The Little Discovery That Could (financially ruin me)

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Knocked a few things off the list today.

Replaced the offside front axle seal. Turns out when I changed the diff I managed to mangle it somehow with the halfshaft.

IMG_5170.jpeg

Yup, that'll do it.

Also adjusted the handbrake as the lever travel was maxed out and it was slipping.

To give Land Rover credit, I'd taken the rear propshaft off and removed the brake drum before I figured out that it was as simple as tightening the adjustment bolt on the back of the housing.
Mr. Haynes' grainy black and white photo didn't exactly make things obvious or I wouldn't have wasted my time. :rolleyes:

I also treated her to a service, went and got an oil filter and some oil of the appropriate grade... £96! :eek:
Then upon discovering that the centrifugal filter existed and was a thing, I went and spent an additional £28.

Oh well.

I'm assured that the chassis section now exists and is currently loitering up north somewhere "waiting for some pallets so we can ship it".
Not ideal as I'd booked this week off to fit it but there we go. :rolleyes:

Watch this space as I'm sure this nice treatment will go unpunished and she'll blow a steering pump or something out of spite.
 
Tango91 said:
Hello, it's me, Mr. Still Waiting for That Half Chassis.

Decided after work today to do something about the sunroofs (?) sunrooves? the glass things in the roof that let the light and rain in.

Previous owner described them as

View attachment 276736

Further investigation revealed that this was, in fact, a lie.

I put the dog in the boot over the weekend and he about drowned, it just trickles in constantly via the sunroof hand cranks if it's raining and saturates the carpets/seats.

View attachment 276737

Thumbs up for farmer fixes :confused:

I think they just spooged a load of silicone into the gap between the glass and the trim without cleaning out all the gunk and moss first. Then added some caulking or some other white **** for good measure. Standard thinners were just about able to deal with most of the crap in and around the sunroofs , but the caulking stuff took most of the clearcoat with it :rolleyes:

Long story short, I managed to scrounge a load of unwanted industrial grade PVC membrane from a new biogas plant I've been away working on for a few weeks (As well as everything else that was in the skip or otherwise not bolted down)

Ladders are for plebs so I erected a HSE compliant mobile works platform (please ignore the cherry picker parked behind)

View attachment 276740

Cut myself some rectangles, stuck them down with some good old Sikaflex EBT+ and went round the edges with that really really tough tape, the name of which escapes me.

View attachment 276741

It's not pretty, it's not permanent, but it might keep the rain out and/or the carpets dry for a while.

Ok, it's probably permanent. Does anyone do a blanking kit to do away with the damn things once and for all? Answers on a postcard.

In other news, besides the lack of a chassis section, the old girl is generating maintenance problems at a staggering rate.

In no particular order:
  • The OSF axle oil seal is now leaking
  • The starter solenoid needs to be rebuilt as you have to bump the key 32,584 times and offer a blood sacrifice to Denso before the starter fires
  • The handbrake has reached the top of its adjustment and doesn't hold on hills
  • The track rod has torn dust boots at both ends
  • The watts linkage bushings have started knocking
  • It needs a service
  • It needs a coolant flush
I'm sure there's more but I've lost the will to live, goodbye.
Click to expand...

DON'T give up!
List the work (DONE) then work your list!
A couple of observations...
Pic 1. Typical newbie FLT mistake.
The forks go UNDER the load.

Pic 2. Gaffer tape is all good (generally) but it's not very good as weather proofing.
What will happen is you'll go out to the car one day and wonder what the silver streamer is hanging down the side of the car. Upon investigation you'll discover the silver part of the tape is mostly no longer attached to the car yet strangely the glue and cotton reinforcing WILL be.
Learned from personal experience...

99% sure that Disco 2 sunroofs are a straight swap.
 
craigoodwood said:
I've just been giggling reading this thread, bird in a bin I actually lol'd :D
I too am in pretty much the same situation with my latest purchase, fix one problem 2 more appear.... thankfully my good lady knows zero about cars and if I said to her I need to order a LS3 crate engine for it she wouldn't know one way or another :D
Click to expand...

She'd have a good idea what it was upon answering the knock on the door and she finds a bloke in tears on his knees moaning "ooh me ernier" after dragging the thing up the path! :D
 
Nice work, you will get there one day (that's what I tell myself anyway lol).

Tango91 said:
I also treated her to a service, went and got an oil filter and some oil of the appropriate grade... £96! :eek:
Then upon discovering that the centrifugal filter existed and was a thing, I went and spent an additional £28.
Click to expand...

For future reference (too late now I know) I use jgs 4x4 to get the service kit, costs around £80 for everything,. Quick delivery aswell
 
Are you keeping a running total of money spent so far? I was adding up the money I had spent on my series and soon realised I could have bought a much betterer one for the total bill. I spose the fun is in the work done to an old wreck, it just doesnt a!ways feel like that at the time.

Col
 
Colthebrummie said:
Are you keeping a running total of money spent so far? I was adding up the money I had spent on my series and soon realised I could have bought a much betterer one for the total bill. I spose the fun is in the work done to an old wreck, it just doesnt a!ways feel like that at the time.

Col
Click to expand...

