WesBrooks

The original idea for the kit was for it to be assembled using basic garage tools without the need for a welder. I'll be needing that to repair parts of the front and rear footwells of my donor. Also as the chassis is not cut and could in practice be returned to being a discovery it should get through without an IVA. When there is a 33" spare on the rear it looks more in keeping as it looks like it's protecting the spare or hidden by the spare, which ever way you look at it.

Not sure how much the front would be on it's own but their contact details are on the webpage.

It's FourWD Engineering now: http://www.fourwd.org.uk/index.html

Morning. Thanks for your help. Cracked it last night. I only managed to loosen the switch by less than an eighth of a turn! I couldn't get a socket over the terminals on top and an adjustable was just too cumsy in the cramped space. When you say you cut the wires off did you mean the terminals coming out the top of the switch? The wires themselves were a right fiddle to get off the terminals not helped by a thick layer of sludgy oil over most things. I'd noticed that the last 5 degrees or so of rotating the CDL arm clockwise using a socket felt sprung loaded - you could twist it the extra little bit but it would never stay there. Got my wife to hold it on the sprung loaded bit while I rotated the rear wheel and it dropped into place. Now when you rotate the CDL into lock you can hear it click into place just after and the diff light works as expected. So could have been the tiny rotation of the switch, or it was just gunged up with crud. I've drained the oil and there was a lot of guey crud and a few bits of metal shavings on the drain plug. I'm thinking of putting the car on axle stands and filling the transfer box with engine flush and running it in gear to clear it out. Bad idea? Any better? Just refill with clean oil? Getting the clips back onto the u shaped link the goes between the CDL arm and the vertical lever that drops down from the top will be 'fun'!

Small hands don't normally come in my family past childhood! It's been a bit of a weird walking in my Dad's footsteps kinda thing recently. Started homebrew and building a kitcar. Reason I remember that now was because he was happy for me to be around to reach for dropped bolts and spanners in diddy places! Anyhow I digress... Just managed to get the wires off and tested that side of things. I can short them and get the diff light indicator to work on the dash. Having seen where it is I'll give myself a little longer to get the switch out than half an hour in the evening. Cheers.

I've bought the vehicle as the base for a Sahara kit car. The lever was siesed up and stiff when changing between high/low ratios, and impossible to move over to diff lock. I've removed the lever assembly and am now testing the CDL directly with the linkage free to move. As far as I can see it is not possible to change the switch insitue and this would require the box to be dropped? If the switch was wound in too far would this force the light on all the time? Thanks.

Hello. I've removed the transfer box lever from the top of the tunnel and am trying to engage the diff lock by directly driving the CDL arm with a 13mm socket on an extention. I can feel it click into the three positions that are described in here: http://bahnstorm.com/rover/discodifflock.htm ... but with one wheel jacked up and the Autobox in neutral the wheel will easily spin whereever the CDL arm is. I have also tried to see if it tries to pull itself off the jack and no joy there in any CDL arm position. The light on the dash board does not light in any position either. I tried to remove the wires to the switch (near the CDL arm towards the rear of the car?) to short them to check the wiring to the dash board but couldn't get one of the wires off. Is there another place I can get to the wires to short them to check the wiring? The bulb is ok, I've checked it's resistance. My next step that I planned alongside checking the wiring was to drain the oil from the transfer box and have a look through the inspection plate on the side. I think that is what is shown in this video also on the previous page: Hopefully this will give me a better idea what has happened. As the light is not coming on and nothing is sounding bad I'm hoping that something has just frozen up a little in there from lack of maintenance? Perhaps I'm being a little optimisitic but hoping I may be able to loosen things up a little inside the box without needing a full overhaul. Any advice of extra checks?

Thanks!

Hi, I've got a '95 Auto Discovery V8i that has sufffered from front end accident damage. I would like to check body mounts haven't moved much and require some dimensions to check against. I have been googling for a while but alas haven't found much yet. Has anyone got some checks they can offer up for me to check against? I would also like some idea of what is acceptable, as I appreciate there will have been some tollerance from the factory and then some before the distortion becomes an issue. Thanks again, Wes.

