Ownership Verified: I'll have some off - 1990 Land Rover Discovery Bobtail

Drove the bobtail today and it thinks it's a kettle.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dVhzR-9fqI
The hose from the head to the heater core is leaking, at least I hope it's the hose because the fitting it attaches to it steel and goes into the aluminium head. Basically doesn't come out again. I could bypass the heater and get an electric only setup, might be better or might be worse.
 
Leak is now fixed, well actually it was fixed a week ago on Christmas eve. I wanted the job out of the way so I could drive the truck during my Christmas break.

As well as being old and horrible, one of the old hoses had a split that was causing the kettle impressions. As expected, tightening the clamp would've actually made this worse.


One of the new hoses was from Bearmach, this wouldn't be of any significance normally but the company went bust in September. They made some great parts so will be missed. I didn't get any photos of the actual fitting but it was frustrating and difficult due to the hoses being behind the engine.


Fixed and confirmed by driving it during the week. No more steam. I've topped up the coolant as air is burped out, these 200tdi engines are famously over-cooled so air locks are not of any real concern.


As is usual for this time of year, one drive and it's covered in muck. I'm fairly confident that everything is working at the moment so I will start looking at off road play day dates, I need to do something about tool storage first and have plans for that.
 
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I dragged the old sun visors out of wet storage (leaky shed) a month or so ago, after I realised that the captive fixings were still in the roof. I think I'd gone for years just assuming that they weren't there. They were cleaned up as much as possible and then shoved under a radiator to dry out, after all this time they had dried out as much as possible. They still stink like old vinyl, but I can't get away from that.

I put them in today using some cap head M5 screws I had lying around and some cable ties. The original fitting the captures the 'floating' side was probably throw away with the headlining, I thought about making up a 3D printed part but this seems to work fine!





I'm still on annual leave until next week, so I went out in the truck to take some photos. I wanted a front photo so I could photoshop some RDX headlight covers on and see how round headlights would really look. I think the cage would actually cut into that space but I'll see how it works out. I do wonder what goes through the minds of other drivers when they see me coming. :LOL:



The regular rain we're getting is cleaning the muck off, actually quite clean still. Need to fix that.

 
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Glad it sound decent, I don't like doing narration so I always end up rushing it. With just pictures a slideshow with text was going to be too boring.
 
The front back fell off.



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The exhaust was rattling like a bugger (demonstrated in an upcoming video) and I thought it was due to the rubber mount at the back being split. I thought maybe flipping it upside-down would stop the rattling for now, however that's all that supports the back of the exhaust and when I released it from the mount it just fell off! The weld in the centre clearly had no strength any more.

Didn't make a massive amount of difference because it's only a short pipe and has no silencer, I got a cheap Holts repair kit to stick it back together and I have new rubber mounts in stock. I'm sticking with the theory that if it hadn't fallen off then, it would've probably fallen off during the drive home and it could've been a much worse situation...

I'd still like to sort out that leaky rear diff cover one day.
 
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Said upcoming video demonstrating the exhaust rattling like a bugger before ultimately falling off is here! Sorry about the wind noise.


View: https://youtu.be/UbgC8aTllrU
I bought an exhaust sleeve from Amazon, didn't arrive until late last night though so I'll probably save it for next weekend.

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A few weeks have passed and things have occurred. Firstly the exhaust is fixed, I probably should've bought a 60mm sleeve as it was a tight fit, I had to use longer bolts that those provided and the clamps pinched it a bit. With a liberal application of exhaust paste it seems fine and hasn't fallen off again. It's the shiniest bit of the entire car right now.

The rubber hangers for the centre section are completely shagged, which probably caused the wobble and separation in the first place. How I wish I had a lift so I could easily check this kind of thing.

I mentioned in the video that I was buying a roof vent, well I chose the low profile Flettner and fitted that last weekend. This is the only picture I got, which is the view from inside after the top was fitted with sealant. The cut-out is much smaller than on the large vent but it can apparently flow almost as much air. A plastic grille goes over the hole and screws in to hold it all together, also allowing airflow to be turned on and off.



I haven't actually seen the top spin yet, probably because it's surrounded on 3 sides by the roll cage. I'm wondering if I can 3D print a little sail or something that can stick on the top to catch the wind but be removed easily if I need to put something on the roof or if I roll the truck over. I do intend to stick my GoPro to the roof with a magnet while driving to see if the moving air spins it, I'd be surprised if it didn't.

