discomikey

Ideally i would have had a stumpy R380 for mine, but this project (prompted by the forked 4 speed) couldnt have come at a worse time money wise, however i am still trying to spend the money to do it right, darent look at my overdraft yet. Looks like my pegged diff is going to have to wait another couple of months.

Thought i had a picture of it, apparently not. i shaved out a scallop about half the width of it (back to front) and about 3/4 of the depth of it on the back side, i had to do this as i am running transit engine mounts up front, and these raise the flywheel housing in relation to the bulkhead, i lowered the rear mounts to regain that clearance. Im hopefully popping to a mate's today to use his lathe and (decent) welder to shorten the prop i currently have, this is because i need to get going with it and MOT'd asap. then get one balanced properly soon thereafter. (i need it to lend to a mate while i have his truck in for a whole host of repairs!)

however the diff pans were reduced in thickness when they went to coil axles. a series diff without any guard can take a fair beating and shrug it off no worries, sadly, the same can't be said for a later diff pan!

have you had chance to test drive yet? i'm basically waiting on a prop before it is actually driveable. of course there are 1 or 2 other things i need to finish off.

to be honest, i (At the moment) prefer the idea of a 4 speed and overdrive. but its the second time third gear has gone now, i always thought a good series box was plenty strong enough for a TDI. To be honest, usually they are, but when you are pushing 25PSI of boost and make it work hard towing for a living, you are kind of asking for trouble. lets just hope the LT77 will last better. Update time, I have been on a parts run, replaced the block-flywheel housing gasket, and the crank seal, fitted a new clutch, fitted the gearbox, painted all the brackets and fitted them, replaced the gaskets and seals on the transfer box, and fitted my 2WD kit, very easy to fit, thankyou FF for the how to from the tech archive, and ashcrofts for the kit! Transfer box is now in, both boxes filled with oil, handbrake fitted, although my new shoes were wrong, will change them monday. and i have sorted the handbrake linkage Pictures tomorrow as my phone ran out of battery. To do: adjust handbrake linkage sort propshafts replace transfer box rear output cover plate (where an overdrive might go) its cracked and i suspect will leak fit newly painted hi/lo/2/4wd linkages. quickly fab up blanking plate for where the range lever was on the gearbox. sort the rest of the truck for MOT Hopefully i can get the rear prop i have cut down tomorrow to get me going then its gravy

I'm already on it Thanks for the comments guys, onto final assembly now when i manage to get the remnants of the old gasket off the back of the engine block!!

a short (poor quality) clip of it working on the tool trolley edit: somehow my embedding skills have dissappeared

Post #226: If you pickup a discovery, why would you not cut the top off BELOW the rear window line, that just looks odd, even negating the fact that there is half of each back window and tailgate window.

De Ranged, what so you do, weld a nut on the inside of the casing to thread into?

Here's a shot of the Hi/Lo linkage, trying to keep it out the way of the LT77 filler/level plug The two clevis attachments i used came off the original hi/lo lever. i made them a press fit onto some round bar, at roughly the right length, and installed the gearbox and transfer box in the vehicle, along with the floor plates to check the lengths and throw were right: Of course, having done 4 years at Uni doing engineering i decided to actually try and use maths to locate the new pivot on the lever for some unknown reason, the maths and also scaled sketches worked, but when i fitted it, the throw was twice i needed and therefore wouldnt engage low range so i winged it and tacked in another eye, this one was perfect: FYI the series Hi/lo lever normal throw is around 130mm at the top of the lever, this setup has a throw of 125mm Back in to check it works again... god i love this transmission jack and ramp! I then measured out the tunnel for the main gear lever (the only modification to the series floorpan i have done as of yet) and cut a hole mirroring the standard one, roughly 6" further back. all in all this is the only hint so far that there is a 5 speed in there. As you can see the redundant standard gear lever hole lends itself to becoming a cup holder area, so i need to do some light fabrication here to make one: I spent this afternoon sorting the difflock (or 2/4wd) linkage which turned out surprisingly well. both linkages work like a dream, have no slack and don't rattle at all. I have some M10 nylon washers that i will use on the pivot on final reassembly. another linkage shot: here's the end result, it took long enough to get the linkages just right, basically the whole of today. but im rather pleased with it all, and it works like a dream. I'm basically ready for final assembly now. i need to paint the brackets i have made, and treat the chassis and crossmember where i have notched and removed etc. i have a shopping list for a rear crank seal, couple of gaskets, and a clutch. (i also need to get the bolts to counterbore into the flywheel housing as these were drilled through the series bellhousing before) almost ready for final reassembly this is all i have to do left (unless i have forgotten something) Propshafts handbrake linkage painting brackets final assembly heat shrink to cover the gearlevers Fit the 2WD kit to the LT230 Will be cracking on early in the AM