That is a good shout regards the IVA. As far as I'm aware there isn't a need for it (no chassis modifications), but a prescribed build standard works out easier than personal that'll do method where you can end up over or under doing stuff. Dash is a bit on the tatty side. I was considering creating a more utility/race styled dash in which case the IVA guide will be invaluable.

Morning! Any owners out there who wouldn't mind sharing there build experiences of the Sahara on here? I'm planning a build of 4 seat version of the Sahara kit. I've found the build reports below, but other hints & tips to avoid standard pit falls would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/82551/sahara-blitz-land-rover-update https://mostlypyjamas.wordpress.com/category/ncf-sahara-build/

Think we're talking at cross purposes here. I know the steering wheel in the car isn't airbag - there is no SRS stamp and a horn press in the middle - it just wasn't made clear in the Haynes manual that the airbag was an option. I was originally concerned that the car originally had an airbag and one of the previous owners had removed it and defeated the SRS warning light. This could of meant the car had been involved in a non-recorded front end accident or simply they didn't want the cost of replacing it after 10 years. Likewise if it had have been removed there was possibly some more wiring nasties to find and check through around the steering coloum. It's looking like the car was a basic V8i Auto spec; no ABS, no aircon, no airbags, no electric sunroofs, but did have electric windows. Shame there's no spec list linked to the vin number. Tried land rovers topix system but it got very confused! Was remote unlock / lock an option rather than standard too?

Thanks for confirming that. One less thing that I think has been disturbed or tinkered with which is great! I seem to remember when my Mum got a Renaut 5 about the same time (ok, very different league of spend!) as this was made Airbags weren't quite standard fitment. Available on most cars but optional on all apart from top level trims. Much like the ABS. No SRS lamp, but since buying it I noticed the instrument cover is loose so I had a mild panic that I could have been tricked by someone removing bulbs for dead accessories! Thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case. Jesus bar on the passenger side so looking more like a non airbag model. Must say I don't have any reason to suspect the seller of doing that - your mind just tends to find the nasty possibilities!

Sounds like this is far from unusual! With the choc block it was more that it was a small one and the gauge of wire on the light side too. Dashboard has been moved about a bit so just figuring things out. Looks to me like the drivers side electric window switch was slightly smaller gauge than the others which struck me as odd, but it looks neatly done. Perhaps smaller just because it's closer? As for the factory spec I'm unsure if the drivers airbag was supposed to be on my car or not? I was thinking that had it of had a tap at the front which had set it of it may have got removed when rebuilt for simplicity. Finally a couple of the online guides talk about an audible warning if the transfer box was in neutral. Not heard any pings from the dash yet! Perhaps these were lost when the aftermarket radio found it's way in? It appears to be a entry level spec which suits my needs as a potential sahara donor perfectly. Just sorting out the basics as well as I can to make it as reliable motor as reasonably possible. Thanks for your help!

Hi All, Thanks for your previous help! I'm now a card carrying member with a '95 Disco V8i Auto. She's mechanically sound but suffers a bit of rot as can be expected for a donor level purchase. It is apparent that the wiring has been modded and it would help if there was a way to know what this was fitted with from the factory so I know which bits I need to go through very carefully to check out. Failing this I will go through everything easily accessable to make sure there are no other bodges waiting to fail in a nasty way! Odd things spotted so far is choc-block connector (not a particually high current size) behind the 12V cigarrette lighter on the centre console and the trailer warning light on the dash board flashes in time with the indicator. There is a trailer power socket on the back, but no towball. Cheers, Wes.

I'd forgotten I'd asked about the cross bolted V8 in the discovery 1 when I was thinking about building a Tomcat. Someone replied saying they thought that was only on the D2s. Apologies, didn't mean to repeat myself on that part of my post! From other things I've read if it's labelled a 4.0, then it's cross bolted. 3.9 and it's not. This is despite both engines being the same size.

