Tonight was another productive but unproductive night working on my Rusty.

Power steering boxes eh?

Undoing all the bolts and pipes.



And suddenly........



It vanished


A good while ago I decided to buy a seal kit just in case I could get away with new seals and it would be good for a few months so time to pull it apart to see what was going on inside?



But this will come as no surprise for some when I tell you that most of the bolts were unusually easy to undo as were the hydraulic hoses, you guessed it, someone had been there before me and left me some sort of present.



That black/grey/blue gunge is some sort of silicone sealant, and it was under the dust cover, nice hey, professional repair :lol:

But not too surprising that Rusty got passed on relatively quickly considering the cost of buying a new box here is stupid money and above €150 more than I would pay shipping a LHD box direct from the UK. Oh well.

The reason for the seals failure is pitting on the sealing face of the shaft, for me I am actually wondering if this could be overcome with being built up with weld and turned down on a lathe? Not too sure really as not my field of knowledge. But it did look like this.



Oh well these things are sent to try us.

I am currently looking to refurbish this steering box if possible by fitting a sealing sleeve, the sleeve will become the sealing surface for the shaft and will be like new, but first I need to rebuild the box with the new seals and then locate a speedy sleeve to fit the shaft, this is the state of play so far.



New seal retainer and dust seal.
All secured with the circlip.



Just need to find a supplier for my speedy sleeves to fit the shaft and then it is game on.

This is merely an experiment for me to see if it is possible to actually make a semi-permanent solution to the leaky power steering boxes, but the seal cannot be fitted as per the norm of fitting to the shaft and then re-assembling because it will not pass through the roller bearings in the housing, true enough I could replace the roller bearings and fit new bearings to the shaft then the sleeve but the cost of new needle roller bearings is colossal!! So in order for this to work the seal will have to be fitted from the outside going in, basically the shaft will be fitted and the sleeve then knocked up the shaft under the lip of the seal, who knows if it will work??? Other option which I found out today is possible is to have the shaft built up and turned down by an engineer in Houthalen.

Time will tell, but for today I was busy with this

Got to wait for my speedy sleeve to be delivered as they do not have one the size I need in stock, but oh well, some other fun stuff to do today, like tackle the rotten inner wings and the horrendously rotten front body mounts.

But first a little cleaning, the turbo to intercooler pipe was oily and filthy and I was not happy to refit it in such a grubby state so a good degreaser and hot soapy water made it look like new and I also did the air cleaner too and have decided to paint that when I have done a spot or two of welding,



Took off the front grille and lamp surrounds in readiness for combat.



This is what I am up against in today's mission.




I think had we had any type of front impact it would have been a disaster after a few slaps with a hammer the body mount looked like this.



Only one solution for this......



Now lets see what the pig tail cup wire brush makes of the tin work....







Lets cut a bit out and see how it goes.



Hmmmm...........

Anyways.......

I have gone with the speedi-sleeve route as my first attempt to see if I can help others find a cheaper solution to the dreaded leaky steering box, now in hind sight(such a wonderful thing is hind sight ) I should have actually ordered the size smaller sleeve due to this shaft obviously having seen a sheet of emery cloth before now but hey ho, the size for the shaft is 32mm I got a 32mm sleeve but really would have been better off getting the 31.75 to give a better friction fit, live and learn hey but I have fitted the sleeve with a lock and seal compound so it should not move once cured, I had originally wanted to go down the route of grinding and building up but for the benefit of others I have chosen to explore other avenues to see what can be done and how cheaply it can be done too, so I had built the box up ready for a refinished shaft to be fitted.



So before I could begin it was a case of removing the circlip, dust shield and seal retainer washer, and then the seal, once out the shaft could be refitted and with a good wipe around with acetone to clear off any grease or oil back to bare metal, when burnt off a cotton bud dipped in the lockseal can be wiped around the area the sleeve will sit.





Then basically just reassemble the seals and dust shield/retaining washer and circlip and wait for tomorrow to fit it, the lockseal should have cured by then.

Let us see how long this repair lasts shall we.

Since re-sealing my power steering box I have not really done much apart from look at my truck and laugh at myself for being such a divot!!!

Today saw me in shock fitting mode, those shiny new Terrafirma shocks have to go on there some time

Rear shocks tonight as short on time for the fronts.

Shunt back and forth until CDL is in and lamp is illuminated and then chock front wheels and apply H/brake and leave in gear with the keys removed.

Then crack off all ten of the wheel nuts.



