Thys

Thanks for this info Boydie, can the governor be removed without removing the box?

Update: Took her to our local gearbox and diff specialist, he also does LR's gearboxes and diffs, had the ATF changed, filter replaced, kick back cable checked and adjusted and found a near torn flex coupling on the rear propshaft, and three UJ's past repair. The test run showed all's well. Took a 690 km trip the past long weekend, to Sabie and Pelgrimsrust, so the tranny worked real hard. She still pulleds away in second, I have to put the tranny in 1st to pull away, she was loaded to max capacity, no roof rack or trailer. I lost reverse on selection twice........ So back to the sick bay ............... So it now looks serious, will keep you up to date.

Not much resistance, but it stops if I pull on the cable when disconnected and she does kick down when in higher gears and I put foot.

Well I tried taking some slack off the kick down cable, no change, and I checked the ATF level, cold tranny, level ground, idling in neutral, level is between two little holes on dipstick, closer to the top hole than bottom hole, so I will be visiting the local LR Gearbox Indy.

Thanks for the reply Bowie69, It is rather loose, I will take up the play, any idea what the free play should be?

One of our local fundi's had new stainless steel welch plugs manufactured, the mating surfaces were increased and the OD slightly increased, he also used aitcraft type bolts and nuts to replace the rivits on the head. Works like a charm.

My pride and joy Disco 1 300 Tdi Auto gave ma a good fright, I was sationary in peak traffic, at a 4-way stop street. Took a gap, which normally works fine, only this time she pulled away in 2 nd, crawling into the intersection, I put foot but it still took a couple of seconds before she kicked back to 1st. Made it, so after my heart beat recovered to normal I did some tests on the run. By moving the selector into 1st, no problem, pulls away in 1st. With the selector in D, se pulls away in 2nd, and as the wheels strart rolling she has a slight hesitation, then drops to 1st, and moves, up shifting through all the ratios. The auto down shift is also not as smooth as it was, it is jerkey. So having planned a trip to Sabie this comming long weekend, I am worried. Is the valve body playing up, or giving notice? Full bottom end service: valve body cleaned, ATF and filter replaced at 220 000 km, 07 June 2010, now at 260 000 km. Mixed driving conditions, including 3 long distance tours, no trails, Gauteng highways peak and off peak. The ATF has it's nice red colour, not black/dark. I usually do the bottom end service at 60 000 km intervals. The reason I had the valve body checked at the previous gearbox service was also as a result of a slight jerkish changedown. The problem went away after the previous service.

Not to bad for a desk........

Guys, thanks for the inputs. Based on the responses, I took the plunge and bought a new copper core with copper/brass headers radiator, cost me more than the plastic radiator, but now I have pease of mind.

OK, I wanted to post this on the Britpart Wheel Bearing post, but to respect the topic, here goes: My OE radistor as been re-cored with a copper core, but after the run-in with the Toyota Fortuner the specialists cannot manage to fix the radiator, it just keeps on failing, and, yes, I did all the required tests, hot and cold to check for combustion chamber pressure, there's none. Now, I can buy a new Britpart radiator, but apparently the headers are now plastic, not copper/brass? The "@#$%part" posts now has me worried. Has any one had previous experience with a Britpart LR radiator.

The quote below just landed on one of our local 4x4 forums. What is the situation in the UK regarding the use of the Land Rover name, or for that matter names like Landy etc? "Big Daddy Jaguar Land Rover has just got cross. Patent Attorneys Spoor and Fisher are sending out letters to all of the independent repairer’s (INDY's), new parts suppliers , secondhand parts suppliers and accessory builders and fitters that they may no longer quote the names Land Rover, Range Rover, Freelander, Defender, Rover, Landy, Landie , and Landi in their business names or advertising materials. Now over and above their international trade marks they have registered Landy, Landie and Landi in South Africa as a trade mark. There are some independent operators that have been going for years, as much as 35 to 40 years plus. These were the people who propped up the brand during the cold war days when BMW was in control. Land Rovers rating was rock bottom. Poor products and even poorer service delivery. The very same industry that contributes to millions of rands to their coffers in parts sales each year, keeps Land Rover owners happy and brand loyal, and go on to buy new Defenders, Disco 3 and 4’s,Range Rovers and Freelanders etc. They want to close it down or make it very difficult to trade. Their very own dealers don’t want to work on the old Defenders and Disco’s and most certainly not the Freelander 1 because they no longer have the expertise. That’s why a lot of the dealers pass that work onto the INDY’s. Just imagine if all of the INDY’S closed shop for a month, how would the dealers cope. Please, they can’t even cope with their existing work load of cars under motor plan."

