Land Rover Discovery 1994 TDI

[gdhaydock]

Some of you will have met my disco at shitefest this year, I've been meaning to start a thread about it for absolutely ages, but never actually (until now) got around to it.

 

I bought it just over 4 years sight unseen via ebay (after beer), it had a years MOT and was pretty much standard apart from the sill protectors and winch. It was purchased for a favourable price as it had a 'worn gearbox'

 

Upon collection, I gave it a quick once over, decided it was as described with no major rot in any of the normal spots, so parted with the money and drove it home.

 

Fast forward over the next 4 years, its been pretty reliable, had various bits of welding done for MOT's every year, inc sills, wheelarches etc. It has only had 3 "fail to proceeds" (A failed wheel bearing, and 2 failed axle mounts, one of which was particulary scary)

 

The only modifications done during my ownership are the +2" springs and shocks and the tyres.

 

It behaved perfectly at shitefest, but then the following weekend everything changed, but more on that in a little while.

 

Heres a few pics of it from during the last 4 years (of abuse)

 

 

 

 

 

 

There'll be another instalment in a little while

 

[hairnet]

for a minute thought this was for sale 'because'

 

[gdhaydock]

Right, the next bit......

 

The weekend after shitefest, I got invited on another laning trip around the Pateley Bridge area of North Yorkshire.

 

Had a really good day, but put a fair sized dent in the OSR wing around the fuel filler and scratches up the entire side of the vehicle caused by dragging it along a banking whilst negotiating a side slope. Arsebiscuits, but accept its a hazard of green laning.

 

On the way home from the trip, it became apparent that I had a slight misfire above 2500rpm which got progressively worse.

 

That night, a good mate of mine (he lurks on here occasionally so may drop in and introduce himself) who is far more mechanically capable than I am took a look, suggested it may be a corroded fuel sedimentor allowing air into the fuel. He took it off, I cleaned it out and discovered it did indeed have a hole in it, he just happened to have a spare on the shelf, so it got fitted, and problem solved we thought.

 

After refitting, we noticed a more impending problem in that the NSR axle mounting was nearly corroded through. (opposite side from the one which failed spectaculary the other year)

 

 

 

Anyhow it got cleaned up and substantially welded which will put on until it can be dealt with properly in the future. (for some reason, haven't got a pic of the finished repair)

 

After this had been done, it had reached beer & curry o'clock, se we locked up and set off home. On the drive up the hill, it was obvious that the hole in the fuel sedimentor was not the only issue with the misfire. Bollocks. As it was sunday night, nothing more could be done till the next weekend.

 

This will follow in the next instalment ....

[mouseflakes]

Oo - bad luck Zippy. But at least it was spotted before it let go. Just how spectacular was previous the failure?

[gdhaydock]

Oo - bad luck Zippy. But at least it was spotted before it let go. Just how spectacular was previous the failure?

 

At 30mph, it was as if a handbrake turn had been pulled and the car went sideways in the road. Thought WTF was that, got out and found the OSR under the back bumper  (still attached to the axle)

 

It got put back in place with a ratchet strap and welded back on the day after.

[gdhaydock]

And another bit .......

 

This weekend just gone, i'd arranged with my mate that we would return to the workshop and continue with the misfire problem.

 

Saturday morning started by fitting a clear plastic pipe between the fuel filter and the pump, this involved having to find a suitable piece of pipe and the appropriate unions.

 

Once fitted and the engine started, it was immediately apparent that the contents of the pipe resembled a Jacuzzi or soda stream, rather than an airtight fuel supply.

 

First suspect was the fuel pickup assembly in the tank, getting to this should have been an easy job, but the mongtard of a previous owner who replaced the boot floor fitted it upside down meaning that the access panel for the top of the tank was in the wrong place, cue much cursing from both of us and skinned knuckles from my mate and somehow he managed to shoehorn the fuel pickup assembly out of the hole. (No pics of this bit, sorry)

 

The pickup assembly (to the naked eye) appeared to be absolutely fine, so we eliminated by bypassing it and placing a rubber tube directly into the tank, this solved the problem and there were no visible bubbles in the tube at the filter end.

 

Closer inspection of the pickup showed a hairline crack on the external part. Tried to seal this with gasket compound, this reduced the bubbles by about 70%, but not good enough. Easy answer, reverse the feed and return, but this required extending the pipe so it would reach the bottom of the tank. Easily done with a piece of rubber pipe.

 

A quick road rest proved the problem was solved at least for now. Ace

 

It was now about 4pm on Saturday and we were left with 2 choices, either lock up and go to the pub, or start doing the job we'd originally planned (replacing the worn gearbox which has been due for replacement for the last 4 years and 20,000 miles)

 

After much discussion, we decided to make a start on the gearbox.

 

That bit will follow in the next instalment .......

[mouseflakes]

...either lock up and go to the pub, or start doing the job we'd originally planned...replacing the worn gearbox...

 

After much discussion, we decided to make a start on the gearbox.

 

That didn't end the way I expected.

[gdhaydock]

Back to where I left off .....

 

Remember in the 1st section, I said I'd bought the disco 4 years ago with a worn gearbox. It somehow managed to hang on for 4 years and 20000 miles, but had now become "really worn"

 

A couple of years ago, someone I knew scrapped a disco (due to tinworm) which I knew had a really nice gearbox, so a few beer tokens changed hands and I took possession of it. It then got stored away in the darkest, hardest to reach part of the upstairs in the workshop.

