Boydie

Thanks guys, your ebay (UK) is different from ours out here in the colonies. The oval section is in the round upper portion, not in the concentric tapered lower section, obviously worn over the past 400,000 plus kilometres due to the up and down movement so I thought one of these after market ones would be a better "fit" and, with the new nylon top seal fix -- albeit temporarily -- my fuel leakage problem, meanwhile I'm looking locally in Oz for a reasonable low milage second hand FIP, a fully reconned ex Bosch one will need to wait until I return from out CSR trip.

Following my question regarding diesel leaking from my FIP - a very slight drip from drain/vent just below the turbo banjo connection - it would seem that by measurement my concentric pin is oval and the nylon sealing bush has also worn. The bush I can obtain by buying a full seal and gasket set, the pin I'm not able to obtain, short of buying a fully overhauled pump however I recall there was a performance pin on the market that had just one curve machined in it, can anyone tell me who made and supplied these ?

I'm in the throws of giving the old girl a total service getting ready for our/my trip down the Canning Stock Route (see my thread on trips etc) and I noticed after fitting the auxiliary 35 litre fuel tank and running it for a while to recharge batteries and flush some fuel through the system before I changed all the fuel filters that there was a slight drip of diesel coming from a bleed rubber just below the turbo actuated diaphragm. I removed the diaphragm assembly, the upper section had a smattering of engine oil from the turbo pressure line and the underside quite a bit of diesel, I cleaned it up replacing it so the wear mark on the pin aligned with the plunger etc. and ran the engine, --- so far no more dripping fuel however ------ ??????? This doesn't appear to be normal as I would have noticed it before now, so does it signify a need to have the FIP overhauled ? or is there an easy fix ?

The fuel side is okay, the overland distance from Halls Creek to Kunawaritji (the only fuel stop on the CSR) is around 660 kilometres and from there to Wiluna around 1000 kilometers, so even at over 15 litres per 100 kilometers I'm easily covered. The last time I did the trip up the CSR it was south (Wiluna) to North (Halls Creek) and we did it comfortably with the 135 litre tank and two 20 litre Jerry cans. When we refueled at Kunawaritji I had only used an estimated 132 litres - on the journey I had emptied the two Jerry cans into the main fuel tank to reduce the roof rack load and the main tank only took 92 litres to refill it, meaning it still had 43 litres remaining. I carry a satellite telephone, I've never bothered with an emergency location beacon, I've only once used the sat phone to call up spares and my Inmarsat phone is set to automatically send my GPS location at the start of any phone call, email or text message. I wouldn't want the cavalry coming over the hill for no good reason. My reservations about emergency beacons as against a satellite phone is you never know when the signal has been received while with a satellite phone you can, if needed, call up the required emergency services, give then your exact location and explain your problem and receive advice and the time of arrival of aid if its needed. De Ranged, yes he has, I'll ask him if I can make it "public"

I've just finished installing a secondary 35 litre fuel tank under the drivers side rear wheel arch to add to the existing "Longranger" tank so ill be now loading up with 135 + 35 = 170 litres of diesel, more than enough to do the CSR without need to carry Jerry cans on the roof rack. I'll only have to refuel at Kunawaritji - almost the half way point in the 1380 kilometre trip. My past experiences are, economy wise, that I get 10l/100k on bitumen and 15l/100k on soft sand and 12l/100k on hardish packed outback tracks so I recon I'll average around 13l/100k or 1300 kilometres to a 170 litre tank load. On the other front Peter had aa operation in Canberra to fit a titanium plate screwed into his broken/shattered collar-bone last Friday and was released from hospital this morning (Sunday 30/4/17) and is expected to begin physiotherapy next Wednesday. We're still looking good for a July departure. I've still got a few things to do the the Disco, the CB doesn't seem to be working, the ariel is suspect and I'll have that checked out next week along with replacing a dud deep cell battery.

Davo, Its proverbially pissing down and there are reports of quite a few hardy (read stupid) tourists who ignored advice from the traditional land owners (indigenous Aboriginal Australians) and tried to drive through rather than turning back. Some of them are now faced with a few days/weeks wait while bogged down to their axles in sticky mud until a 4WD tractor can get to them to pull them out, --- at around $4000 per vehicle, - cash only or selected debit cards only are accepted. The extraordinary high cost pays for a grader to repair the damage they caused to the track, credit cards are generally declined as some unhappy tourists have been known to cancel or dispute the transaction as soon as they reach a telephone.