Once all nuts are cracked off, jack up the axle and rest on axle stands.



Ooohh!!! Rusty.......



Now the rear shocks on a Discovery 1(the same as a RRC/90-110-130) are a top eye and lower pin configuration, so getting the old one off requires the 19mm nyloc nut and domed washer to be removed, and good luck chuck with the lower pin on an age old shock, just get Mr. Angry out and buzz it off in seconds if you think you may want to keep them as spares then you need to be a soaking the nuts in penetrative spray for a week!!!





I fitted a later 1998 24 spline rear axle to my truck and it has these funny little bushing cups, think I gonna name them the "bush bra" :lol:



Ooooh!! Shiny I bought a full truck set of Terrafirma Prosport shocks, yeah, yeah, heard it all before, and I have nothing to loose with the deal I have with my supplier, better than OE guarantee wise



Before fitting it is best practice to extend and close the shocks three or four times before putting them on the truck.



Be sure to wipe some copper slip on the shock bracket and inside the steel insert of the bush, it stops corrosion and makes future dis-assembly much easier, then secure with the domed steel washer and a new nyloc nut.



Remember the "Bush bra" from earlier? Well, normally you had two washers in the new bushings kit with the shocks, these went between the bushes and the axle mount, but the "bush bra" does away with the need for these washers and you only need the top retainer and the outer/lower bush retainer and with the 22mm nyloc on you just need to wind them up tight.



And all done

Also had fun and games with the tyre fitter last night as I wanted my new tyres fitted on their respective rims, and well, the steel rim was a doddle, no problem, but getting the other on the alloy was a right PITA!!! Ended up having to leave it there while he stuck a tube in it and blew it up over night then fitted this morning ready for me to pick up, so thought I ought to fit the alloy on the spare carrier tonight now they are done.



And holy cow it's a tight fit with 235/85 R16 tyres

Guess I can do the front axle shockers tomorrow night.

The front shocks although not past their sell by date are also being changed to give me a balanced performance of my suspension, new shocks all round should equal predictable ride and handling I hope.

Nice work - keep the updates coming!

I have illustrated here the procedure for changing these shocks as a double up on changing front springs also as you do not need to remove the spring if you are only changing the shock!! This will become clear later on.

This is how it went.

Hand brake on and CDL locked with rear wheels chocked you need to jack the vehicle up high enough to allow the axle to gain full "droop", I placed my 2T axle stands under the chassis rails behind the radius arm mount, I also went as far as to put some support blocks under the front chassis cross member before letting it down.



Remove road wheels and it is game on!

At the top of the shock turret the shock is secured with a nyloc nut and a bush on the top with some washers.


And exactly the same at the bottom.


Be sure to use a good penetrative spray on the lower nuts a few days before you plan to do this and a small wire brush helps loosen and remove scale and rust, on the front axle there is no room to get the grinder in and you have few options available to actually remove the shock, one is a hydraulic nut splitter, I have these and they are great!!! Or you need oxy/acetylene to cut the nut off, I shy away from flames when rubber bushes are involved, the acrid smoke has been classed as a carcinogenic substance and has been linked to cancer so be aware!!

First slide your trolley jack under the radius arm and support the axles weight and then undoing the nut on the top is easy, you have good access to the top of the shock where there are two flats on the end to enable you to get a spanner on there to help, it comes apart looking like this.


The bottom requires the use of either a set of stilsons or a chain wrench similar to what you might use on oil filters.



Now, with the nuts removed you may find you need to remove your brake caliper at this point, but you will only know for sure as you slowly lower the axle down on the jack until it is resting on the bushes. Now comes the dangerous part!! I have used spring compressors a lot and needed my set here to persuade the spring to compress enough to let the shock out.


once compressed the spring can be tilted out and removed if necessary or just the shock slid out the middle.


This picture shows the shock turret has also been removed.


Here I have refitted the spring as to show that if you are only changing the shocks then the springs need not be disturbed and simply removing the turret from above will allow the shock to be extracted and a new item fitted and relatively quickly too!


Be sure to prime the new shock by compressing it at least 3 times and then it is ready to fit, the bushes are the same top and bottom and are assembled just so too.



You can just see my trolley jack as it is now lifting the axle and supporting it as I position the shock to slide into the turret as I inch it up on the jack.


Then it is a case of tightening down the turret and then the top and bottom shock mounts and another job done, the road wheels can be refitted and the vehicle can be jacked up and the axle stands and blocks can be removed. I personally like to check and re-tighten if necessary the shock mountings after 50 miles, it just gives me a warm snug feeling to know they are tight after everything has settled.

