ashtray

Im going friday afternoon through till sunday night AND i get to share the bedroom (boot) of the disco with a fine young lass! looking forward to it though, there's about 10 of us in total and booked 4 off roading sessions too, although so skint now i might not be able to buy anything!

I have had a yellow top optima battery in my disco for a year now, i know its not optimal for starting but i've left it for a full weekend with the interior light on and its still started my 300tdi without the slightest struggle. Its the same power rating as the standard battery but slightly smaller dimensions, optimas come with an additional baseplate if the clamp wont hold it tight enough. Couldnt rate this battery any better. One thing to note about disco batteries is that the terminals are on opposite ends to most vehicles, i spent ages trying to find a similar posted temporary battery and couldnt, ended up using a merc battery as a "jump pack" Of course if you dont want the expense of an optima, find someone with a halfords trade card, get a battery for about £50, and take it back within 4 years, they never ask q's just chuck you a new one. But the optima was for me espescially as it doesnt mind being drained completely flat, unlike normal batteries whose lives diminish quickly with every deep discharge

needs a new starter motor, the solenoid is inbuilt. either get it replaced or rebuilt, whichever cheaper/easier. Probably find that when the starter has been "sticking on" it has burnt itself out

i use waxoyl, love the stuff, just jet wash it first, let it dry ( waxoyl will NEVER stick to a wet chassis, believe me i've tried!) i used a brush but may try some sort of spray technique, i know you can buy "Person Resembling a Pink Starfish" can variants but its far pricier. and i suggest recoating it once a year, before the winter as not all of it will stay on, espescially if your taking the beast off road. Wear overalls or carp clothes as it STICKS! and you'll need hot water and fairy liquid and a good good scrub to get it off your skin! Messy stuff but its definately worth it. Should take around 2 hours to do with a brush. I tend to focus on the complete chassis frame, the sills and brake lines, seatbelt mounts, whats accessible of the rear boot floor, and inner wheel arches. Also what would be good is to get a spray type wax with a straw attachment and spray it in every possible hole on the chassis. Get as much as you can inside the chassis boxes and that should keep the rust away for many years. Get a good amount behind the rubbery like wheelarch liners inside the front wheelarches as well as they hold mud and dirt really well. And if you really fancy lift up the carpets and get some sort of spray antirust paint to coat the floorpan, paying particular attention to rear boot floor and seat belt mounts. have fun scrubbing!

i bought some jate rings through paddocks, they are extra wide and they fit around my steering guard which uses the normal jate ring holes. they fit very slack on the rear as i have no towbar fitted, but are getting swapped for some narrower ones as my mates jate rings on his defender are standard width and therefore his bull bars cannot be fitted. The one's from paddocks are not forged, just 3 pieces of galvanised steel welded together

From what i remember i thought they had a heavierr rated spring to cope with the extra weight and the "camel cut" performed on the wheelarches to allow for the taller tyres, i dont recall them having any transmission upgrades. maybe raised breathers?

hmm, very strange, because i thought it would be filling the handbrake drum up before the little gap between the drum and the prop uj...

well i've done the clutch and fork. What an epic!! 8 hours it took, not an easy job, definately not doing it on a discovery again, maybe on a defender but there just isnt the room at the top of the tunnel on a disco. One thing i noticed though during it, when unbolting the rear prop (with the gearbox sitting lower than normal fixed height, transfer box oil came out, and quite a lot of it, is this normal? cos there isnt really any coming out through the bottom of the handbrake drum. once again cheers les for your technical guide to doing a clutch change and for all your advice

with diff lock on, jack up one wheel. it should rotate about 1/4 turn(ish) if it is free to rotate then something is broken. and yes disco's do have half shafts. if it gets stuck in difflock then a halfshaft would have snapped when driving on the road. When disengaging diff lock, do it whilst still off road, reversing slowly and turning helps.