To "compound" matters Peter fell off his mountain bike while competing in a bicycle tour/race last weekend (three day event over Easter) breaking his right clavicle (shoulder bone) so hes going to be in a sling / restraint for the next six weeks until the bone knits, then he will need to undergo some weight work to rebuild his right arm muscles - cycling however isn't a problem, many find this hard to believe but in his Canberra office he has a cycling machine, its hooked up to a small generator so he can cycle away in front of his computer / drawing board and power up the office lights, computers and 3D printers - when he gets tired he just switches back to mains power, as I intimated, hes a nut !

I'm getting ready for what will probably be my Discos swansong, an all expenses trip down the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia. The reason for this is that a mate wishes to establish a new motorized assisted bicycle ride time from Halls Creek to Wiluna. Currently someone has done this 1380 cross desert trip in 14 days, Peter (old mate) thinks he can do it in 9. His machine has 4" wide bicycle tyres, it has attached a single wheel trailer that will carry his gear, food etc and two solar panels. These panels feed/supply a pair of Ni-Cad batteries that in turn power two electric motors, on the trailer, one in the geared rear hub of the bike, a sensor on the front wheel synchronizes both motors so that they are running at the same final speed. I might add Peters is a renowned electronics engineer who was responsible among other things for the FOMOCO plug-in diagnostic units. Where I, and my trusty Disco come in is in transporting him, his bike and his "trailer" the 9000 k's from here to Halls Creek, then shadowing him down to Wiluna without assisting him in any way - other than sharing a camp fire in the evenings, if something breaks, a weld for example I'm allowed to carry the welding unit but he has to carry out the repair. Should he have broken the record then I'll be transporting him home the 8000 k's from Wiluna via Docker Ricer and Uluru to Coober Pedy and home. By then the "Old Girl" will have clocked up well over 500,000 k's of severe off road Australian desert and bush driving and it will be retired and restored.The reason for taking the Disco is the size of the roof rack 2150 x 1500 - impossible on the other 4WD with its fitted roof top tent. On our return I'm expecting that Peter will receive all due accolades and be fitted out for a new jacket with nice sleeves that tie up at the back and he can have a long rest in a nice room with quilted walls. Currently hes cycling a 1000 k's a week most of it cross country to get himself into shape, not bad or a 62 year old. As I said, for me its an all expenses paid trip, well, apart from the 5 bottles of single malt, Peters covering all the diesel and other supplied I'll need to do the trip. It should be fun, for me anyway, hes anticipating cycling 130-140 k's a day cycling for 10 hours a day so you can see I wont exactly be busting and land speed records. Remember though this is a desert track and the sand will be soft and anything up to 8" deep over the sand dunes so it will be bloody hard going --- for him ! I'll be taking lots of photos and GoPro videos so I'll post them on my return - if Peter's assembly is ready we head off the last week in June. The program is the trip to Halls Creek, allow 5 days, the Canning Stock Route allow 9-10 days, Wiluna to home allow 5 days, total around 20+ days. Departure 30th June return around the 23rd July

I'm embarrassed, I've just gone through my hard copy of the workshop manual and while it shows the front propshaft offset it fails to give a quantum. When one Universal joint is horizontal and vertical the other one in the drawing appears to be at roughly 45' to it, if you say thats 22.5 degrees I have no way of doubting you but it does seem to be greater than that and the figure of 30 degrees is in my mind from somewhere. As for which end I dont think it matters so long as the shaft has been balanced as the off-set is purely to give greater flexibility on the front suspension. .

There must be different R380 cases - mines on the opposite side below the connections to the oil cooler and below a small inspection cover. My gearbox was originally on a V8, would that make any difference ?

