1995 Disco 5 speed manual learning curve

[joeblack5]

Landrover Newby here.
I have several 4x4 trucks. ..Lada niva diesel. Jeep Cherokee turbo diesel .series 2a diesel , Mercedes 240gd.
I always liked the discoveries. So finally we looked at one , this one. My wife liked it and here it is. My main attraction was the manual.

She likes stick as well.....


Maybe I was a bit to eager.. starter did not work somewhat rusty under driver seat and in one rear wheel well. frame looks ok.

A push start did the trick, a bit slow to get back to idle. Brakes seemed to work.. money was handed over and the next day a friend drove me over, filled up 5 gallon gas, so as to make the 100 mile trip back home without stopping..
Nice adventure, it ran good for a 30 year old vehicle, did not overheating and did not stall.. from first to second made some noise but a double clutch took care of that. Clutch is really deep but did not slip.

Applied for antique title, to many cars to inspect .

Johan

 

[joeblack5]

Landrover Newby here.
I have several 4x4 trucks. ..Lada niva diesel. Jeep Cherokee turbo diesel .series 2a diesel , Mercedes 240gd.
I always liked the discoveries. So finally we looked at one , this one. My wife liked it and here it is. My main attraction was the manual.

She likes stick as well.....


Maybe I was a bit to eager.. starter did not work somewhat rusty under driver seat and in one rear wheel well. frame looks ok.

A push start did the trick, a bit slow to get back to idle. Brakes seemed to work.. money was handed over and the next day a friend drove me over, filled up 5 gallon gas, so as to make the 100 mile trip back home without stopping..
Nice adventure, it ran good for a 30 year old vehicle, did not overheating and did not stall.. from first to second made some noise but a double clutch took care of that. Clutch is really deep but did not slip.

Applied for antique title, to many cars to inspect .

Johan

So I read a bit about starter motors. Seems that the top Allen bolt is buggered up a bit.. got to love the design.. this engine is oily everywhere. You would think with that much oil around that there would be no rust on this truck.. haha.

Plenty of cursing going on about the top bolt.. I am sure it will not be the last bad thoughts I have about the designer / engineer of this truck..

I got nervous of the thought that if that bolt would not come loose...what then.. but I was lucky or at least not unlucky.

It came out now I need to test and repair.

Johan

 

[pinkytoe69]

Those decals are totally rad

Why is the ass so high?

 

[StangGT5]

this engine is oily everywhere.

Well, it is a Land Rover. Add bonus oil for being a diesel. I once bought a low mileage Discovery 2 sight unseen and it was horribly rusted below the firewall. I was surprised, as the typical oil leaks should have protected at least that section of the frame.

 

[p m]

Well, it is a Land Rover. Add bonus oil for being a diesel.

Looks like it's a gas V8.

 

[joeblack5]

Yes it is gas v8 3.9 , sorry I did not make that clear.

pink, the rear looks heigh because it is parked odly at the ramp.

The 5 speed is so alluring because I could convert easily to a diesel.. om617??? Or 300tdi??

Next part . Tested the starter.. seemed to work.. so I thought maybe better to look inside and look at the state of affairs...disassembled the starter . Thought it was the Bendix slipping but it became more clear when I took the motor apart.. stripped plastic internal gear.. good location to use plastic... Then there were strange fibers in the brush area, never seen anything like it. Looks like glass fibre.
Very weird.

Johan

 

[p m]

Land Rover starter: roadside rebuild

 

[rover rob]

Land Rover starter: roadside rebuild

good write up . i have been rebuilding my own starters and alternators for the longest time .

 

[joeblack5]

Thanks for the article.
I wonder if the plastic gear got weak because this car did not have a heat shield around the starter?

I have a couple of similar starters from VW JETTA laying around. may the gear is the same.
Found the same starter on eBay new for $66 free shipping so will see how that is.

Tomorrow going to pull the front seat out to work on a couple of rust holes.

Johan

 

[joeblack5]

Lucky me , the starter motor came in a couple of days early. I am going to open in up to look what kind of gear is inside. I like the Lucas ,Prince of darkness emblem.

Took the driver seat out and stored it in the back. Cut some of the sound deadening loose so that is easier to cut and weld.
The bottom of the a pillar is compromised . It looks double steel on the outside..
I will cut it all out and replace with stainless. The door sill is badly rusted but I think I can save it.
The seatbelt anchor looks pretty good. Strange that seatbelt part is so badly rusted.

Just noticed that on the driver side I have an extra plastic window, not so on the passenger side. See pics??

Running from one project to the next. And unimog 404 camper and bringing my old Mercedes 300td back from death. There is always some progress somewhere.