I am, and it's scary. £3653.22 spent so far. :confused:

Anyway, yesterday I went for a bit of gentle green laning. A good time was had.

IMG_5176.jpeg


An altercation with a small tree resulted in the NS headlight looking a bit squinty, it just popped it off the balljoints.

I didn't notice it until i was talking to a friend earlier and leaning on the bonnet. I gave it a push and a wiggle, it popped back in, then I thumped the bonnet and it popped back out, hung with perfect comedic timing for just a second on the wire, then dropped square onto the road and smashed the glass with a loud pop.

IMG_5187.jpeg


Make that £3699.22 :rolleyes:
 
She's got a new eye but it definitely makes the other one look like it's got cataracts. (still full of mud)

IMG_5206.jpeg


I must have hit the corner pretty hard, it pushed the bumper bar back into the headlight bucket hard enough to tear the metal. Had to bend the bumper back out and pull the headlight supports square again.

IMG_5204.jpeg


Definitely need to invest in a decent offroad bumper!
 
One of the most entertaining threads I’ve read in a long time. Subscribed for regular reminders that I’m not the only one with a car that clearly doesn't like me even though I’m trying to treat it better than the last owner.

Rich
 
I hope my ongoing misery is entertaining for you all :rolleyes:

On that topic, STILL no chassis section yet. I must be too trusting because the guy from Dixon Fabrication said two weeks ago that it was ready to ship. Looks like I'll be doing it in the evenings after work. :rolleyes:


On a brighter note, before the missus and I went away for a couple of nights holiday last week, I treated the old girl (the Disco) to a coolant flush and a nice bottle of red, just as a precaution.
The old stuff came out looking really good actually, probably didn't need doing at all, it looked horrible in the header tank.

For my efforts I was rewarded immediately with a serious coolant loss problem :mad:

My last money pit was a Suzuki Jimny that died ultimately after several head gasket jobs by blowing all it's coolant out of the exhaust, so the idea of a head gasket issue killing two cars in a row made me more than a little bit fed up.

I couldn't find an obvious problem in the daylight, the header tank looked good and not cracked, the top hose was squeezable even when the engine was hot, the temperature while running was staying consistent, no steam out the back, no bubbles in the header tank. Hmm.

Then, just now on a whim, I took it up the road and back and waved a torch around under the bonnet in the dark to see if there was any incriminating steam from anywhere.

IMG_5263.gif


Thank F*** for that :confused:

Big shout out to a former owner for butchering the turbo heat shield with a grinder for some reason...

Back to waiting for the chassis :rolleyes:
 
I just noticed that postage on that item is £14. Absolute **** take. Shop around, you'll find much more reasonable prices. That was just the first one I found with a quick Google.
 
Had some bulbs out so I thought it was time to replace a few today.

Did the centre brake light, no problems. My (TC) light had no friends and was lonely so I took the instrument panel apart to see what was up with the other two

IMG_5454.jpeg


...Farmers, man...

Knocked that crap out of there and all is right and well with the world.

IMG_5455.jpeg


Ahh. Much better.

I got around to wondering why I'd never actually seen the ABS light when I started the car, this would be why :rolleyes:

Must get hold of a diagnostic unit that can tell me what's up, any recommendations for less than a kidney and a first born child?

Also, as an aside, I just can't get this previously dry wheel seal to seat properly and stop slinging axle oil everywhere.

IMG_5457.jpeg


I was really careful when I replaced the halfshaft last time but behind the outer sealing flange (and unknown to me) it must have pushed the seal in again.

So, I've ordered yet another seal. Any tips?
 
Tango91 said:
Had some bulbs out so I thought it was time to replace a few today.

Did the centre brake light, no problems. My (TC) light had no friends and was lonely so I took the instrument panel apart to see what was up with the other two

View attachment 279032

...Farmers, man...

Knocked that crap out of there and all is right and well with the world.

View attachment 279033

Ahh. Much better.

I got around to wondering why I'd never actually seen the ABS light when I started the car, this would be why :rolleyes:

Must get hold of a diagnostic unit that can tell me what's up, any recommendations for less than a kidney and a first born child?

Also, as an aside, I just can't get this previously dry wheel seal to seat properly and stop slinging axle oil everywhere.

View attachment 279034

I was really careful when I replaced the halfshaft last time but behind the outer sealing flange (and unknown to me) it must have pushed the seal in again.

So, I've ordered yet another seal. Any tips?
Click to expand...
Re the diagnostic, I have a Foxwell Pro 520 there is at least one later version, they don't cost as much as a Nanocom and they work for all the LR and Jaguar range with no need to pay an unlock code every time you get another model. And I have used the OBD2 several times to help fix my wife's car. (I do appreciate that many also have that facility). There are others on here who use them too and like them.
As to the leaking seal, did it go in the right way round, was the seat clean and were you really careful? Is all I can think of!!
By the way this is an excellent thread and written in a very amusing and informative way.
All power to your elbow. :):):)
 
You have the same lights on the dash that I do. Probably a wheel sensor but you really need to do a code read to get a definitive answer. Mine's a wheel sensor. I must get round to changing it before MOT time...
 
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