Shiny new bits.....





Then mutilate inner wing until there is space enough to put the new bits under...





Once gutted of its rot then it can pop back on so it can all be spot welded back together, also note repairs to body mount and there wasa patch made up on the back of the light box under the battery tray too....







As well as a repair to the battery tray....



When I find the camera I will upload and post some more of the progress.

Thought there were more pictures on my camera of how it was going with the drivers side inner wing b3uild but here you go.













More to come in a few days when I have time to do a bit more.

Found some more pictures so you can see how much better it all looked once it was finished and how bad the other side was too.





















And that was the drivers side all done and complete, loads of stone chip spray on it inside and out along with a good thick smear of seam sealer along the joins, inside the arches will be done with body schutz to give it longevity against the elements and then Dinitrol all round.

I got lucky for a change with finding a supplier for the P clips to secure the cables with and the brake pipe clips are genuine parts too as he had them in the stores, need to find the right size/part number for the bigger single clip that holds the speedo cable in place now though as I lost/can't find the one that came off, put it in the box but as usual it vanished.

So this is how bad the other side was, not an uncommon sight on a truck as old as this.







Also found a good sized hole in the bulkhead too.








Right,now start digging around under the under seal and see how bad it gets.













Remove brake pipes and start cutting.....



Nice hey.

More to come........

Well done, exciting build thread and I have done some of that work myself, when its done you will have a good Disco.

SpaceDawg said:

Well done, exciting build thread and I have done some of that work myself, when its done you will have a good Disco.

Click to expand...

Thanks . Plan is to keep this one forever!

Some more pictures

Thought I had better grace the thread with some pictures now that I have fitted the shiny new steering damper, also managed to locate some more from the inner wing saga too











After test fitting the washer bottle and the expansion tank I could drill the holes for them and the body earth from the battery, after the paint had dried I did sand back the paint and the eye of the earth lead to ensure a good contact was made and after fitting the nut and exposed bolt end were painted an the bolt head and eye were smeared in vaseline to try and prevent future corossion.





And the steering damper

Time to add some more pictures of what has been going on these past few sessions.....

We all love a bit of rot, but time to investigate how much more I have to deal with and it turns out a lot more than I had realized :blush:

As I had just finished the passenger side inner wing it seemed fitting to carry on and sort out the door post and foot well......





So first bit of trauma to start me off was the sheering off of the brake line as I attempted to remove the union that holds it all together and passes through the door post and floor support strut.



So trim out a bit of the rotten floor and get the door post braced with my make shift iron work.



I used this on the other side when I did that too, it works, fashioned in a way as to allow you to cut right through the door post and it won't move anywhere.



Then start cutting......





I hate this bit, it is not until you actually cut it open that you find the full extent of what you are dealing with, and you can guess how it goes, poorly executed previous repairs to the sill, door post and the support really showed how incompetent the previous owners were!!!







Only one solution, chop it all out and start again....



First repair piece going in but loads more to go.



Rear passenger side sill body mount, and yes this really is only being held on by a little bit of tin, as you can see the rest has rotted away.....









The last bit to be attacked...





Could be busy a while longer....

Camera finally turned up after clearing away the rubbish in the lounge :lol:

So time to bring this up to speed.....

Inside the new door post bottom you can just see the extra support I fitted to help brace the pillar and add strength.



Now this being a new second hand repair section it had a small amount of rot that needed addressing, think I did a better job than the last guy who attacked this door post with his welder.







Time to sort the floor out....







There is a support strut that goes in to the door post that has a brake pipe run through it and had to make a new one and also mangled the brake line when disassembling it as it was so rotten.







All seam sealed over the welds and stone chipped, looks much tidier.

Will get round to the brake line when flaring tools eventually turn up, bloomin Christmas holidays

But the rear sill body mount next, it was not actually attached to anything it was little more than a rusty pile of, well rust and bushes.











So still some fettling to do and it is a waiting game for parts but should be ready for the safety test next week as very little left to do.....

nice, keep going

get that speedy sleeve on and picced up

Speedisleeve already fitted leak free too

Brake pipe being freshly formed using the old one as a template and a some tape to hold it all in place while I formed the rest.







Then thanks to outside help the ends were flared for me.



Once fitted, time to get busy......



Next installment is the last of the fun bits.

i wouldn't be using that flare on my vehicle.

you want a double flare, so two wall thicknesses. there is no reason to use a single. i hope a garage didn't make it.

