Discovery desires - rot replacement

[Sigmund Fraud]

Clutch slave cylinder rebuilds are foolproof - if I can do them, anyone can

 

 

First undo the bolts and remove pushrod, cover and circlip. Easiest way to get the piston out is to leave the hydraulic pipe connected and pump the pedal. If you've already disconnected everything, the Neanderthal method of knocking the cylinder on a hard surface until the piston falls out is just as effective - and more fun !

 

Once everything is apart, you should hone the bore which is bound to be rusty. If you have no access to fancy micro-hone tools, just use whatever fine emery paper you can find in the shed and take care not to remove too much metal.

 

Then wipe with a clean cloth, lubricate the bore and new seals with some brake fluid and put everything back together - "installation is the reverse of removal".

 

Should be good as new, and you can congratulate yourself for having spent the best part of a day to save £10

[dollywobbler]

As it happens, I went straight out after reading Meggersdog's post and concluded that there was no circlip. The old outer seal had kindly come off the cylinder and helped prevent the pin ending up where it shouldn't be. There was a lot of sealant slathered about, so it looks like someone attempted even more mingebaggery. 

 

Getting the piston out was a piece of piss. I pushed it in and it sprang out. I did this a few times and eventually it just popped out. The bore will be ok then. Certainly no sign of rust. New seals fitted and it was all boshed back together. Clutch bled up nicely (second attempt got my a lovely pedal) and a test drive has proved successful. 

 

The MOT is now just over a month away, so the next job will be trying to get rid of the play in the nearside swivel. Every time I drive this clunky old thing, I smile, so I think it'll be getting whatever it needs for the MOT. Within reason. I'm pretty confident it should do ok. Then, Shitefest and it's longest journey since I bought it.

 

And yes, it would have been a lot less hassle to just buy another one. 

[dollywobbler]

The past few weeks in review.

Broken down in the woods in Bala.

 

Getting wobbly wheeled on a test drive after new handbrake cable fitted.

 

Getting washed after being washed.

 

Arty bollox

 

Urban on-roader

 

Better in the dark

 

Now can has MOT, but the 'slight corrosion' advisory in the sill has got a whole lot uglier now we've got the side strips off. Both sills are pretty much entirely rotten! Both had lots of repairs on the bottom edge, so looked fine. Hoping to get new sills fitted before Shitefest.

[dollywobbler]

Disco hero. 

 

As mentioned elsewhere, a friend's newly purchased Vitara managed a spectacular head gasket failure. Scooped it up yesterday and delivered it to a mutual friend who's going to lob a new engine into it. Doesn't seem a bad old tub really - it's had the usual sill welding, to a 'patch it and slap it with underseal' standard, but has a fresh MOT. Hopefully it'll be up and running by the weekend, depending on when the new engine gets delivered.

 

Disco handled the two job fairly easily, though even the empty trailer made a noticeable difference to performance. The steep hills around here were a hard slog, but the temperature gauge resolutely refused to rise above halfway, and nothing broke. Today's mission is to cure the faulty rear door latch mechanism, which refused to work until I got home.

[beko1987]

A mate of mine had a rear door latch which didn't open, turned out to be a spring smaller than a biro spring had fucked off somewhere. New spring,  and a slosh of wd40 and it opened from the outside again!

[costadelglosta]

Some 60x100mm box section steel is the approved method for repairing the sills on Discos and Rangeys. Approx 1.5 metres per side. I'm using 3.5mm thickness which can double as built in rock sliders. Remove what remains of the bottom of the sills and cut back to sound metal, then wedge in the box section and jack it up so it sits flush with the floor. Cut to length and weld in then cap off the ends. Leave the plastic covers off as they act as mud traps.

 

Search some of the Landy forums and you will find detailed threads for this process.

[dollywobbler]

Again, I run into the problem of originality over modifications. The improved sill seems a sensible idea, but it'd look wrong in my eyes without the sill covers. I'm also planning only to replace the outer sill as the inners are absolutely fine bar one small section that needs a patch.

 

I'm still battling demons with front bumper design too. Incredibly, there are no front recovery points (other than a piddly little lash-down eye) and it doesn't seem easy to fit any without cutting the front bumper down.

[dollywobbler]

Why do small jobs eat so much time? Finally got the Disco's central locking working on the back door again. When I got it, the rear actuator was duff. Tried fixing it, no dice. Looked at prices for new ones, thought 'sod that' and bought a 'universal' one for a handful of pounds. 

 

Got the entire lock assembly apart so I could check it for faults given that the rear door keeps failing to open. Couldn't see anything and getting it all out was very stressful! Putting it all back together was tricky as well - I've never seen so many crossbars and levers. 