While warming the engine up to cure the exhaust paste I realised that the voltage of my aux. battery wasn't going up and when I looked at the split charge relay it wasn't energising. So it's mostly likely dead then, Dave. It could've been a connection but they're thick battery cables and it's really unlikely that anything would be wrong. I checked the 150A mega fuse which was OK, the connection to the second battery was OK and the ground connection to the starter battery looked OK but there's no way to test it as the connection on the PCB is all potted.

I found that a replacement was £25, from a brand called Heart Horse. Not massively confidence inspiring but the existing one was an off-brand (if it was Durite or similar then I wouldn't have replaced it with a cheap one) and this had an LCD screen along with a manual mode in case the starter battery got drained.

The first thing out of the box didn't inspire any more confidence.



But I tested it and it worked fine, showing a higher voltage on the aux. battery than I have ever seen before. This isn't just the LCD over-reading, the voltmeter inside the truck confirmed it. So I suppose the other one has been underperforming for a while. The fixing holes and connections are the same as the old one (starter battery, aux. battery and ground) but they are upside-down on this new one, which is odd. It actually works to my advantage though as I can see the LCD right way up when looking down from the front.



I can also reach the auto-manual button without blocking the screen. This is in manual mode, which is why the blue light is on, and manually connected which is why the red light is on despite the voltage being below 12.8V. The solar panel doesn't charge the main battery up to a high enough voltage to trigger this relay.

I'm trying to decide what to do about gearing, I've been looking up the gearing charts and my current gearing is just too high for these 33" tyres. I'd really like 35" Nitto Mud Grapplers but that would ruin the gearing even more. One solution is to change the transfer box, which isn't too hard but there isn't an ideal ratio, or change the crown wheels and pinions in the diffs. I don't have the skills or confidence to set up a the pinions correctly so this would have to go to someone else.

It also depends on what I do with the engine. If I swap it for a V8 I could find that the new ratio is no good. I've been looking for 3.5 V8 torque curves but can't find any. What I'd really like to do is Tesla swap it...
 
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Well this took a while. So much so that I had to create a separate folder on my webspace for these photos, as they would otherwise be scattered between three months. They're a bit all over the place for me to tell the story properly.

The plan was to build something like the retractable light Blind_Io and Kiki have on their Jeep, an item that was common on Chryslers in the US but is totally unavailable here. While the lamp itself may be cheap, the shipping of such a thing would be expensive and it seemed a bit daft. I at least had to have a go at building something.

First off then, some kind of retractable cord. Turns out that those aren't particularly common, in fact I could only find one for sale and it's yellow. It's designed as 12V extension cord but will work fine for my purposes, so I got one...



...and immediately dismantled it. Inside there's a reel and some connection gubbins. The reel has a spring inside and the little ratchet at the top engages for about half of every rotation.



The reel is attached by screws top and bottom, which also stop the sprung internal section from unwinding itself. So I could remove the reel, I 3D printed a piece I could use with a couple of screws to lock the reel.



Under the reel there are springy contacts that ride on what look like brass rings on the underside of the reel. Seems decent.



Now to deal with the lamp itself. I immediately went to what I knew and got a Land Rover lamp. This is a NAS spec (90mm) LED reversing lamp from WIPAC, so it should be fine.

I 3D printed a base for it that would also hold two strong neodymium magnets. I thought I'd just press the magnets in and they would be fine, the holes were a bit more slack than I expected though and the first test just left the magnets behind. So I printed a thin base. It takes away a little bit of the magnets strength but it's still good.



The lamp screws onto the top. I probably should've just bought the mount but this didn't cost much in PETG filament.



Back to the reel. Did I mention that it's yellow? I didn't want yellow. I once again tried Rit dye in hot water and once again it failed. I don't have a picture of the result but imagine something that has just been saved from the early stages of a house fire. It's warped and has a sooty black coating that rubs off. So I had to buy a second reel, thankfully they're cheap. This one is staying yellow, for now anyway.

I wanted something like the rotating lever switch on the Jeep lamp, fitting a toggle switch would be easy but it would be way too easy to knock it and leave it on under the bonnet. The only thing I found was this rotating switch, which is a bit cheap but it works and it claims to be waterproof.