Johan

 

[joeblack5]

Not much to say, still curious about the double window pane..
Cut the floor out to better see what to salvage.
Tomorrow more cutting. First take the side steps of. Thinking about welding some sheet in the rocker so that is structurally sound and later replace the whole rocker with a new box beam

Johan

 

[discostew]

One of the alpine windows is the a/c duct for rear a/c vehicles. I think that's what you're talking about on your window.

 

[joeblack5]

Thanks Discostew. That makes sense now. Indeed I found the AC lines to the rear.

This morning I did some cutting out of my supply of stainless cabinets. Was able to find a nice bend corner that double as a lip for the door seal and also the taller portion will allow attachment to the A pillar.

As you can see I have used one cabinet in my unimog 404 bus project.
As I found mentioned before it would likely be helpful if I take the front fender of to get a better view of the construction.

Johan

 

[joeblack5]

Got the new starter motor mounted.. still have manufacture a heat shield.. I found that it is slightly less painfully to get to the top Allen screw if you remove the windshield washer tank... a good thing to do since there was a pile of wet rotting leaves and dirt behind it.

Motor tried to start but did not make it further then coughing .
There was a smell of gasoline so I inspected the top of the fuel tank, looked ok, looked around the intake manifold for leaks, did not see any so I assume it was the exhaust.. the pipe after the muffler im the center of the car is broken.

There is a strange aftermarket box mounted on the MAF sensor and the wiring is compromised. I decided to give up for the day and study the MAF and recharge the battery.

The Haynes manual had the easiest to understand electric diagram of the injection system. Page13.51.
A fellow rover enthusiast helped me with a factory discovery manual, well prepared with multimeter and soldering iron.
Next day I removed the aftermarket " performance box" spliced the wiring and....it fired right up..
To prove that the MAF was somewhat working I measured the voltages on the 4 wires while the engine was running..0 volt red/ black( ground) 13.5 volt brown/ orange and 1.5 volt on blue/red ( reference, (pin 22 ecm) and 1 to 3.5 volt blue / green ( pin 35 ecm) depending on throttle /rpm airflow..
I pulled the connector of and it stalled but recovered and kept running but the check engine light came on.
Stopped engine, disconnected battery for 30 minutes and it fired right back up with no check engine light..

So pretty happy with the progress.

Decided to top it of with some rust conversion paint.. a lot of hammering to get the scaling of..
Will try to get the bottom sheet in tomorrow so that is drive able and then do the footwell after I take the fender off.

 

[joeblack5]

Thanks for giving thumbs up.. fixing rust is emotionally tiring, there is no end to it.. nice to have a little talk group.. haha.

More cutting and painting. Then it took some creative bending and hammering to get the floor sheet laying nice and flat.
Pre Drilled holes at the locations where later on it would be hard to drill thru stainless.. I intend to temporarily use self tapping metal screws and see how the rest of this car holds up..

 

[terryjm1]

Thanks for giving thumbs up.. fixing rust is emotionally tiring, there is no end to it.. nice to have a little talk group.. haha.

More cutting and painting. Then it took some creative bending and hammering to get the floor sheet laying nice and flat.
Pre Drilled holes at the locations where later on it would be hard to drill thru stainless.. I intend to temporarily use self tapping metal screws and see how the rest of this car holds up..

Nice work!

 

[DiscoClay]

I've got a 5sp (r380) 95 NAS d1 as well. Love it. ...when I don’t hate it.

There weren't many NAS manual tranny rigs to begin with, and can't be many now. Thanks for putting yours back on the road!! :-D

Re: oily...
If its dry: its empty.

That high starting idle is normal; welcome to the wonderful world of the 14CUX. Luckily its a simple fuel injection *only* computer.

I highly recommend sealing up those sunroofs [the drains plug midway down and then drain under your carpet instead of outside) and pulling the relays. That will help with the floorboard rusting problem. I also had a split windscreen gasket that contributed to the soggy carpet.

That 2nd gear synchro is a common problem [3rd isn't far behind].. also, the slave cylinder [piston] seal has been known to leak and fail (1st hand experience].

Fuel smell under the hood can come from the injectors. The are not deep on their holes... the O-rings are very close to the top.. I don't know if this is a "feature" but I can say the met ear/tabs that hold the rails down.. are very bendy and weak. I hated this, so I made new holddown clamps for the rails and 95% of my underhood gas fumes disappeared.

The starter gets hot as hell... I put a geared high torque unit in and have not had cranking problems since.

