Hi all,
Bit more progress made so far this week. Got several sections made up yesterday evening for the O/S inner arch and boot floor. Today had a sheet of 2mm this steel delivered to make up the cross member that I cut. Made the section of cross member, prepped and weld through primed all the sections I had and started welding in this evening. Didn’t get far and ran out of gas - that’s a whole bottle in just the back of this car!
Photos…
Cut the rot out.
Weld in the section I had made last week.
This evening’s progress.
I’ll have to be on chauffeur duties tomorrow so I can get more gas. Should be able to get the rest of those gaps filled tomorrow evening then.
More soon.
Rich
Bit more progress made so far this week. Got several sections made up yesterday evening for the O/S inner arch and boot floor. Today had a sheet of 2mm this steel delivered to make up the cross member that I cut. Made the section of cross member, prepped and weld through primed all the sections I had and started welding in this evening. Didn’t get far and ran out of gas - that’s a whole bottle in just the back of this car!
Photos…
Cut the rot out.
Weld in the section I had made last week.
This evening’s progress.
I’ll have to be on chauffeur duties tomorrow so I can get more gas. Should be able to get the rest of those gaps filled tomorrow evening then.
More soon.
Rich
So I missed a bit of the story out here. Last Friday I did some more work on the Discovery having got myself some fresh gas for the welder.
Filled in the patchwork boot floor.
I wish I had a folder so that I could have made the floor sections less patchwork, but all I have to fold steel is a couple of pieces of angle iron in the vice so the longest fold I can do is about 24” and they always have a little bit of hammer texture to them. One day. For now though that’s good enough for the MoT and should look ok once the welds are all ground back and painted over.
Thanks to car and commercial who fitted me in at short notice for an MoT at 0700 on Saturday. Some slight confusion over he behaviour of the ABS light but once the tester agreed to drive it around the car park and the light went out he let me have a certificate!
There are a few things to do there, but not too bad really.
That then meant that I was able to call the trailer hire (Startruck Trailer) on Monday to see if his trailer was available at all this week. He said, ‘you can have it now if you’re available?’ Long lunch break arranged I emptied the piggy bank and went and fetched the Range Rover. Got to go back next week for the bonnet which is done but I couldn’t fit it in with the dog. I’m really chuffed with the job Bly and Sons in Breaston have made of it - better than factory I’m sure.
Couldn’t resist throwing some bits at it yesterday evening. Headlights, stickers on the slam panel, wax everywhere… Off to put some more on now!
Rich
Filled in the patchwork boot floor.
I wish I had a folder so that I could have made the floor sections less patchwork, but all I have to fold steel is a couple of pieces of angle iron in the vice so the longest fold I can do is about 24” and they always have a little bit of hammer texture to them. One day. For now though that’s good enough for the MoT and should look ok once the welds are all ground back and painted over.
Thanks to car and commercial who fitted me in at short notice for an MoT at 0700 on Saturday. Some slight confusion over he behaviour of the ABS light but once the tester agreed to drive it around the car park and the light went out he let me have a certificate!
There are a few things to do there, but not too bad really.
That then meant that I was able to call the trailer hire (Startruck Trailer) on Monday to see if his trailer was available at all this week. He said, ‘you can have it now if you’re available?’ Long lunch break arranged I emptied the piggy bank and went and fetched the Range Rover. Got to go back next week for the bonnet which is done but I couldn’t fit it in with the dog. I’m really chuffed with the job Bly and Sons in Breaston have made of it - better than factory I’m sure.
Couldn’t resist throwing some bits at it yesterday evening. Headlights, stickers on the slam panel, wax everywhere… Off to put some more on now!
Rich
Well I've not updated this really since getting the car back have I. Honestly there's not really a lot to see is the main excuse.
I covered the hidden bits and the cavities in Corrolan and the engine bay in Dinitrol 4010 in a hope to hold the rust back for as long as possible. The Corrolan settles down to a less obvious colour after a few weeks.
Started making up new brake lines. I didn't really have a lot to base these on since the originals were almost all gone and the replacements weren't great. To start with they were plain copper tube, which I don't really think is suitable for brake lines. There wasn't a straight line anywhere which just makes them look a bit amateur in my opinion. Where they were secured, which generally didn't seem to be where they should, it was mostly done with cable ties and sections of garden hose to protect the pipes. I guess that could have been worse.
