Subtopic	Posts		Updated
	Centre diff lock on Disco II?	1		05/23 05:59am

By Clint on Monday, February 26, 2001 - 10:36 am: Edit

FYI
I haven't seen this posted recently,
so I thought I'd share.

If you think your tranny up shifts too soon or can't get a downshift when above 53 mph, there is a solution.
You can adjust your tranny kick down cable, which is next to the throttle cable. It has two 13mm nuts that retain the cable housing. Try backing the housing out about a 1/2 thread at a time. Go slow, as a little goes a long way. When the 1-2 upshift under light throttle is harsh, you've gone too far. This applies mostly to disco 1s, as the disco 2s seem to be setup better. You'll be surprised how much of a difference a properly performing tranny will make.
Good Luck,
Clint

By pjkbrit on Monday, February 26, 2001 - 11:00 am: Edit

Agreed...but 96 and later Discos with the gems system no longer have the cable...it's all electronic which sucks. Note that even if you can "cable" your Disco, the overdrive cut in/out is unaffected, but low speed pickup is greatly improved.

By Clint on Monday, February 26, 2001 - 11:13 am: Edit

My disco is a 97 se7.
About the overdrive, if I'm on the gas it will stay in 3rd untill almost 70mph.
Clint

By BlueGill on Monday, February 26, 2001 - 11:29 am: Edit

What are other options for us poor suckers with all-electronic 96+ Disco 1's? My 96 SD upshifts from first to second too quickly for my liking...It seems like I'm barely using first gear.

By Clint on Monday, February 26, 2001 - 01:06 pm: Edit

BlueGill,
look under your hood and see if you have the cable.
Mine is a 97 and has the cable. Yours probably does too.
One cable goes through the firewall near the brake booster. This is the throttle cable.
The tranny cable is mounted to the same bracket but nearer to the firewall and leads down to the tranny.
Clint

By Brian on Monday, February 26, 2001 - 09:14 pm: Edit

This is great information! I have been asking about this for weeks.
When making the adjustment are you trying to shorten the cable IE....make the cable pull on the tranny sooner or later in the throttle.

Thanks

By Clint on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 07:24 am: Edit

Brian,
When the trottle opens, it pulls on the tranny cable.
You want to back out or unscrew the cable housing which effectively shortens the internal cable.
You are telling the tranny that you are opening the throttle more than you really are, so it holds gears longer, downshifts sooner,etc.
Clint

By Brian on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 11:01 am: Edit

Clint,
This worked GREAT! I can now pull away form a traffic light without getting honked at. I knew you could do this on an American vehicle but everyone told me that the Rovers were all electronic. Just goes to show what a great resource the internet and discoweb really are.
Thanks again!
Brian

By Clint on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 07:01 pm: Edit

Brian,
Glad to help!
Now there's one less slow disco in the world...
Clint

By Stephen Michael Buck (Oz93discov8) on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 06:34 am: Edit

Thanks Clint,

Made a real perky difference to mine. I've also heard that this may even help fuel economy a bit as the engine doesn't "bog down" as much with early up-changes.

Steve
South Australia

By Tom Proctor on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 11:30 am: Edit

pjkbrit wrote:

>...but 96 and later Discos with the gems
>system no longer have the cable...it's
>all electronic which sucks.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

As previously reported my Dave G.:

"The ZF transmissions in our Defenders and Discos have a mechanical valve body. There is an electronic valve body model, but it would be recognizable from in the cab by a "sport/economy" switch near the shift lever. Ours is all mechanical (YEA!!!) and controlled by cables and levers."

This information applies to Disco 1's only. I believe that DII's have the sport mode transmisison button.

Tom Proctor
96 Disco

By Ron on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 11:36 am: Edit

Ok,
I am up for this. I flog the heck out of the disco when I drive it (italian tune up) so I would like more aggressive shifting. anyone have pics of this cable/exactly where it is located on a 1996 disco.

Ron

By pjkbrit on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Tom...many of the later Gems controlled disco's do NOT have the external downshift cable even though the ZF tranny is the same as my 94....that's all I was trying to point out.

By Tom Proctor on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 12:43 pm: Edit

pjkbrit,

I appreciate the caution. But the D1 did not get the ZF electronic valvebody. The information I posted above came from a ZF engineer, specifically relating to defenders and D1's.

As I said, your warning is much appreciated, but it really only applies to the DII crowd (with the sport mode electronic valve body).

You can verify this info with

http://www.jie.com/

They are experts with the ZF products and personally tracked down this information from ZF engineers.

Tom
96 Disco

By graham cuthell on Thursday, March 01, 2001 - 03:18 pm: Edit

u.k. spec v8 3.9 discovery with zf4hp22. shift speeds are 1to2 9-10 mph 2-3 18-22 mph 3-4 26-30 mph at light throttle. on part throttle the speeds are 10-12,29-37 and 47-54 mph.at full throttle 29-34, 55-60 and 74-80mph.down shifts at full throttle are 3-2 at40-46mph and4-3 at61-67 mph.kickdown 1-2at34-40mph,2-3at 60-63mph. 2-1at 27-34mph,3-2at 57-62mph and finally 4-3at 84-92mph. I know this sounds like horse racing odds!Lets hope it gets some discoveries up ahead.

By what copyright? on Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 08:14 pm: Edit

kickdown cable adjustment from Land Rover published manual covering "Discovery from model year 1995, including 1997 revisions", published in 1996 (obviously can't cover 1998-on Disco I or any Disco II):