Someone Else's Problem: 1994 Land Rover Discovery ES

 
Do the roadtrip with the Disco. There's a few forest tracks for you to try near here. :p Near, as in we can walk to my place when you get stuck. :D
 
Near, as in we can walk to my place when you get stuck. :D

:lol:

No doubt I would get stuck with the road tyres it'll be wearing on the roadtrip. It's technically possible for me to get a roof rack and put the muds on it but that might be overkill. :D

Final videos from Sunday:

 
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Some things happened to the Disco this week. The ABS has now been removed ready for the MOT so that's one less thing to go wrong, plus it makes fixing the NS inner wing considerably easier. Airbags have also been removed, meaning I now have a new steering wheel and a hole in the passenger side of the dash... which I am going to cover with a wicker basket. More about that another time.

MOT is on Monday, I know it will fail but I need to wait and see exactly what it fails on before I can get everything finished off.

I also made a new sticker for the back window:

View attachment 13520

Can I please copy this sticker? :D
 
Can I please copy this sticker? :D

Sorry for not replying, I feel like an asshole now. Here's the PNG, it should be at print size already. :)

lucasGHBD.png
 
Filled up with diseasel today, always a painful experience because I don't do it very often. 362 miles on the last tank and it took 68.21L to fill, working out at a piss poor 24 UK MPG. It's all down to the number of short trips I've done, I haven't filled up for 2 months. I'm going to watch another rally tomorrow so filled up.

Also Keely is sporting a fine moustache for Movember, the town has been renamed in support and these were being sold. I think it suits her. :)

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I'd love to get there someday....

But... diesel. :D

I don't really care too much and could live with less if I got my hands on a V8 something...
 
The other day was just... exhausting.



That's stainless steel and was shiny before I went out for a test run on the filthy back roads. I wanted to fit it without the centre silencer but having no silencers was just too loud, sadly. Mid box is back on and will soon be replaced with a glass pack. :D
 
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I don't really care too much and could live with less if I got my hands on a V8 something...
I see it as a challenge: How much more efficiency (as in more power and less fuel consumption at the same time) can I get out of a 6.6 liter petrol V8 while working inside (or on the fringes of) German classic car regulations.
 
I see it as a challenge: How much more efficiency (as in more power and less fuel consumption at the same time) can I get out of a 6.6 liter petrol V8 while working inside (or on the fringes of) German classic car regulations.

Electronic ignition is always a good step in that direction if you don't already have it. It really sorted out the engine on my old Series.

Anyway in other news a friend convinced me to try out an off road orienteering challenge with a local club and today was the event. The challenge basically consists of punches that you must get around the site, punching a card that's attached to the driver's door. Along with this there are quiz questions and pictures that must be answered or identified respectively and written down. The whole lot adds up to a final score and the winner is the one with the highest score. Add to this a class system that favours more standard vehicles and you've got a nice competitive challenge.

Today was my first time trying one of these events along with my co-driver who also hasn't done one of these before... and we won! Unfortunately there was some initial confusion and the winners were thought to be another team in a Discovery but it turns out that it was us! I'll be getting a trophy shortly. It was worth smashing both indicators, bashing up the rear bumper, putting a dent in the wing and a dent in the roof. :D
 
How did you dent your roof? Low hanging tree branch?
 
How did you dent your roof? Low hanging tree branch?

It was due to a tree, but I was leaning the Disco on it rather than just pushing past it. There was one situation where I had to have a run up to climb part way up a steep hill to get to the punch and the back slid around enough to sit on a tree, wedging me in place with the nose pointing skyward. I got the punch (a read one that's worth more points) and it only took a quick tug sideways to get me back out.

I'm considering some steel tubing to protect the lights. :lol:
 
Haha, nice. It's a 4x4, it'll happen.

Protect just the lights? More like, full exo cage.
 
Protect just the lights? More like, full exo cage.

That would be very nice, but a bit too expensive and would give me a disadvantage in these kind of competitions, I'd be put in the next class and would be up against much more serious trucks.

Someone mentioned that I should point out that I didn't put a dent in the top of the roof, just in the side. I class anything above the doors as the roof because it's all one panel.

Also I've just ordered a glass pack muffler from eBay, will get a friend to weld it in to my centre pipe and see how it sounds. :D
 
So this weekend has mostly consisted of pissing around with brakes. I noticed last week that there was a fluid leak, coming from a small valve on the passenger side of the engine bay. There is a rubber bung on the end of the valve that apparently shouldn't have a hole in it. While looking at brake components I also noticed some fluid around the master cylinder bracket where it bolts on to the servo/booster, so decided that I'd better replace that too (it turns out that it was made in 1997).

Parts in hand from my local friendly Land Rover garage I went to fit them, 7 brake unions to undo in total and to my surprise they all came loose without a single problem. The valve was swapped for the replacement and I removed the master cylinder. The O-ring that seals to the servo was toast but otherwise it looked fine. New master cylinder was fitted and I went to bleed the brakes. I had bought a vacuum bleeding kit so wanted to use that, running from the air from my compressor. No matter what I did I couldn't get a solid stream of fluid, it always seemed to have air in it. I now know that it's common for this to happen and it's due to air being drawn in around the bleed nipple, but at the time I thought I had major leak in the system.

After finding no leaks I decided to enlist the help of my dad and go back to the old method of bleeding, and that's when we noticed that there was no feel to the pedal at all. This is where things get confusing. There are two different master cylinders for a vehicle of this age, ABS and non-ABS. When I got the Disco, it had ABS. It therefore stands to reason that it had an ABS master cylinder. When the ABS was removed, the master cylinder was not changed; so I bought an ABS master cylinder and this didn't work. The old master cylinder actually doesn't match the ABS type so I have no idea what happened there. Cut a long story of trying both master cylinders and swearing short, I now have the old master cylinder fitted with the O-ring from the new one on it to actually seal with the servo. Tomorrow I will see what I need to do about getting the correct one, and if I've blown my chances by nicking the O-ring.

I've also got my glass-pack muffler fitted now (sort of) and it sounds just right, a nice roar without being too loud. :D
 
Brakes are fine now so I've turned my attention to the steering, which was... upside-down. Somehow the straight ahead position had turned around 180 degrees half way thought the competition day. I took it in to have the alignment checked and to make sure I hadn't bent anything serious. The steering felt a little loose so I was expecting a toe angle issue. Here's a photo of it up on the ramps:



It's hard to tell what's wrong from that shitty photo (seriously not impressed with the camera on the One M8) so here's a close up of the spring with indicators of where it is (red) and where it should be (green).
SpringNotRight.jpg


No wonder everything was out of whack. A breaker bar and hammer soon fixed it and they confirmed that nothing was bent, then adjusted the drag link to bring everything back in line. Feels better now but I'll have someone with more knowledge try it and see if the PAS box is worn out, it's quite possible.
 
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I'm honestly not sure how a misaligned spring could throw your drag link out of whack. Are you sure you didn't bend something, or strip the drag link adjuster?
 
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