Make that 12 x 1.5

On my 1998 Discovery 300 Tdi the drain plug is tapped into the case below the inspection cover on the LH side of the box. I think old mate is thinking of the transfer box. The oil filler / oil level plug is at the rear of the case to the left of and just above the drum brake. The original drain plug has a magnet pressed into it. From my old and at times befuddled memory the drain plug is 18 mm diameter 1.5 threads per mm. I think you must have an oddity, I'm amazed it got past Land Rover's assembly inspections. I guess you could drill and tap one without removing the box as any aluminum swarf will be "washed" out by the escaping oil, if you dont drain most of it first you're going to get covered in oil though. I would try getting as much oil out before hand as possible with a gear box oil pump and sucking it out first from the filler plug, then remove the inspection cover and again, suck out as much oil as possible before you drill the case just to avoid as much mess as possible, to say nothing of the oil getting into your drill. DO NOT use a 240 volt power drill !! Use a cordless, oil will AND CAN conduct electricity !! We dont want to hear of your escapades in an obituary column ! Once you've tapped it you can flush it out with clean oil poured through the inspection cover opening to make sure there is no swarf left in the box. The casting "boss" is around 12 mm thick. Good luck and keep us posted.

As the Snagger said but the rinse/flush is the catcher, you need a good flow and heaps of pressure to make sure you remove all the crud that will fall to the bottom of the water journals and if I were you I would consider removing the existing welsh plugs at the flushing stage to give better access to all areas as well,

Buy a manual, on a CD if thats all you can get, a good set of tools with a torque wrench and do it yourself. Take your time and do it as per the manual and you wont go wrong, at 110,000 miles your bearings and piston rings should be fine, The most that you will probably have to replace are the valve guides and valve seals, lapping them into the seats is easy with a cordless drill.

It sounds like the transfer box is locked into neutral, or the selector yoke is broken, remove the inspection plate and have someone try the high/low neutral selector lever while you see what is happening, my guess is nothing

On the supply line from the fuel filter at the FIP there is a banjo connection, Remove this and you will find a micro mesh filter, I'll lay odd that this is blocked

Some auto service places have a fluid circulation pump system where they connect their machine to the supply hose to the cooler and can flush out any crud in box and in the centrifugal governor and the torque converter, If I were you I'd try this first, it's not a very expensive service cost but at the end of it you will know that your ATF is clean and that any defects that remain are mechanical and not fluid.

I have a 135 amp hour on mine, two identical units in fact. The main battery had been "relocated" to the correct side closest to the alternator and starter motor and the "secondary" is in the original drivers side.

12-18 months depending on the tree, pine take longest

This adaptor looks identical to the one I fitted to my R380. Over here in Oz the R380 gearbox when coupled with the V8 engine had them fitted to an oil cooler -- the same air cooled unit as fitted to the ZF4HP22 and 24 autos. Due to the outback heat I experience when I'm touring and the stress on the gearbox I filled one, it's "controlled" by a wax pellet the same as the engine oil cooler and flow only goes to the oil cooler if the gearbox oil gets well above hot, just how hot I'm not too sure but you certainly aren't able to hold the oil flow pipe. I also carry as a spare part the original fitting should the cooler hoses burst or, as happened once before the corrugations and vibrations cause the oil cooler radiator to crack. I used a set of autobox cooler hoses and extended them both with with thick wall type "B" 12.5mm (1/2") copper pipe. Expanding the ends of the copper pipe to extend the original steel portion of the auto hose and silver soldering them. The screw in fittings into the gearbox adaptor were the same thread as used for the auto box and I therefore retained the original swaged pipe ends and "O" rings.

I may have to change my mind and cancel my order with VW, I'm now informed (as of yesterday) that ALL imported Amaroks into Australia will have the AdBlue V6 engines and the non-AdBlue motors will not be sold here and will only be exported from Mexico to Asia, China and India. The small AdBlue tank would mean having to either sacrifice additional fuel capacity or carry jerrycans of AdBlue when I go bush because its simply not available way out there. The Isuzu 3 litre 4 cylinder D-Max is beginning to look very good especially the top of the line LS-Terrain model, while they dont have the sheer grunt and torque of the Amarok it's got more than enough at 130 Kw and 380 Nm and it's got the reputation for being a great long lasting engine and drivetrain. Appearance wise it doesn't look as attractive as the Amarok nor does it have the comfort level but I'm comforted (I think) by Julie telling me I'm not the best looking 69 year old she has seen either but she's happy with me, I'm still thinking about that, is that a put-down or a compliment ?