I bought myself some new toys from Car Builder Solutions in the form of a nice pipe flaring tool to replace the cheap one I had and a 3/16" tube straightener. Next I studied all the diagrams I could find for the brake lines in the parts catalogues and service manuals and then I started trying to replicate the routings I thought they showed as neatly as possible.
That was as far as I got before I hit a few snags. One issue was that Land Rover weren't always great with making the diagrams accurate. The other was that some of the lines weren't visible in any of the diagrams. There are two lines on the ABS system which are concealed behind the ABS unit in all the diagrams I could find, meaning that I didn't know which terminated where. At the Gaydon show this weekend I was lucky enough to meet Mr Atkinson of Atkinson Bespoke Engineering who let me take photos of the engine bay of his LSE to reference. Chatting to him did inform me that the diagrams I was referencing were never updated to show the fact Land Rover stopped routing the N/S/R brake line down the N/S of the car, which was a shame as I've already run it across the engine bay. As I'm quite pleased with that particular line, and I actually think there's some sense in routing the two rear lines separately, I think I'll finish it as I have started.
In the mean time while I was stuck on brake lines, I made some progress on other things. I started looking to assemble components in the engine bay and realised that, next to the nice new paint, everything that came off the car looked terrible. Found a local media blaster and got a load of the reusable parts blast cleaned. Ordered replacements for some of the more readily available bits that were far enough gone I couldn't be bothered to salvage them. When they all came back I made a few repairs and had a nice few evenings spray painting under the car port.
This went fairly well, apart from the fact that I got overspray of black epoxy all over the door and window to the kitchen and the front of the car. My wife was kind enough to point out the kitchen before the paint cured and I managed to clean it all off. The front of the car I wasn't so lucky. I'll be able to get the paint off but the new decals on the slam panel won't survive it. New ones on order again! Here's some of the painted parts fitted to make me feel better. The best part being that now I've closed off the holes in the bulkhead the neighbours cat can't get into the car any more.
This week I've set myself the task of finishing off the passengers footwell and getting some paint on the interior so that I can refit the wiring looms and start assembling the interior. I've also been getting on with the remainder of the brake lines. Not really much to see in that though.
More soon,
Rich
I covered the hidden bits and the cavities in Corrolan and the engine bay in Dinitrol 4010 in a hope to hold the rust back for as long as possible. The Corrolan settles down to a less obvious colour after a few weeks.
Started making up new brake lines. I didn't really have a lot to base these on since the originals were almost all gone and the replacements weren't great. To start with they were plain copper tube, which I don't really think is suitable for brake lines. There wasn't a straight line anywhere which just makes them look a bit amateur in my opinion. Where they were secured, which generally didn't seem to be where they should, it was mostly done with cable ties and sections of garden hose to protect the pipes. I guess that could have been worse.
I bought myself some new toys from Car Builder Solutions in the form of a nice pipe flaring tool to replace the cheap one I had and a 3/16" tube straightener. Next I studied all the diagrams I could find for the brake lines in the parts catalogues and service manuals and then I started trying to replicate the routings I thought they showed as neatly as possible.
That was as far as I got before I hit a few snags. One issue was that Land Rover weren't always great with making the diagrams accurate. The other was that some of the lines weren't visible in any of the diagrams. There are two lines on the ABS system which are concealed behind the ABS unit in all the diagrams I could find, meaning that I didn't know which terminated where. At the Gaydon show this weekend I was lucky enough to meet Mr Atkinson of Atkinson Bespoke Engineering who let me take photos of the engine bay of his LSE to reference. Chatting to him did inform me that the diagrams I was referencing were never updated to show the fact Land Rover stopped routing the N/S/R brake line down the N/S of the car, which was a shame as I've already run it across the engine bay. As I'm quite pleased with that particular line, and I actually think there's some sense in routing the two rear lines separately, I think I'll finish it as I have started.