If yours is smog exempt [due to age] then "do something" with/to your cats... it *will* give you ~2-3mpg improvement and will noticeably help the engine breath [ButtOmometer indicates ~10hp]

Do you have manual or power seats?

 

[joeblack5]

Hi DiscoClay, thanks for chiming in, these cars are pretty draining, i know it is not efficient to do things in small steps but I am afraid that the project in total is bigger then I have energy for, so small steps .

Would not have bought it if it was not a manual. There are to many things automated already.. people can not parallel park there car any more without cameras or an auto park. Haha

Good to know that the high idle direct after start is normal.. I am happy with a simple engine management computer. As long as there is no canbus then it is good with me. I still have to measure the voltage range from the tps.
Like to install a fuel pressure gauge since it seems that often problems are related to fuel pressure. Wiring failure,.. pump failure... pressure regulator failure and leakage.. all nice to observe with a Pressure gauge.

Hope the synchro keeps up for a bit.
The cats are still there ,dont know if they are empty or not.. working on the pipe after the first muffler.. of course the heat shield is missing and thus a rust hole above the muffler.. it is a straight pipe , no second muffler.. this car has seen some shortcuts. Then 30 yrs is a long time.

The seat are manual, happy with that , simple is King.

Got to look at the injector clamps, you have any pics from your modifications.

Well today I finished my floor panel, painted inside of rocker, pre drilled all holes ,cleaned the rust of the seat mount.. I need to do some welding there ,it has lost some strength.. but ok for now.
Mounted seat. Next is the kick panel behind the pedals. I will try that from the wheel well since there some stuff going on there..looks not to hard to take the fender off..

Johan

 

[DiscoClay]

Lots to reply to there

The manual seats are THE way to go. The power seat controls are garbage and the stock location is moronic at best

I had fuel problems [note to newbies: 1995 D1 is the only NAS that is 14cux based, 1996 and up are GEMS] too.

1st: the fuel filter was frozen [aka: welded] on. I had to CUT it out.

During this evolution I took the liberty of moving the fuel filter location to the engine compartment [port side] running new fuel line all the way to the engine. I also switched to a screw on filter [looks like an oil filter, or a diesel filter, and *is* high pressure rated].

Due to the "Sol-like" underwood temps I wrapped the fuel filter in an insulated temp shield. Also, the fuel line is a stainless steel / rubber / Teflon line... so it has insulating properties as well.

I did exactly as you say: I installed a mechanical fuel pressure guage right at the input to the fuel rail. [Pressure bleed down seems to happen within an hour or so, btw. The system does not hold pressure even now.]

I replaced fuel pumps multiple times, like an idiot [maybe drop to "idiot" part] thinking that was the problem; it turns out the fuel filter was clogged and the pressure build up caused the failure of the short hose that mates the in-tank pump to the output nipple [in the tank, where the actual pump-motor outlet nipple points vertically toward the metal line above it, a short rubber hose serves as the union/connection].

After getting this all sorted [before the injector mount fix] injector #5 decided to stick full open [fun fact: this WILL test the catalyst's ability to self-combust].

It turns out there was a large piece of fuel-regulator O-ring inside the fuel rail.. and it managed to plug the regular orifice... this caused the rail pressure to skyrocket [ergo #5 injector stepped up to take over pressure regulation duties]. That O-ring must have been floating around in there a LONG TIME... because I hadn't changed it up until that point [and have owned it for ~20yrs].

Needless to say, I dropped new injectors in there as well.. hence my injector mount frustrations and fixes.

I will snap some pics and drop them here.

Regarding the TPS: I replaced mine with that generic/alternative tps.. because for some reason the OEM unit is priced in bushels of gold bullion. I had to calibrate the replacement as well [as opposed to the claims made in its "direct replacement" propaganda [aka: installation instructions].

My original tps had developed an "impedance flat spot" right in the middle third of its range. THAT really messed with my off idle transition.

Regarding the 1-2 synchros... I just live with it. I already swapped the tranny out ~15yrs ago because of synchros.. I found a tranny with "only 35000 miles" on it... being lazy, I didn't tear it apart to actually confirm this.. and the 1-2 syncros were just as bad... 100k miles and 15 years later they grind just about the same as the day I installed it. Just purge speed-shifting from your portfolio of habits .. treat it like a Peterbuilt rather than a BMW.

Note: I use Redline transmission oil [MTL]... not ATF. I accept the risk of damaging that little plastic "top end" pump, due to the higher viscosity; i prefer to have the gear lash shock absorbing ability of the thicker oil.

This is rambling so I'll pinch it off here

 

[DiscoClay]

Oh, one question: do you know what brand those headlight covers are? I am making custom headlamps and those covers look interesting.