Shaun D

Converted my 3.5 carb Disco to 3.9 EFi last year,drove into the workshop on Friday night at 6 O'clock, roadtested at 4 pm on Sunday with the new engine . Had some help to lift old engine out and lift new one in, otherwise single handed for the rest of it. Wiring is fairly straightforward but I found out you will need a vehicle speed transducer in the speedo cable or the idle goes all over the place after about 5 miles of driving. Shaun

Hi Peter, I would be very uninclined to put 36V straight to the warning lamp terminal in my experience a lot of alternators don't like this. If you can't find a 36V bulb use a 12 V one and put a resistor in series. 12V bulb of 1.2W = 100mA. 100mA @ 24V drop=240 Ohms. 240 Ohms is hard to get go for 270Ohms and at least 4Watts rating. For a 2.2W bulb your resistor would need to be 150 or 180Ohms and 7Watt rating. The bigger bulb will make the alternator cut in at a lower RPM. As you mentioned switch it through a relay slaved off the ignition switch. HTH Shaun

I get this sort of problem all the time (although to be honest that's the worst I've seen in ages). The worst offenders seem to be Vauxhall and Peugeot for some reason, but as you know now Land Rovers aren't immune. I'm not sure why it happens but I suspect it's lack of cleanliness at the assembly stage, a good crimp is supposed to be a "cold weld" anything less than absolute cleanliness and it's a problem waiting to happen. Cut the wire back until you see bright copper even if you have to splice a piece in, I know you've probably done it already! Nice one! Shaun

Completely OT but I shall nevertheless watch it end to end (only had time to browse bits of it), thank you for posting the link. The nice thing about a belief system is you choose what to believe Shaun

Couple of questions:- What make of alternator is it? if you know that is. Have you tried connecting the warning light wire to earth at the alternator and confirming that the warning light and ignition circuit are ok. Did you strip the alternator to bits to clean it, if you have I think you may have wired it up incorrectly internally, it's the only way I think you could get these symptoms. Let me know what the answers are and if necessary I'll take the back off one of my old units (got about a wheelbarrow full )and check. HTH Shaun

The heatshrink I use is the Polyolefin one from R.S.Components they have a good choice of goodies. Most of the looms I make I tape up with non-adhesive loom tape (like sticky tape but guess what...no sticky) they do that too! You end up with a loom that looks factory finish. HTH Shaun

Tried to post last night but the broadband was being a pain You really want a charging voltage of 14.0 to 14.5V, anything less than 13.8 and your battery isn't getting properly charged, anything over 14.7 and it's getting boiled! With the lights on it should not sag very much at all as already said. Check the output at the alternator (from the output terminal to the casing) you should not be losing more than 0.5V max between the alternator Voltage and the battery Voltage. The figures I work to are:- 0.1 V max drop between the body of the alternator and the battery negative post, 0.2V max drop between the output terminal and the battery positive post. I get more problems with bad earths than anything else. I aim to get volt drops as low as possible especially if you have lots of extras, every little bit helps. Alternator output Voltages vary by make I've seen some as low as 13.8V, Bosch are usually very close to 14.0V, Lucas are often a bit higher. If you've got one with a lowish Voltage then obviously you can't afford to lose very much getting it to the battery! Silly point, check the belt is tight Slightly O/T but when wiring spotlights it's worth a thought to connect spotlamps etc. to the output terminal of the alternator (if you can get to it) and not the battery, after all this is where the power comes from. You are then not putting so much current down the feed wire to the battery and you get a slightly higher charging voltage at the battery terminals.

Loads of great ideas so far but one I didn't see mentioned, for your in line splices use glue-lined heatshrink (I get mine from R.S.Components). When you have a splice of say one into three wires the water gets in where the three wires are in parallel, this glue lined stuff has a hot melt glue in it which squidges into all the gaps making it completely waterproof. The point about soldering making the wires stiff, practice makes perfect, you just have to learn to make the joint more quickly so it doesn't have time to wick down the wire. . Nice clean wire helps so you don't have to "cook" the joint for so long. Shaun.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it isn't necessarily legal to PARK your car on the road (except in a designated parking space), So going along those lines it probably is illegal. But then again it's not whether it's legal but whether it's enforced . Shaun

Repeated clicking is usually when there is insufficient power in the battery to drive the starter motor, the solenoid clicks in ok but then the motor effectively shorts out the battery because it's flat, the solenoid drops out, the battery voltage recovers a bit, the solenoid clicks back in, the cycle repeats. If you suspect the battery is flat try jump leads, if the battery is ok you probably have a poor connection in the starter circuit somewhere. HTH Shaun.

Got a quote for a clutch pulley for a 2.5CRD Voyager last week £59+VAT IIRC from main stealers, would have thought it would have been the same as a Cherokee one, that is about the same as any other make. Shaun

I've done a reasonable amount of work on these now, IIRC the system will tolerate a single fault, depending on what it is it may stick in normal height, but if the system develops a second fault it goes down on its knees. Golden rule "if you get a fault fix it before you get a second one". But back on topic, fit a good battery, remove the compressor relay and bridge it (the two heavy wires) get some air in the tank and it should come up, I think. I would not run the compressor for more than about 5 minutes, 10 at a push because I'm not sure if the tank has a relief valve. The system also re-levels automatically every 4 hours so leave the battery on it for a while and it may even sort itself out, would be quicker with diagnostics though. There must be someone around you way with either T4 (or the old lucas handheld unit that would also do it) who would reset it for you at a reasonable price. If the sensors do need calibrating these old girls don't need blocks, the system sets a standard height and you measure round the wheelarches with a tape measure and tweak the settings until it sits level. HTH Shaun

They were all funny (even the ones I've heard before). BUT the one about the dog biscuit diet, my guts still hurt and I've tears running down my face! that was funny! Shaun

Don't know whether I'm happy or sad, no real problems just some small stuff on the roads where I am, Kent/Sussex/Surrey border. Shaun

My Disco's a bit of a hybrid, early 3.9 pre-serpentine so it's got an alternator over the PAS pump (80 amp I think), but It's got a 3.5 water pump so I have fitted another (65 amp) one on the driver's side where the aircon pump would be on a later Disco. The nice thing is it's all Land Rover parts, no fabrication at all. The two alternators are run in parallel onto two batteries in parallel with separate warning lamps (I used the pad wear lamp as it was disconnected on mine) all the doomsayers say it shouldn't work but it does for me! if I do some winching I get two hot alternators so I know they both work . Only did it because I converted from 3.5 to 3.9 and used the bits I had. May be of use to somebody. Shaun