Due to the enormous cost of tyres, (AUD$525 each) and the very limited range - only BFGoodrich currently do a 20" off road and even they need to ne imported from the USA -- I've decided to buy six 17"x 8" rims and that gives me a far better range of tyres, and I can buy a rim ($380) and tyre ($230) for only $85 more than the cost of just a single 20" tyre. I'll advertise the new VW 20" rims and tyres on fleabay to recover some of the costs costs and at the next six tyre renewal I'll be saving a total of some $1770 - unfortunately the dealer won't supply the car with 17" rims as they aren't standard for the Ultimate model, 19" or 20" only -- , the CSA 17" rim I've selected, (incidentally rated at 1250 kilos, 250 kilos more than the standard 20") and tyre come out at 33" diameter so I may have to have the electronic speedometer sender adjusted.

Ed, a lot of what you say does make sense however .......... As Al said I can buy a brand new top of the range Amarok for less than half the cost of a second hand medium milage TDV8, and I get a 5 year extended warranty with it. With a new vehicle I can get a "full recovery" breakdown insurance, that isn't available for second hand vehicles or single owner cars over 4 years old, and trust me, full recovery insurance is a huge slice of peace of mind if your car starts playing up in the desert when your 500 kilometres from the nearest community. With either vehicle I will need to allow for the installation of a steel bullbar with a 12000 lb winch, a minimum of 165 litre long range fuel tank (or carry a whole load of jerry cans) 120 litre water tank, - that only allows for 6 days between refills @ 10 litres per day per person -- a roof rack and roof top tent, a 60 litre fridge/freezer with dual battery set-up, drawers for food stuffs for two people for two weeks, a second spare wheel and tyre and all other camping paraphernalia, cook top, LPG gas bottles etc. AND upgrading the suspension to allow for the increased estimated 450 kg static weight. Incidentally I checked last night and the Amarok first gear in the 8 speed auto is lower than my current R380 with the low range engaged. BFGoodrich do a 20" KO2 off road "All Terrain" tyre in the size 295/75-R20, I'll be fitting six of them to the Amarok but at AUD$525 each they are bloody expensive, I'm hoping to get at least 80,000 kilometres from the set of 6 by constant rotation. and hopefully seeing as Ford and other makes are adopting 20" rims the price will come down as more companies start to supply them.

"That's an interesting view because my 3.6TDV8 with ZF6HP box has 640Nm available and it does have a low range. It pretty much always pulls away in 3rd on the flat or perhaps 2nd if its uphill. I don't think I've ever had it pull away in first in D even with 3.5 tonnes of milling machine and trailer behind it. The 4.4TDV8 (with ZF8HP) which also has a low range has a slightly ridiculous 700Nm available" The only problem with both of these Discos is their lack of ground clearance and their problematic air suspension, trust me I looked at both. Due to the latter aftermarket suspension packages are very limited and most require a total redesign of the suspension doing away with the original airbags and fitting coils and shock absorbers. Even the Amarok will need to be fitted with a Bilstein suspension package that will give it a 75mm with +350Kg constant load on top of the 75 aspect ratio 20" tyres - that will give it the 9" ground level to below the rear differential that from experience I know that I'll need, some of the ruts are very deep!

A couple of things. One is that out bush, and I'm talking way off the beaten track here, places like Mulan, Balgo, Ilkurlka, Tjuntjuntjara you can only purchase diesel, If they have petrol its a non fuming petroleum 85 octane fuel called "Opal" so the kids aren't able to get high sniffing it and it's only sold in sealed 20 litre cans. Petrol engines are therefore not an option. Another consideration is, for me anyway, is I've had to order my Amarok from Mexico, not Germany as the Mexican assembled/built cars dont use Adblue as they are sold to countries, like NZ, Australia, Asia, India and China that dont have such restrictive exhaust emission controls, and in any case again, like petrol Adblue is not available out bush. The final thing is that as a result on the MVA I was in last February I have a fused spine from L2-S1 meaning I have a hard and painful time bending down, so working on the old girl is becoming far more problematic, a brand new car with extended 5 year warranty is therefore an attractive proposition and I can insure it with a full no cost all Australia recovery option, which is mandatory if you break down on the Anne beadell some 750 kilometres from the nearest community! One guy did in his Nissan and the towing charges were well over AUD$10,000 -- I'm 69 now, if I can get 10 years outback and desert touring in before I'm forced to give it away, buy a caravan and stick to the black-top I'll be very happy.