In the mean time while I was stuck on brake lines, I made some progress on other things. I started looking to assemble components in the engine bay and realised that, next to the nice new paint, everything that came off the car looked terrible. Found a local media blaster and got a load of the reusable parts blast cleaned. Ordered replacements for some of the more readily available bits that were far enough gone I couldn't be bothered to salvage them. When they all came back I made a few repairs and had a nice few evenings spray painting under the car port.
This went fairly well, apart from the fact that I got overspray of black epoxy all over the door and window to the kitchen and the front of the car. My wife was kind enough to point out the kitchen before the paint cured and I managed to clean it all off. The front of the car I wasn't so lucky. I'll be able to get the paint off but the new decals on the slam panel won't survive it. New ones on order again! Here's some of the painted parts fitted to make me feel better. The best part being that now I've closed off the holes in the bulkhead the neighbours cat can't get into the car any more.
This week I've set myself the task of finishing off the passengers footwell and getting some paint on the interior so that I can refit the wiring looms and start assembling the interior. I've also been getting on with the remainder of the brake lines. Not really much to see in that though.
More soon,
Rich
HI All,
Made a bit more progress. I've got both the front footwells painted, all the sound deadening mats in and the wiring looms all back in their rightful routes.
Few more bits fitted in the engine bay.
Passenger side painted.
Found some more pin holes to fix on the drivers side. Drilled them out with the step drill and either welded them in or welded in patches.
At this point I had to take a bit of a break to service the Discovery and prep it for holidays. I'm not totally confident that I fixed the oil leak from the vacuum pump. The bolts didn't seem to be as tight as I think they should have been but I'm concerned that it might still be weeping from the riveted on plate. Follower that runs on the cam didn't look too great so I might try to find a good replacement vacuum pump. Anyone have any thoughts?
Put some new heat sheath over the wiring to the temperature sensor on the cylinder head. The original sheath was brittled from exposure to heat when the exhaust manifold gasket was blowing. Also replaced the missing manifold stud and nut and changed the oil and filter.
After a few days away I've got back to it on the Range Rover. Sorted those holes I left in the drivers footwell, prepped and painted it.
I'm a bit disappointed with myself over these sections. I should have got these ground down before the car went for paint but didn't. Now I don't want to risk heating the panel up and damaging the paint on the other side so the welds will have to stay.
At least they'll never be seen again and no one who hasn't read this will know.
That's up to date as of this evening. Perhaps I'll get a bit more time on it tomorrow and start assembling the interior. Got a friend hopefully coming soon to help refit the engine and bonnet which will be another step forward but I want to have all the wiring installed and tested by then so need to crack on.
More soon.
Rich
Made a bit more progress. I've got both the front footwells painted, all the sound deadening mats in and the wiring looms all back in their rightful routes.
Few more bits fitted in the engine bay.
Passenger side painted.
Found some more pin holes to fix on the drivers side. Drilled them out with the step drill and either welded them in or welded in patches.
At this point I had to take a bit of a break to service the Discovery and prep it for holidays. I'm not totally confident that I fixed the oil leak from the vacuum pump. The bolts didn't seem to be as tight as I think they should have been but I'm concerned that it might still be weeping from the riveted on plate. Follower that runs on the cam didn't look too great so I might try to find a good replacement vacuum pump. Anyone have any thoughts?
Put some new heat sheath over the wiring to the temperature sensor on the cylinder head. The original sheath was brittled from exposure to heat when the exhaust manifold gasket was blowing. Also replaced the missing manifold stud and nut and changed the oil and filter.
After a few days away I've got back to it on the Range Rover. Sorted those holes I left in the drivers footwell, prepped and painted it.
I'm a bit disappointed with myself over these sections. I should have got these ground down before the car went for paint but didn't. Now I don't want to risk heating the panel up and damaging the paint on the other side so the welds will have to stay.
At least they'll never be seen again and no one who hasn't read this will know.
That's up to date as of this evening. Perhaps I'll get a bit more time on it tomorrow and start assembling the interior. Got a friend hopefully coming soon to help refit the engine and bonnet which will be another step forward but I want to have all the wiring installed and tested by then so need to crack on.
More soon.
Rich
Well there’s been some progress since my last response. As usual not as much as I’d have liked but progress is progress.
I got all the wiring and carpets back in place.