 

But, the happy news is that it works! And the door seems to shut more sweetly now. A small thing, but very pleasing. Top tip - I found my electrical pliers were GR9 for removing the plastic fir tree clips from the door. After most of them had pulled through the cardboard admittedly, but they're doing a good job of holding it in place again.

 

I'm hoping to nip over to a local specialist tomorrow to give it a bit of a sanity check before Shitefest. 

[costadelglosta]

_{You could always stick the sill covers back on with some sikaflex/tigerseal? The actual profile of the sills is not changed that much by using the box section.}

[dollywobbler]

I would Tayne. I have the Jate rings. There's no way of fitting them with the lower bumper in place. I could possibly slot them through, but not sure how well they'd work.

[dollywobbler]

Anyway, having parked the recovery issue for now, I decided to get the Disco checked over by a couple of very knowledgeable chaps who live a few miles away. All they could find was low grease levels in the swivels. Here's one of them dealing with it.

 

They generally thought it was in pretty good shape, bar the odd bit of welding it needs. Quotes have been discussed to overhaul the gearbox, but the general advice was "double declutch and live with it!"

 

The workshop is utterly fabulous.

 

They refuse to have anything to do with any modern, fancy Land Rovers. Happily, there's another specialist not far away who loves tinkering with the later ones, so they tend to share work between them.

 

Naturally, there are breakers. Very sad to find another three-door that had fallen on hard times.

 

But I liberated these goodies. First, a new rear washer switch (fitted) as the old one just had a hole in it.

 

Then a rear seatbelt buckle and an owner's handbook.

 

It also has a genuine Discovery boot mat, which I may yet go back for. I was low on cash.

 

So, it's all looking good for Shitefest. I'm going to head out now and start refurbing the wheels. I might get them done if I stop pissing about on the laptop...

[KruJoe]

Glorious! Can anyone else imagine the smell of that workshop? Places like that all have that whiff old old grease and metal.

 

Do I spy a towing loop about to go on (so that Olga can pull you out of bother)?

[dollywobbler]

Ha! That loop is for another Discovery, but we did discuss (the complete lack of) them. I'll just have to try not to get stuck...

[Shep Shepherd]

That red Disco puts me in mind of the almost identical K-reg V8 we have at work which is slowly being robbed of parts to keep our L-reg TDi going.

[dollywobbler]

After much frantic sanding, I've got the first coat of zinc-rich primer onto the wheels. Can't wait to get these re-fitted again!

 

Will need another coat later, will hopefully get a top coat on tomorrow and then hopefully I can get them balanced and fitted next week.

 

Oh and filled it with fuel ready for Shitefest. £98. Gulp! It returned 27mpg (edited!) on that tank, which included being mercilessly thrashed to north Wales, a fair old chunk of off-roading (split over several days) and towing a Suzuki Vitara up a big hill. Last tank was 28mpg, which was me trying to be gentle. It is consistent then!

[Rusty_Rocket]

Nice to see you're still enjoying the Disco' DW.  I must admit, mine is still the only car I've owned a while that I never tire of.  It's also the one I trust to take me anywhere without drama.  I know I've bleated on about it before, but you really should sniff out someone who produces decent biodiesel (not just used chip fat).  The stuff I use is £1 a litre, (with the taxes paid) and the 200tdi with its Bosch pump is so suitable for these fuels.  It makes a 30mpg vehicle into a 40mpg one..

Looking forward to seeing those wheels factory fresh again

 

Have a first-off-the-line G-WAC for some inspiration!

 

[dollywobbler]

There's no-one around here selling bio that I can find. Which given what a bunch of hippies most of the folk hiding in the hills are, is rubbish. Shame as I'd love to run it on recycled veg - not fresh.

 

That G-Wac is inspiration indeed. Proof that all you need is side graphics and steelies. Best the Discovery every looked.

[dollywobbler]

Top coat now applied, in two coats. Looking good!

 

Almost too good to put on the Disco really.

 

Being picky, I didn't do a good enough job of smoothing off the primer coats, so you can see some unevenness if you get close. Don't want them looking too good given how shambolic the rest of the vehicle is though! I haven't put a clear coat lacquer on top - anyone got any views on this? Chances are, they're going to get the odd biff when greenlaning/off-roading anyway, so I reasoned it wasn't worth the expense (all of about £8 for a can!)

[cort16]

Did you use normal paint or wheel paint? If wheel paint then leave it else I'd lacquer them just to seal them.

