brother (barmatt) can usually be found on landyzone, I've used it occasionally and it doesn't seem too bad.

 

Cool. I'm signed up there from when I had the Rangie. Might be time to post again.

 

I really don't understand the One Live Life It, or why owning a Land Rover somehow proves that you're living life more than someone who doesn't. We all have different ways of enjoying our life! It might also explain why you don't get many Hindus driving Land Rovers...

[Tayne]

The One Life thing is from the Camel Trophy.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Yup, as above, 'One Life, Live it' was an official Land Rover slogan. No idea why it has been adopted by anyone able to attach a sticker.. The people that have them generally come into the 'all the gear, no idea' category

Landyzone is probably the most knowledgeable forum (and my favourite) but be warned, there are lots of 'characters' on there with attitude issues/ too much time on their hands!

[cort16]

Ah right, that makes sense now. Every day's a school day on here!

[KruJoe]

I really don't understand the One Live Life It, or why owning a Land Rover somehow proves that you're living life more than someone who doesn't. We all have different ways of enjoying our life! It might also explain why you don't get many Hindus driving Land Rovers...

Nicely put Ian! You should make that your sig over on Landyzone.

[richardthestag]

http://forum.lro.com/

 

is not too bad, can be a bit quiet sometimes.

 

btw both off road courses that I have played with have used out of the box LR products.The one in kent was an out of the box early 90's 200tdi disco 5 door.

 

No OMG 4" lift, checkaplate, winch nor comedy tyres and yet not once did it fail to proceed. Now I am no driving God so it must be down to the motor i reckon

 

last weekend I was playing at Silverstone on their 4x4 experience, td5 defender will climb the steepest smooth and tractable hill they have will all feet off the pedals. fucking thing does it at idle in low range, diff locked 1st gear.

[drum]

?...

Landyzone is probably the most knowledgeable forum (and my favourite) but be warned, there are lots of 'characters' on there with attitude issues/ too much time on their hands!

 

That's one way of putting it. Some sensible people hiding amongst the regulars. Don't think I've come across so many keyboard warriors in the one place before. And don't get me started on their sigs...

Landrovernet.com might be better for your disco.

[John F]

Landyzone is probably the most knowledgeable forum (and my favourite) but be warned, there are lots of 'characters' on there with attitude issues/ too much time on their hands!

 

 

^ This.

[dollywobbler]

last weekend I was playing at Silverstone on their 4x4 experience, td5 defender will climb the steepest smooth and tractable hill they have will all feet off the pedals. fucking thing does it at idle in low range, diff locked 1st gear.

 

Yup. I love displaying the abilities of out-of-the-box off-roaders. A set of tyres often makes a huge difference, but the things are designed to be good off road actually! First serious laning trip in the Maverick, I had an L322 Rangie following me. Did it struggle? Not a bit of it! Was waving wheels in the air at times (like my Mav) but happily kept moving. Impressive.