I cleaned and applied dielectric grease to every wiring connector as I went. Also completely stripped the wiring for the old sub since my new head unit will run that differently and replaced that wire with the one for the new CD changer. This was a pain as they run through the floor under the drivers seat and then along the outside to come up in the boot.
Next I set about patching up some of the plastics with a plastic welder off of Amazon.
You bridge the gaps with what are basically staples that are heated by passing a current through them. The repairs aren’t totally invisible but they’re definitely strong enough and given the price of good used trim this was a good option.
I’ve managed to wet sand all the overspray off the slam panel, polish it back up and apply another set of new decals. Also fitted the freshly painted scuttle panel which I hadn’t noticed had a dent in until after it had been painted. It’s not that bad really and could perhaps be made better by one of those paintless repair chaps but it’s plenty good enough to show up the rest of the car.
Not a lot of progress since this point a couple of weeks ago as I’ve been busy going away rallying. Friend of mine asked me if I would sit with him on a rally that his normal navigator wouldn’t travel to… 450 miles each way from Nottingham to Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre. Was a little disappointing to retire after only 7 competitive miles due to a misfire (caused by all the wiring on the left bank of the engine being melted due to an oil fire). Oh well. I got a nice weekend away somewhere I’ve never been before in the Discovery which didn’t miss a beat.
The rally car, post retirement…
Disco sleeping setup…
Sunrise over Loch Lomond on the way back…
Sleeping setup in the discovery worked well enough but I hope to sort something a little more engineered in the Range Rover when that’s running. I did replace the vacuum pump on the Discovery before I went as it was still leaking from the rivets. Other than that she continues to be pretty faultless and even averaged over 33mpg during the trip.
More soon.
Rich
I got all the wiring and carpets back in place.
I cleaned and applied dielectric grease to every wiring connector as I went. Also completely stripped the wiring for the old sub since my new head unit will run that differently and replaced that wire with the one for the new CD changer. This was a pain as they run through the floor under the drivers seat and then along the outside to come up in the boot.
Next I set about patching up some of the plastics with a plastic welder off of Amazon.
You bridge the gaps with what are basically staples that are heated by passing a current through them. The repairs aren’t totally invisible but they’re definitely strong enough and given the price of good used trim this was a good option.
I’ve managed to wet sand all the overspray off the slam panel, polish it back up and apply another set of new decals. Also fitted the freshly painted scuttle panel which I hadn’t noticed had a dent in until after it had been painted. It’s not that bad really and could perhaps be made better by one of those paintless repair chaps but it’s plenty good enough to show up the rest of the car.
Not a lot of progress since this point a couple of weeks ago as I’ve been busy going away rallying. Friend of mine asked me if I would sit with him on a rally that his normal navigator wouldn’t travel to… 450 miles each way from Nottingham to Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre. Was a little disappointing to retire after only 7 competitive miles due to a misfire (caused by all the wiring on the left bank of the engine being melted due to an oil fire). Oh well. I got a nice weekend away somewhere I’ve never been before in the Discovery which didn’t miss a beat.
The rally car, post retirement…
Disco sleeping setup…
Sunrise over Loch Lomond on the way back…
Sleeping setup in the discovery worked well enough but I hope to sort something a little more engineered in the Range Rover when that’s running. I did replace the vacuum pump on the Discovery before I went as it was still leaking from the rivets. Other than that she continues to be pretty faultless and even averaged over 33mpg during the trip.
More soon.
Rich
So this evening I’ve managed to fix a wiring fault I’ve been chasing for the past week or so. I’ve had half the dash back out trying to work out why everything powered by the ignition load relay wasn’t getting power. The ignition load relay exists to power everything on the accessory position of the ignition switch that doesn’t have its own relay I believe rather than the current going through the ignition switch. After several evenings trying I find a fault I discovered the relay wasn’t plugged in properly :/ rear wiper still isn’t working but that must be a separate fault. This evening I reassembled the dash only to remember that I still need to fit vacuum hoses for the cruise control and the heater, the bonnet release cable and the air conditioning hoses. Suppose that means I’ll have to take half of it back out yet again at some point.