Mine was the cable (or rod) adjustment that had to be fine tuned, I undid the nuts, slackened the rod, and by hand, from below put the box in Park. Re-inserted the end of the cable, added lock nuts and took up the slack. Problem solved. Why did it happen? Had the box serviced and the Indy did not do the allignment properly.

Thanks Deej! I like them clean, and after a trial, I clean again, we, however have more dust than mud, so it is a wee bit easier to keep clean. Oil? This pic was not long after a full top to bottom engine re-built, but she stays like that. I did up to 3500 km a month until last year November, when I got a little runabout for work driving, now the Disco is a proper recreational/holliday/fun vehicle.

I added an analouge temperature guage, measuring the cylinder head's actual temperature, for me it was easy as my Tdi has no electronics.

Not on mine ....wen I switched on the lights the dims were slow to light up, but when switching on in the bright position no problem, It drove me nuts....until I discovered the loose earth wire...........the nut was MIA.......that's what I love about a Landy, never a dull moment......and even with 30 odd years experience, they know how to get you back to basics or not.......

ont forget to check the wiring harness feeding the wires to the headlights, they have their own earth wire, bolted onto a stud on the side of the engine bay, no 10 nut.

I forgot to mention, she squeels without the aircon belt as well...........

OK, mine has the squeel, replaced all the tentioner, and idler pulley bearings, new water pump, installed the spare overhauled altenator, the squeel is there, increases from 1900 r.p.m. up. Replaced the water pump pulley, it was slightly warped. Scueel still there All that is left now is the aircon pulley bearing, the fan hub pulley, and (this is scary) the bearings of the timing belt tentioner and idler pulleys.........

The back door may shut and latch, but if the door guide and allignment block is even slightly out, the door will knock. There is a heavy piece of spare wheel leaning in on the hinges, and when standing still all seem fine, but when moving the door and spare start their game. I eventually coated the allignment block on the door with engineering blue, and closed the door, re-opened and checked for even contact marks. You will be surprised at the blue markings when opening the door again, they must be even, top and bottom. The body to chassis mountings nearly had me sell by Disco, could not find the rattle, stripped the two front seats completely, adjusted the rubbers over and over, but the noise persisted, this however was a loud metallic rattle. Eventually found 3 of the mountings loose, tightened them up, and all's well again. Hope you find the little bugger........

On mine I had the same, I could open the door from inside only. I removed the rear door panel, and found a leaver that worked loose, linking the external handle to the release mechanism. Being in the bush, I simply put a cable tie through the two corresponding mounting holes to keep the lever in its moving arch, and it worked. As a matter of fact, I did the field repair in March 2008, and it is still holding up. The arch movement is very little, so the cable tie is not subjected to a lot of friction.....

When I replaced my Tdi's head, I replaced the water pump as a pre-cautionary measure. The old pump was fine, except for surface rust on the impeller, previous owned was not that diligent on anti-freeze concentration. I bought a Brit-Part unit, it was half the price of a QH water pump. Two years later I had the bottom-end re-built, and the engineering shop replaced the water pump as part of their pre-cautionary measures, they gave me the Brit-Part to keep as a spare. I was in an accident with one of the after effects a slightly warped water pump pulley, which ate the belt and had the water pump drop a bearing. Now I closed my eyes, ignored my bank manager and bought the QH water pump, and replaced the pulley. This expensive pump lasted exactly 9 months. I did not use silicone on the packing, I measured the pulley alignment, but I lost the QH pump, the bearing starts to screech from 2000 RPM and above, and it is not the belt or pulleys, new bearings, new pulley, alignment correct........... What other 300 Tdi pumps are available on the market, that may give me better reliability?

That is a built-in warning-safety system, it is actually described in the owners handbook. On the Tdi's the flashers come on, forcing you to stop, and probably check the rig after such a bone-jarring impact, switch off-and on after making sure all is well. Correct me if I am wrong, but the V8 actuaaly cut out?

Here in South Africa we seem to be experiencing numerious WABCO vacuum pump failurs on the 300 Tdi's. They tend to pop the bottom welch plug, and the dreaded head oil leak. We do the rivit replacement, and one owner is investigating the manufacturing of a better quality welch plug. I know there are other manufacturers like Bearmach, but I have no record of their reliability.

Thanks Steve, your are right, look and learn helps a lot, that's one of the methods one of my instructors taught me while doing my apprenticeship............

I went rubber hunting during lunch today. At Independant 4x4 I found Disco 1 Tdi and V8 wrecks. All had vertical sealing rubbers, both sides of the radiator front, to seal the gaps. The V8 has a wider opening, the plates holding the vertical seal strips, are rivited in place, thus the difference betwwen the V8 and Tdi's radiator frames is the width, the plates are in different positions, bought the rubbers, so I will be having a nice LR session in my garage, actually, I started earlier this evening............