Considering how many single flared pipes I made and fitted over the years with zero failures to date, I wont lose sleep on it, but thanx for your concern m8!

Time for some more picture goodness in this thread

I fitted new brakes front and rear, and while the front hubs were apart I changed the 4 short studs in the diff housing and all new hub seals all round, happy I did the fronts especially as they didn't look so good.







Good to see the drive shafts are barely showing any signs of wear.


Using correct box spanner for the hub nuts not a cold chisel


This picture shows a method of removing the old disc from the hub, you can do it this way but you "will" require a new hub seal as the block needs some mighty bashing to free the disc from the hub, I just put it in my vice and vented my frustrations upon it


Always be sure to clean off the old thread lock and rust, either by wire brush, or by the appropriate tap and die.




New discs on and torqued up with thread lock.



New Corteco seals





Although the new seals are pre-lubed, I like to add a bit more and add a good smear on the stub axle too.



Locking washers are pennies, fit new ones, your life depends on it!



Finished article



Repeat times 4 and jobs a good un, unless the calipers stick

Well, a great many of us have fallen victim to the new photobucket business plan and much of this thread has been affected badly by it, I have started and will try very hard to resurrect the pictures from memory cards as and when I find them.

After 5yrs relatively trouble free motoring I really need to bring this all up to date.

I'm converting my Discovery into a camper, it's already a 2 seat commercial on the logbook so all good, but before I get into the nitty gritty of actually building bed frames and cupboards, I wanted to get the night heater and new battery installations in place.

So I set about sourcing a heater, I have been doing quite a bit of research and saw that the market is now saturated with cheap Chinese copies and they are bloody cheap!

Not wanting to paint myself into a corner with the heating side of it I opted for a name brand and found a Webasto 5KW coolant pre-heater that came from a Rover 75.





Bastids cut the wires a bit bloody short but I can live with that as I will be drawing a new wiring diagram and want to use specific colour codes for it as it will be part of the new electrical schematics too.



Could be a little while sorting through this lot so be patient with me

Been hunting and found new wiring plugs for the Webasto.

Webasto Heater plug kit thermo top C E Z | 9011968A

Found a 10ltr diesel tank as this will be running red for free not white @ £1.20p/ltr

10 LITRE FUEL TANK FOR EBERSPACHER WEBASTO DIESEL NIGHT HEATER | eBay

I should get an OBD11 test loom but will see if I can get one of the marina guys to test it for me as I am hoping to keep the build up cost low.

dieseldog69 said:

Been hunting and found new wiring plugs for the Webasto.

Webasto Heater plug kit thermo top C E Z | 9011968A

Found a 10ltr diesel tank as this will be running red for free not white @ £1.20p/ltr

10 LITRE FUEL TANK FOR EBERSPACHER WEBASTO DIESEL NIGHT HEATER | eBay

I should get an OBD11 test loom but will see if I can get one of the marina guys to test it for me as I am hoping to keep the build up cost low.

Click to expand...

hi

fantastic project , shame some of the pics have gone

if i may ask plse , i’ve got a thermotop v in mine , would any servicing instruction details etc be any good to u or are they different units as i know where’s there a good amount of info

if it’s the same plse let me know and can give u all the links

mine has the part number JEC000599

enclosed a pic as a comparison

gstuart said:

hi

fantastic project , shame some of the pics have gone

if i may ask plse , i’ve got a thermotop v in mine , would any servicing instruction details etc be any good to u or are they different units as i know where’s there a good amount of info

if it’s the same plse let me know and can give u all the links

mine has the part number JEC000599

enclosed a pic as a comparison

View attachment 140078

Click to expand...

Sorry mate, no use, mine is totally different, a Thermo Top Z/C-D of 2003 vintage.

I ordered the new plugs but have to try and figure out the wiring colours and the possibility of a second unit being purchased for the engine bay coolant preheating.

We shall see, still drawing & ironing out wrinkles in the whole build.

dieseldog69 said:

Sorry mate, no use, mine is totally different, a Thermo Top Z/C-D of 2003 vintage.

I ordered the new plugs but have to try and figure out the wiring colours and the possibility of a second unit being purchased for the engine bay coolant preheating.

We shall see, still drawing & ironing out wrinkles in the whole build.

Click to expand...

no probs

is this any use to u

http://www.suremarine.com/manuals/webasto-repair-manuals/tsl17-repair.pdf