In other news, a new arrival in the house is taking up some of my tinkering time…
Don’t let her innocent looks deceive you, she’s a menace!
More soon.
Rich
In other news, a new arrival in the house is taking up some of my tinkering time…
Don’t let her innocent looks deceive you, she’s a menace!
More soon.
Rich
Well I've been plodding along and neglecting my thread as usual. Interior reassembly was delayed due to the fan not working for a while. Got to the bottom of that in the end. Seized fan...
That would do it. Replaced with a used one along with rebuilding the whole heater box which had been butchered in the past to replace the heater matrix at some point. Still didn't work once reassembled - actually everything that ran off the 'Ignition Load Relay' didn't work. Had the dash out and back in twice trying to find the problem before I discovered that the relay was wedged down the side of the socket rather than installed.
After that was sorted I got the interior reassembled for good (apart from the bits I've forgotten or still got to fix).
(Junk is stuff out of the daily put there as I needed the foot wells)
Next on to the engine bay. Loads of wiring repairs, adding thermal insulation to wires to stop needing more in the future etc. Made a whole new battery positive cable to the starter as it was tatty at both ends and had been allowed to melt near the manifold at some point - dread to think how that could have ended! Did have a bit of a cock up during that job when I made the whole cable before realising that I'd started the job by fitting the battery terminal the wrong way up. Course I had to completely disassemble it and start again to fix it!
Next this happened...
Well that looks better. Still had a few jobs to sort like repairing a manifold stud. I'd had them all out and fitted new ones, but one of the old ones had to be drilled out and the threads weren't great afterwards. Drilled out and tapped M10 to fit a repair stud with M10 one end and standard M8 the other.
Not perfect but works. By this time I'd already had the engine in, then the engine mounts back out again to be able to get at the bell housing bolts. I've not been doing things in the most efficient order. This continued when I fitted the exhaust next. I had to loosen the anti-roll bar to get it in. Two days later I started the next job on the list for before starting the engine by changing the transmission filter and filling it up. Of course to do that I had to remove the transmission crossmember (which was back to front). Transmission crossmember can't come out with the downpipe on can it. Some cursing followed.
As we stand now, ready to start.
I seem to be short of a lot of photos so I'll take some soon to fill in this post a bit. Bottom line, it runs but without the downpipes it's bloody loud. Of course there was another puzzle before it did start. It helps to have the ignition connected to the positive side of the coil rather than negative. Still a fair bit more work before the MoT test and I want it in by the 28th.
Rich
That would do it. Replaced with a used one along with rebuilding the whole heater box which had been butchered in the past to replace the heater matrix at some point. Still didn't work once reassembled - actually everything that ran off the 'Ignition Load Relay' didn't work. Had the dash out and back in twice trying to find the problem before I discovered that the relay was wedged down the side of the socket rather than installed.
After that was sorted I got the interior reassembled for good (apart from the bits I've forgotten or still got to fix).
(Junk is stuff out of the daily put there as I needed the foot wells)
Next on to the engine bay. Loads of wiring repairs, adding thermal insulation to wires to stop needing more in the future etc. Made a whole new battery positive cable to the starter as it was tatty at both ends and had been allowed to melt near the manifold at some point - dread to think how that could have ended! Did have a bit of a cock up during that job when I made the whole cable before realising that I'd started the job by fitting the battery terminal the wrong way up. Course I had to completely disassemble it and start again to fix it!
Next this happened...
Well that looks better. Still had a few jobs to sort like repairing a manifold stud. I'd had them all out and fitted new ones, but one of the old ones had to be drilled out and the threads weren't great afterwards. Drilled out and tapped M10 to fit a repair stud with M10 one end and standard M8 the other.
Not perfect but works. By this time I'd already had the engine in, then the engine mounts back out again to be able to get at the bell housing bolts. I've not been doing things in the most efficient order. This continued when I fitted the exhaust next. I had to loosen the anti-roll bar to get it in. Two days later I started the next job on the list for before starting the engine by changing the transmission filter and filling it up. Of course to do that I had to remove the transmission crossmember (which was back to front). Transmission crossmember can't come out with the downpipe on can it. Some cursing followed.
As we stand now, ready to start.