 

It's 4pm on Saturday and we've decided to take the gearbox out instead of doing the more sensible thing of drinking beer.

 

Exhuming the spare gearbox was not a task to take lightly as the workshop is best described as "full" and moving things around is like a Chinese puzzle from hell. The access trapdoor for upstairs is directly above a car which in turn was blocked by numerous other large and heavy items. 

 

 

 

I started started stripping the propshafts and exhaust system etc off the disco, whilst my mate was upstairs moving stuff around and exhuming the gearbox.

 

 

Eventually I heard the noise of the electric hoist and my spare gearbox lowered from above and deposited on a trolley with a comment of "Gearbox delivered"

 

 

By this point I had got the propshafts removed and most of the exhaust. I got sidetracked helping to send some longterm storage items upstairs whilst the trap door was exposed to clear a bit more space on the main floor of the workshop. The highlight of which was when got a Land Rover series 3 bulkhead stuck in the trapdoor hole 'cos it was too big. Lowered it back to terra-firma and gas axed a bit more of the chassis off and it was soon put in its place. 

 

Back to the discovery, I needed help getting the manilfold nuts off the exhaust (I have a excellent ability to irrepairably muller awkward nuts when trying to remove them and didn't want to risk it with the manifold)

 

My mate was now free to take over with gearbox removal and I became the coffee maker / tool passer / brute force assistance provider / photographer.

 

Once the exhaust was out of the way, the rear of the gearbox was supported with a patented "support mechanism" (Trolley jack with a long pole on it)

 

Gearbox crossmember removed, rear of gearbox lowered to allow access to bellhousing nuts, all bellhousing nuts bar one removed.

 

At this point the patented "gearbox removal cradle" needs to be deployed, this is a few pieces of wood with some nylon castors on the bottom and then an old pallet on top with 3 axle stands on the pallet. This is then raised with the ramp to take the weight of the gearbox and allow it to slide backwards off the engine after removal of the final bellhousing bolts. The whole contraption can then be lowered to the floor with the ramp. Simples.

 

 

It was now 10pm, so we locked up for the night and retired to drink beer

 

[drum]

Good thread and good problem solving.

[gdhaydock]

Here we go again ...... deep breath and continue typing ......

 

Sunday 8.30am, I'm awake with no hangover and no gastric refluxes from the previous nights dodgy pizza .....ace.....

 

9.00am we are in the workshop and sadly the fairies hadn't been in overnight and finished job off for us.

 

My mate tells me at this point, that we have a deadline of 2pm as he's agreed to help another mate pick up a caravan from somewhere at 3pm (more on that later)

 

First job is to get the spare gearbox ready for use, this involved replacing some bits which had been robbed from it whilst it was in storage (clutch fork, release bearing and diff lock light sensor)

 

The high low lever needed to be stripped and freed off as it had seized, whilst my mate was doing that bit, I swapped the 2 gearboxes around so that the replacement one was on the 'patented gearbox support cradle' ready to be rolled back under the disco for re-insertion. This caused a minor hiccup as it had to be in exactly the same position as the old was for removal. Hindsight would have suggested drawing a line around the axle stands, but we didn't.

 

Anyway, once the nicely refurb'd high/low lever was refitted, we rolled the contraption back under the car and lifted  it up with ramp, it was nearly in the right position, but not quite, so some adjustments were carried out, found we had 2 locating dowels conflicting with each other, so one removed and we eventually had the gearbox located on the splines and some bolts in the bellhousing.

 

Refitted cross member, then cursed that the top bellhousing bolts still needed to be fitted, crossmember back out, bolts in, crossmember back in.

 

Propshafts refitted, exhaust refitted, wiring for speedo, reverse light and difflock light sorted out.

 

3pm has now arrived, just as we are testing that we have a clutch and access to gears, mate with the caravan rings to ask where we are - oops.

 

Anyway we have to break off to go do this job, and I decide i'll follow in the disco to give it a 'road test' before all the interior trim and gearbox tunnel etc is refitted. It performs well for the 20 mile drive to where we are collecting the caravan from. This turns out to be a small holding and the caravan looks like a 1970's model that has been stored in a barn for 20 years with chickens living in it and on it.

 

 

The tyre are just slightly inflated and covered in moss and cracked to buggery. A conversation with the seller ensues and he finds a compressor, blows the tyres up and looks for a "spare wheel" on a pile of scrap tyres, finds one that looks to have about the right PCD for the wheelnuts and chucks it in the caravan. I'm following behind as it has no working lights.

 

A few miles away from base, there is a cloud of smoke as one of the tyres on the caravan blows out, so we pull over, use the disco jack to lift it up, put the spare on (amazingly the PCD is correct and the wheel fits), but as soon as the jack was lowered the tyre deflates, bollocks.

 

 

We abuse the toilet facilities in the caravan, much to its owners disgust and I take the wheel away in search of a garage with a tyre inflator. I find one, return to the scene, the owner fits the tyre and we make it the final few miles back without further drama.

 

Back to the discovery, its performed faultlessly on its test drive, so we return to the workshop about 6pm to rivet the floor back in and replace the trim.

 

Highly productive weekend, new gearbox is superb, no crunches on any gears and a lot quieter than the other one. Big thanks to my mate who did most of the work with it.

[mouseflakes]

Result!