Good morning. I'm going to view a Discovery V8i manufactured on 31st Decemeber 1995 this weekend. I'm currently intending to use it for a donor for a project, unless it is more solid than expected and it make financial sense to run with it as is for a while before stripping it to chassis, running gear, front floor, bulkhead, etc... Did any of the Disco 1B's get the cross bolted RV8? According to wikipedia it came out in 1995 but that doesn't necessarily mean it made it to the first series Discoverys. The buyers guide which I've found most useful so far for mechanical checks is: LRO Buyers Guide are there any other good ones that you can recommend for mechanical checks, signs for cracked blocks etc? One thing that does confuse me is the descrepancy between the price guides in the Land Rover Monthly and Land Rover Owners magazines. So for LRM (does not seperate petrol and Diesel, I've heard petrol is generally cheaper due to higher running costs): Project / trade: £300 - £800 Average: £800 - £2400 Good: £2500 - £4100 Excellent: £4100 - £6900 LRO (Specifically V8 1994 - 1998) Trade: £255 Price 1: £630 (MoT'ed but needs work for next) Price 2: £1145 (Shouldn't need major repairs, body cared for) Price 3: £1515 (Best around) The differences between these two would tend to make them useless as a negotiating point as buyers would tend to LRO and owners to LRM - kind of ironic really! I think from what I've been watching on Ebay and Gumtree the LRO prices are more reasonable? I've seen what appear mint (yeah, I know, on ebay - I would view before bidding) fail to reach reserve with bids upto nearly £1100, and many donor standard vehicles (lots of welding or serious engine work needed) go for £500-600. I'm guessing about £800 - £1000 for a discovery that might just make it through it's next MOT and £600 - £800 for a reasonable donor? One I'm looking at has 150,000 miles on the clock. At the end of the day I guess it's a balance of what I'm willing to pay and the owner accept, but I'd rather know when I'm paying over the odds and walk away! Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the advice. Out of the original two choices it now tends towards a D2. I Hadn't considered the Range Rover, had assumed it would be pricey, but it's not. Air suspension on all corners would make it easier to fit in the garage too!

Afternoon All, Considering getting a 4.0 V8 late Discovery 1 or earlier Discovery 2. It would be a second vehicle used for a little green laning, UK holidays etc. Once I've got any back log of maintenance for the mechanics of the vehicle under control and perhaps megasquirted it / breathed on the engine a little I'm considering using it as a donor for a long wheelbase (106") Tomcat build. Which would be the best donor vehicle? D1 suffer body rot, D2 suffer chassis rot. The D2 can have ACE (optional extra) and air suspension (7 seater) which both have posatives and negatives. I'd be concerned that in use the air suspention bags would warm significantly resulting to the car feeling very different when you firt get in to later on - is this noticable? I appreciate the ACE is a benefit only really to the road and could be costly to fix. These two issues aside I've heard that the axle swivels are different on the D1 to the D2? Finally I've heard you have to pick a D2 carefully to get all the physical components of the centre diff lock, but may have to fit the linkage. In general I'm just looking to use the vehicle with the most durable runnining gear as standard. I'm guessing the popularity of both vehicles are going to make parts relatively easy to source at not silly money? As for the engine it would get serviced and well maintained while in the discovery guise, and rebuilt with some blueprinting when transferred over to the Tomcat. The later you go into the D2 years seemed to have suffered from progressively worse castings - I realise statistically there are many good ones but in order to stand the best chance of a rock solid block I'd like to pick carefully. I've heard mixed reports of what years the cross bolted engine made it into the Discovery 1. Some have said none - only D2, others have said 97/98, and others 95-98. I think it coincided with the distributor being removed? Are there any other ways of easily identifying the cross bolted engine from photos of engine bays? Thanks for any help!