I seem to be short of a lot of photos so I'll take some soon to fill in this post a bit. Bottom line, it runs but without the downpipes it's bloody loud. Of course there was another puzzle before it did start. It helps to have the ignition connected to the positive side of the coil rather than negative. Still a fair bit more work before the MoT test and I want it in by the 28th.
Rich
Last edited:
Britcyclerider
Well-Known Member
Great work and really enjoyed reading this thread. You should be well proud!
Thanks for that. I’m starting to get the hang of some of it now I’m coming to the end.
Rich
So I haven’t quite got to the bottom of all the rust just yet. There were a few grotty bits on the chassis I needed to sort. One where the crossmember under the gearbox attaches and one on each end of the extension where they made the 108” chassis.
Chopped out…
Maybe need to go a bit further…
Clean, degrease, neutralise salt, rust convert, fill the inner box section in and weld through primer…
Fill in the outer box section. Welds aren’t going to be confused for factory but tidy enough. Ground back flush where I’d butt welded but left the welds where the original lap welds had been…
Now for the bracket for the crossmember. Welded from both sides. Hopefully won’t bite me in the arse when I try to refit the bolts. I’m sure it’s plenty strong now and if I fit the crossmember the right way around perhaps all four holes will line up rather than just three like the last numpty.
Up to date now. Hopefully I’ll get some time tomorrow to reassemble some but I have to be quiet apparently.
Rich
Chopped out…
Maybe need to go a bit further…
Clean, degrease, neutralise salt, rust convert, fill the inner box section in and weld through primer…
Fill in the outer box section. Welds aren’t going to be confused for factory but tidy enough. Ground back flush where I’d butt welded but left the welds where the original lap welds had been…
Now for the bracket for the crossmember. Welded from both sides. Hopefully won’t bite me in the arse when I try to refit the bolts. I’m sure it’s plenty strong now and if I fit the crossmember the right way around perhaps all four holes will line up rather than just three like the last numpty.
Up to date now. Hopefully I’ll get some time tomorrow to reassemble some but I have to be quiet apparently.
Rich
Well I've done a little more work since the last update. Mostly bashing my head against a wall trying to get the car ready for an MoT Test. Not quite there yet but I think I've cracked the last thing stopping me taking it in now.
Firstly, the distraction is growing fast...
After the debacle of changing the transmission crossmember around the right way, fixing the mount for it and changing the transmission fluid I found that the transmission cooler was leaking. New one of those from RimmerBros meant I could run the engine long enough to learn how to bleed the coolant. Got there in the end. It's not hard but I had assumed so and therefore hadn't read the instructions in the manual telling me to bleed the air out through the riser above the right hand cylinder head.
With that done I moved on to fitting the steering box which a good friend from the local GLASS group had managed to sort the drop arm on for me. I removed the steering box from the LSE to fit to the Disco, as I'm sure I documented in this thread. I then bought a used steering box from eBay to replace it, but this was from an older classic and had the other type of drop arm. I figured it would be as simple as swapping the arm from the Disco's old box to the 'new' used box but hadn't considered how hard it is to get them off.
Now I had steering and drive I could move the car but still no brakes or air in the suspension. Guess I should sort that then. Brakes filled up and proved a pain to bleed out. Got myself enough pedal to turn the car around facing the other way as I had one bit of rust left to sort. Nice to have it move under it's own power for the first time in over a year! My list of things preventing the MoT test was now down to about 5.
Next up was to sort the three holes in the driver's side cill that I had ignored when I wen't around the car the first time. One at the front on the bottom I cut out and let in patches into the inner and outer cills about 8" long on the outer and 3" long on the inner at the bottom seam. The middle was basically the same as the repair I did on the Disco for the MoT last year - cut off the bottom 4" of the B pillar, let in a patch about 8" long on the vertical section of the outer cill going around to just past where the B pillar attaches underneath, repair the bottom of the B pillar and weld back on. Finally I threw a shoddy doubler over a hole at the very back of the cill by the body mount as that whole section will have to be done properly in a year or two (I know I should have done it properly before but I'm not doing it now).
So now I really had ticked all the welding off the list, on to the last snags. List had somehow grown back to 4 despite having ticked off the three issues with the cill.