I don't really want to start moving the crossmember. already had to hack one out and weld in bolting tabs. i'm not a massive fan of them either, but being as it will be running rear wheel drive, and therefore no torque through the bearing 90% of the time, if i do it right, it shouldn't be an issue. Following on from the other day, here are the photos: CAD template turned real plate, gearbox mounted: Fabricated the bolt on crossmember mounts: And of course, someone got carried away with the welder and welded the brackets in with a bolt stuck in the wrong end.. Doh: all welded up, not the prettyest, but i genuinely blame the welder, been having wire feed issues with it since i bought it, (its a known problem with them) Transfer box went in then and started work on the second mount: Had to scallop the crossmember for the front output area of the transfer box, to keep it low enough to where i'm satisfied i won't have vibrations through the body. I just need to put a cap piece on the front side so things slide up it rather than hit against it. The mount sits no lower than the low face of the crossmember. The lot mounted: Back out it came in order to sort the range and difflock linkages. Keeping the series levers i thought it best to pull it out and precisely measure the position of the red lever pivot on a series bellhousing, i then made a bracket to attach the pivot to the LT77 in the same location. I tapped the 2 blind holes in the casing to M12 and used these for mounting. i fabricated up a plate which also later became the mount for the difflock pivot: here's the plate: more to come

ahh yes thanks. i should have put it although it is a given haha.

the bellhousings have a different part number, however i seem to remember the transmissions were common between TD5 disco and TD5 defender?

would br great for greenlaning convoys when they get split up!

1/ yes you have done damage, how much is unknown though 2/never done a freelander diff gasket, but looking at the parts manual, its just a case of removing the back plate, cleaning the faces, new gasket with some hylomar and then replacing the back plate. 3/ the diff oil for a freelander 1 IIRC is 75W90, or STC9176, This was the spec i have on shelf for the front diff unit, however microcat states its the same for the rear you should be able to assess the damage with the back plate off.

Gearbox and transfer box mounts and removable gearbox crossmember complete, the lot is back on the floor mated together to make a start on the linkages tomorrow. I have mounted the gearbox as low as possible in order to keep the flywheel housing from touching the bulkhead on torque, this meant i had to notch the gearbox crossmember slightly, but as it was removable it was a dream to do. I fitted the discovery handbrake assembly and found, to my surprise, that i CAN in fact get the drum on and off with everything in place, you just have to tilt the top shoe with your hand as you slide it on. its really no trouble. maybe that is because i have mounted the transfer box lower though. Measuring up for my rear propshaft at ride height comes in at 16.5 inches long. does anyone know of a propshaft specialist in the derbyshire area? Looking at it all in, i am definately going to need a front intermediate propshaft, this is no bad thing however, as i can use this to keep my prop more clear of the engine breather return to sump. pictures to follow later, off to the pub now!

smoking from the compressor side of the turbo is a bad bad thing. is that with the breather connected to intake?

crossmember out the way Gearbox going in nicely: It touches slighty on the passengers side tunnel flange for the seatbox, nothing a hammering won't sort: Here's my rather simple way of mounting to the gearbox crossmember: drill a 10.5mm hole 80mm from passengers side gearbox mount, in the center of the crossmember: And a socket clearance hole (IIRC 22mm) 210mm from the end of the crossmember lower face, again in the center: The original series gearbox rubber to crossmember bracket assembly can now be fitted, rubber side down in the hole that was drilled: The hole from underneath (Sorry not square onto the hole) And the template for the 6mm thk adaptor plate which bolts onto the gearbox where the original defender mount bolts:

Thanks Pollywog, my update should be online in the morning, having trouble with pictures currently

so it turns out all my photo's are too large... ill resize them in the morning, its late now. On an interesting note, here is a gearing comparison old to new, at 80mph i will now be doing 100 more RPM, but i doubt that will actually be noticable, and im going to have a more trailer friendly first gear:

Update time: fetched the box, there is a little wear on the output splines, but for the price i can't complain. pulled the series clutch out the way for test fitting and then cut my gearbox crossmember out (hopefully thats the only cutting ill need to do. with the crossmember out and up on the ramp using a transmission jack it is a dream to pull the gearbox in and out. I find the box slightly touches the seatbox in one place when it is lifted to "operating" position. nothing a hammer won't fix though. I've managed to come up with a pretty darn simple solution for the gearbox mount, meaning, if you were to leave the crossmember in place all you would need to do is drill 2 holes and fabricate a flat plate. Details below:

Thanks Qwackers, i have already ordered one, wallet is now recovering haha!

thanks for the input, this may well be the way to go, hopefully i will get everything mocked up tomorrow at some point and update on what i have to work with. judging by your picture the linkage stuff should be fairly simple, i should just be able to take my time and get things right. i will find a way to mount the hi/lo lever off the bellhousing and keep it in the same place. the difflock one may need slightly more thought but should be reasonably straight forward using a cam and a cross shaft or something of the likes

i believe it was because he is tied to a contract which ensures the distributor he signed with gets so many percent of all profit from his products. you can't really get out of a contract like that too easy, its normally easier to set up a new company which can take over. Luckily Si has the benefit of all of us members understanding that this new company is basically X eng, and not some other new lr modification company. so startup shouldn't be as slow as the first time around.

The spline count on the diff and Xfer box IIRC is the same, so i should be able to whack a 3 bolt flange on the front output shaft of the LT230 allowing for a rubber donut (to account for misalignment during engine movement as i am mounting to the chassis) should also reduce NVH. This will be attached to a discovery rear prop cut down and welded to an old diff pinion shaft, making a removable flange from one end, this means i can service the bearing which i will need to support the shaft. If it was solid mounted to the output flange of the LT230 i believe the output bearing would last about 5 minutes. This support bearing (6) in the BOM will be mounted via an NVH isolating rubber of some sort to the engine crossmember, hopefully retaining the original flange location, and therefore a non modified front propshaft. That is, if there is enough room to fit all of that. I dont want to scallop the crossmember, and i am against just whacking an aluminium spacer in there as it will put way too much strain on the front bearing of the LT230.