[dollywobbler]

It was wheel paint. Might lacquer them just so there's an extra layer of protection. The tin said I should, but it would wouldn't it? "Buy our lacquer as well, go on!"

[dollywobbler]

ICE, ICE, BABY.

I've spent literally seconds fabricating a custom ICE install in the Disco. Bitches be lovin' it or sumthink.

 

Fierce. 

 

These cost me £30 back in about 2000. They're extremely stylish* and sound great.* I've been testing it with Nirvana's In Utero, because that harks from the same year as my Disco.

[explosive-cabbage]

There's no-one around here selling bio that I can find.

This is excellent news. Do some reasearch, go to your local, offer to pay 20p/litre collected, cold filter with sock filters to 1 micron, and mix 75%veg/25%dino.

 

Save money and buy a house.

 

FTW

[dollywobbler]

I have a house...

 

I have spoken to our local (there is only one) but they've got a deal with the company that delivers their oil that involves taking the old stuff away. Judging by the smell I occasionally pick up, some folk have managed to find places with stuff to sell. I must find out where they get it from!

[Rusty_Rocket]

This is excellent news. Do some reasearch, go to your local, offer to pay 20p/litre collected, cold filter with sock filters to 1 micron, and mix 75%veg/25%dino.

 

Save money and buy a house.

 

FTW

 

That's waste veg oil though, not bio.  Bio is WVO that has been chemically altered by transesterification (sp?) to allow it to have the same viscosity as diesel.  Too much water etc in WVO for my liking and it'll give your pump/ injectors a very hard time in the winter.  Sure is a cheap way of running a throwaway vehicle though.

I'd love to make bio myself but there are start up costs and it takes plenty of time to do properly.  It's very easy to make a bad batch that can easily cause damage in the long term.  Now used engine oil is another matter entirely   

[dollywobbler]

Wheel refurb completed.

 

Bit miffed that the garage did the wheels up with a rattle gun (not full torque) so they're already showing signs of damage around the nuts. Thanks! Mind you, I didn't bother doing a super job on the wheels as I know I'll be laning etc.

 

Now to load up ready for tomorrow!

[dollywobbler]

So, the Disco had to miss out on Shitefest due to a wheel bearing failing in spectacular fashion just three miles into the journey. That's now sorted. I was considering going laning with some chums in Gloucestershire today, but realised that was a bit silly (over 300 miles in a day and we've got stuff to do to the house).

 

So, I went laning locally, introducing Skoda_norman from Retro-Rides to the world of greenlaning, and my neighbour came for his second trip.

 

It was rather foggy. So that's the only photo I took that included my own machine. I really do like this machine, even though the Disco IIs seem to ride very nicely (I hopped aboard for one tricky, rocky section).

[Rusty_Rocket]

Thats a great photo! Glad the hub bearing was an easy fix in the end.. they can cause a lot of collateral damage 

I would definitely re-pack the others!

[dollywobbler]

A local lane is going to be temporarily closed for a few months, so me and a friend decided to have a last run along it. It closes this weekend. 

 

It started well enough...

 

That scramble caught me out a few weeks ago, so I beat a hasty retreat as I was on my own. I'd been down this lane since, but it's easier going down.

 

Unfortunately, the lane seem to have deteriorated badly over the past few weeks. I got pitched into the bank and when I tried getting out of it, this happened.

Ouch!

 

We had to use a Defender to tug the back end away from the bank. I reversed down and assessed the damage. The indicator pod clips broke, so we used string to hold it in.

 

Paintwork may now be an issue. Glad it's ally!

 

Amazed how tough this side indicator is. Patina. I HAZ IT!

 

Now has two battered flanks.

 

Then the Defender got stuck. Recovery time.

 

String FTW.

 

This damage highlights my biggest problem. I wanted to restore this Disco while also using it how it should be used. That plan has had a bit of a set-back today. So, I'm contemplating its future. I've been keeping away from any mods at all, but this session highlighted how problematic that is. No diff guards, no heavy duty front bumper (and therefore no front recovery points) and nowhere that a hi-lift jack can be used. I'm yet to sort the sills out, so maybe now is the time to move to rock or tree sliders, and perhaps a heavy duty bumper really is the way to go. It's a total change of plan and not what I originally had in mind, but today was a reminder that it really is very, very difficult to keep a 4x4 in tidy condition if you want to push it off-road.

[John F]

Ouch!

 

But yep, it's only to be expected when off-roading.

[dollywobbler]

It's annoying, as I've hardly picked up any damage greenlaning, other than the Range Rover's stupid side steps. The Maverick took a mauling at a Pay and Play site (which is why I've not visited one since) but lane damage has been minimal. Oh well. All part of the game!