New brackets for the bottom corner of the front wings made and fitted. 3.
Bleed the brakes properly... Another case of RTFM - If the hydrostatic circuit won't bleed, it says to check that the clevis pin on the master cylinder is connected to the correct hole in the brake pedal. With that fixed and the brake switch readjusted the brakes bled up straight away and I have a really nice pedal. 2.
Get the suspension inflated. Well I still can't communicate with the suspension computer. I now have two computers - both behave the same. I have two communications cables (one I made and one I bought to rule mine out) - both behave the same. Chatting to a friend I was reminded that you can hot wire the solenoids to check that part of the system and even to run the system manually until I can fix it properly. It wouldn't work. More diagnostics showed that my driver pack was faulty. This is a unit which converts the low current signals from the computer to high current to control the solenoids in the valve block. There's a thread in the Range Rover section on how I got to this, but I managed to make the P38 Range Rover version fit as they're much easier to buy. Here it is crammed into the box...
Now I could raise the suspension. I've found that it leaks down on two corners in a few hours and the other two in about a day, but I can deal with that after the MoT. 1.
Took the car for a run around the block and the ABS light won't go out! This has been my last two weeks because I am an idiot. So I followed the diagnostics procedure for the ABS by checking the fault codes. There were none. Ok, the troubleshooting manual has a suggestion for this, which lead me to diagnose the ECU as the fault. I bought a known good ECU from eBay. Can you see where this is going? Course it behaves exactly the same. Next I second guessed my diagnostics and tried the pressure switch on the pump. Nope, that wasn't it either. I think I've finally hit on the issue after going back to basics and doing what the manual says to do first - inspect the system and check the sensors are seated properly. I'd left three of them not fully seated! Now I have a code for the front right sensor giving no output, which seems predictable as all the way back at the start of the project that was the corner where the CV joint had exploded making a right mess of everything else in the swivel - why didn't I guess the sensor might have been damaged too and replace it at the time? New one on the way now and then, hopefully I can take it for an MoT test!
The last item on the list that I knew about before the ABS light problem? Fill the hole in the bulkhead where the Air Conditioning hoses pass through until I can refit them. Well I've managed to find a hose while faffing about with the ABS so I can do that tonight.
Next time hopefully I'll have good news of an MoT test, or probably more likely bad news seeing as this car doesn't seem to want to be driven!
Rich
Firstly, the distraction is growing fast...
After the debacle of changing the transmission crossmember around the right way, fixing the mount for it and changing the transmission fluid I found that the transmission cooler was leaking. New one of those from RimmerBros meant I could run the engine long enough to learn how to bleed the coolant. Got there in the end. It's not hard but I had assumed so and therefore hadn't read the instructions in the manual telling me to bleed the air out through the riser above the right hand cylinder head.
With that done I moved on to fitting the steering box which a good friend from the local GLASS group had managed to sort the drop arm on for me. I removed the steering box from the LSE to fit to the Disco, as I'm sure I documented in this thread. I then bought a used steering box from eBay to replace it, but this was from an older classic and had the other type of drop arm. I figured it would be as simple as swapping the arm from the Disco's old box to the 'new' used box but hadn't considered how hard it is to get them off.
Now I had steering and drive I could move the car but still no brakes or air in the suspension. Guess I should sort that then. Brakes filled up and proved a pain to bleed out. Got myself enough pedal to turn the car around facing the other way as I had one bit of rust left to sort. Nice to have it move under it's own power for the first time in over a year! My list of things preventing the MoT test was now down to about 5.
Next up was to sort the three holes in the driver's side cill that I had ignored when I wen't around the car the first time. One at the front on the bottom I cut out and let in patches into the inner and outer cills about 8" long on the outer and 3" long on the inner at the bottom seam. The middle was basically the same as the repair I did on the Disco for the MoT last year - cut off the bottom 4" of the B pillar, let in a patch about 8" long on the vertical section of the outer cill going around to just past where the B pillar attaches underneath, repair the bottom of the B pillar and weld back on. Finally I threw a shoddy doubler over a hole at the very back of the cill by the body mount as that whole section will have to be done properly in a year or two (I know I should have done it properly before but I'm not doing it now).