He was in fact born in a land rover tub... Some also say that Les " the oracle" Henson was born with galvanised cappings, though not much is known as to their whereabouts on his body...

hearing that definately puts the allegro even lower than the last car on earth that id buy!

not sure as to the similarity between ignition barrels but i remember taking the cowling off of my metro and there was only 2 screws holding the ignition switch to the barrel, remove and turn the switch with a screwdriver. Knowing rover products the column is probably near on the same as other models from the group! noticed at sodbury sortout on sunday that an austin allegro shares the same outer door handle/lock as discos and rangies!

oh right . Well hopefully it should make it a lot easier with all these fancy jacks. got news from paddocks today that AP (previously borg and beck) have gone into administration so i couldnt get hold of that clutch so they are now supplying me with a britpart HD unit, hoping its similar in quality! once again cheers les

actually you reminded, once it was such a pig to get the key to turn i took the cowling off of the column and wiggled the switch at the end of the barrel, i didnt think i had done anything but it worked

fantastic information les. I have a few hydraulic 4-6ft jacks (or axle stands) at work, also i have an automatic gearbox cradle (flat base) that is adjustable and has a support chain, would this help in supporting the gearbox. am i right in saying that putting a hydraulic jack underneath both ends of the gearbox and rolling it back would be ok? or can it be left to sit partially in the crossmember? cheers les

mine does it quite often, somethings a miss inside the lock barrel. its not that the steering lock is forcing the key not to turn as you can pull it off lock and the key will still not turn. the way i get the key to turn is to remove the key, wiggle the steering with the lock on and try the key again, repeat process if it fails first time, its annoying but i cant be assed with the hassle of changing the steering lock, havnt tried the spare key yet

i went to the the sodbury sortout yesterday and i must say that i was disappointed with the turnout. james didnt buy anything. and i couldnt find any of the land rover parts i wanted. I bought a couple of aluminium Zarge cases. However it was nice to see all the classic cars there and it made it to be the most interesting part of the day. didnt go into the museum however, yes 8.50 entry is expensive, but you are effectively seeing two events at the same location. i have no regrets in going to the sodbury sortout but it could have been improved with more of the tradestands as the only one i saw there was exmoor trim. Also nice to see the monster disco2 with the 4ft tyres on it! proper monster!!

cheers les for the pictures. parts wise im gonna need to order a clutch kit ( might as well even though its only 2 years old) including the thrust bearing etc. a new fork, anything else i should change, crank rear oil seal? easy job with flywheel removed? Also whats the land rover book time, or rough time to replace clutch and fork with full use of a workshop and 2 poster ramp? with one person and help when needed if any weightlifting is required for the gearbox

they arnt too bad to remove out of disco's actually. try doing one on a hermetically sealed door on a merc!

cool cheers bog monster. gonna do it next weekend. not looking forward to it mind!

well looks like the window will be on hold for a while now. got bigger issues now. Driving around last night and the clutch pedal dropped to half its height, got progessively lower over about a mile of gearchanges and went straight to the floor and never came back up. Pumped the pedal a few times and its back up now but the pedal doesnt move. Managed to limp it back to work doing clutchless gearchanges... fun... Am guessing that the clutch fork is now holed? The clutch was replaced by the previous owner a couple of years back but obviously didnt have the fork changed. Could anyone correct me if these symptoms are leading to a replacement fork or other fault. Thanks

motor turns both ways, and is always in contact with the regulator. The window will fall by itself over bumps, so this is why the window only goes down, its as if the gear on the motor is slipping on its spindle, or another type of internal fault. will add some pictures if i find anything strange on the weekend, if i get time though as going to sodbury sortout

ok saturday afternoon im gonna remove the regulator and motor. im suspecting its gonna be an internal fault with the motor. I think having too much teflon grease has caused one of the internal gears of the motor to separate from its shaft. Thanks guys for all your opinions, i shall let you know what the fault is when its removed

all the teeth are ok, so drive between the motor and its own gear must have been lost as the teeth are still in mesh. new motor?

switch is ok, motor turns freely both ways. When the window is going down it gets to its lowest most point and the motor carries on spinning freely until it times itself out after a set period. The motor is never under any load so something must be slipping.