So now I really had ticked all the welding off the list, on to the last snags. List had somehow grown back to 4 despite having ticked off the three issues with the cill.
New brackets for the bottom corner of the front wings made and fitted. 3.
Bleed the brakes properly... Another case of RTFM - If the hydrostatic circuit won't bleed, it says to check that the clevis pin on the master cylinder is connected to the correct hole in the brake pedal. With that fixed and the brake switch readjusted the brakes bled up straight away and I have a really nice pedal. 2.
Get the suspension inflated. Well I still can't communicate with the suspension computer. I now have two computers - both behave the same. I have two communications cables (one I made and one I bought to rule mine out) - both behave the same. Chatting to a friend I was reminded that you can hot wire the solenoids to check that part of the system and even to run the system manually until I can fix it properly. It wouldn't work. More diagnostics showed that my driver pack was faulty. This is a unit which converts the low current signals from the computer to high current to control the solenoids in the valve block. There's a thread in the Range Rover section on how I got to this, but I managed to make the P38 Range Rover version fit as they're much easier to buy. Here it is crammed into the box...
Now I could raise the suspension. I've found that it leaks down on two corners in a few hours and the other two in about a day, but I can deal with that after the MoT. 1.
Took the car for a run around the block and the ABS light won't go out! This has been my last two weeks because I am an idiot. So I followed the diagnostics procedure for the ABS by checking the fault codes. There were none. Ok, the troubleshooting manual has a suggestion for this, which lead me to diagnose the ECU as the fault. I bought a known good ECU from eBay. Can you see where this is going? Course it behaves exactly the same. Next I second guessed my diagnostics and tried the pressure switch on the pump. Nope, that wasn't it either. I think I've finally hit on the issue after going back to basics and doing what the manual says to do first - inspect the system and check the sensors are seated properly. I'd left three of them not fully seated! Now I have a code for the front right sensor giving no output, which seems predictable as all the way back at the start of the project that was the corner where the CV joint had exploded making a right mess of everything else in the swivel - why didn't I guess the sensor might have been damaged too and replace it at the time? New one on the way now and then, hopefully I can take it for an MoT test!
The last item on the list that I knew about before the ABS light problem? Fill the hole in the bulkhead where the Air Conditioning hoses pass through until I can refit them. Well I've managed to find a hose while faffing about with the ABS so I can do that tonight.
Next time hopefully I'll have good news of an MoT test, or probably more likely bad news seeing as this car doesn't seem to want to be driven!
Rich
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LincolnSteve
Well-Known Member
I'm not going to sleep tonight if I don't find out what happened.
Well that’s a bit more interest than I probably expected to be honest! Before it’s too late…
Could be better. Could be worse I suppose. The headlight was working before I left. Other than those it would have been a clean sheet which isn’t bad to say it had no front prop shaft installed and we had a debate over whether it should fail for either the not so electronic air suspension or the seat not being able to be adjusted without fiddling with bits of wire.
It does smell like it’s running way rich. Bit of a stumble at idle. Not like a consistent dead miss but not happy either. Presumably this is all related to the clear rich condition in the emission test. Just need to work out the cause. It’s got new looking lambda sensors of unknown quality, new plugs, all the sensors are connected right on the fuel injection. The leads I think are new ish as are the cap and arm although all probably cheap as I suspect they were installed by the bodgers who fitted the engine.
I feel like it’s an injection issue not an ignition issue but I’m going to get hold of a strobe and check the timing and timing advance is all working right just in case. Over the weekend I’ll do a smoke machine test on the inlet system to check for any vacuum leaks I might have missed. I think next call is to do the proper adjustment procedures for the base idle and CO settings and see if it seems to run any better then. I’ll also get the laser thermometer out and see if there’s any cool cylinders in case I have a misfire issue which might suggest I need to think about doing a compression test.
Anyone got any suggestions.
Rich
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Not a bad result when you think how many pieces it has been in
Exactly. I’m quite pleased. The engine is running better than ever in my ownership but clearly not well enough. I’m hoping if I make a big push to fix some of the other bits too before the retest it should be pretty good by the time I’m driving it. It’s insured for the year now so I have to get on it.
Rich