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While waiting for parts, I decided where the reel would go in the engine bay. This empty space worked out OK. I was going to mount it on the bonnet like the Jeep has but that would've meant fabricating a bracket. I drilled three holes and added rivnuts to the reel, it was either that or bolt it down with nuts and bolts, then have a hole drilled to screw in the reel from beneath. Maybe the latter would've been better but this works OK. In this picture, the front of the vehicle and main battery is to the right.



When my parts arrived, I wired the switch in with the power input cable where the old output used to be. I ran the cable out of the other side because that's where the battery is. I made a plastic disc to glue over the opening where the 12V socket originally sat.
I also added a fuse holder. I was initially just going to use an in-line blade fuse holder but they only go down to 5A and that's way too high. I already had 1.5A 30mm glass fuses and this cheap holder fits perfectly.



For the sake of easy disassembly, I decided to use a junction block to join the wires. It only takes up a small amount of space and when screwed down it acts as a bit of strain relief. The little bits of foam are above the big magnets, they just stop them rattling around. This all worked so I took it out to the Disco.



Bolted in and with the lamp in its resting position. The bolts come up from below and are button heads, they won't damage the tyres if they touch.



It'll hang on anything steel. As the bonnet is aluminium, I need to make a plate for it to sit on. That'll be easy enough as it's just round and I have a big hole saw. I'll just smear a load of sealant on it to prevent contact with the ally and rivet it to the underside of the bonnet.






Cables are routed vaguely neatly.



Another project done. Next is to remove the rear part of the exhaust again, fit the new rubbers mounts to the centre section and refit the rear with the bigger sleeve I've bought. I knew I should've replaced the rubber mounts first, I wasn't paying attention when fitting the first sleeve and the whole thing is slightly rotated. The hangers don't line up.
 
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That turned out great!
 
I made use of the extra day off work and the good weather last Friday to re-sort the exhaust. When I fitted the first sleeve I wasn't very happy with it and also wanted to change the rubber mounts.

The first set of rubbers I got were correct for a Discovery but apparently not for one this earlier, or at least not matching what I had. So I ordered some earlier Range Rover classic ones. I probably should've known from the online picture but you can never trust them.

As you can see, the old ones were completely shot. Probably what put so much pressure on the weld and the rear mount. Wasn't mentioned in the MOT though. The new but wrong mount is also shown here, the holes are too small and would push the mid pipe too far down.



New rubbers fitted. Wow these were a complete bastard to fit. I used some silicone lube but they still needed a lot of force. Mounts aren't perfect either.


They sit OK though.


Larger 60mm sleeve fits much better than the 55mm one, I can actually use the bolts that came with it. Slightly neater paste job too. It misses the A-frame arm, just.
 
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Haven't actually driven Bob for a few weeks so went out today to a forest about 30 minutes away to take some pictures. that's actually a bit further that I would usually drive it but I knew that the place I needed to part was at the end of an unclassified country road, basically a green lane. Glad I did take Bob as the road turned out to be a lot wetter than I expected.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFvlST8q938
This undid the work I did cleaning it the other week. You can see how dirty it is in this picture.


I tried to wash it off in a local ford but that didn't really help. Who cares though? You can skip to 7:02 in the video to get to the ford crossing.


Bit of a plug for the Late Brake Show merch, it's getting warmer here and the insulated drinks bottle kept my water cold despite it getting quite hot inside the truck. No, I have no idea why the electric heater is falling off. I'd remove it but it's hard wired.


When I got home, I went to turn around as I park backwards (to let any water inside drain downhill towards the front instead of pooling behind the fuel tank) and suddenly found that I had no clutch. I parked up by just starting it in low ratio reverse and then checked the reservoir to see that it was low. From the outside it's impossible to tell it's low, if anything there's a dirty line that makes it look full.

I put in the small amount of fluid I had in the garage (I'm sure I have more, maybe it's somewhere else) and I have a clutch again. The place I pulled into to turn around is more steeply downhill, so I guess the fluid was low enough that it just got away from the cylinder. Whoops. I'll have to bleed and flush the whole system now, shouldn't be too bad.

The drive on main roads once again brought the issue of overgearing into sharp focus though. I really need to get that sorted. 2nd is too high for low speed driving (where 1st would be too low), 4th is too high for town driving and 5th is too high for 60mph. Any incline and I lose speed because the engine just isn't in the power band. Still not sure what the best option is.

I've also considered removing the roll cage lower windscreen bar and the two front wing bars to save some weight, maybe help get a bit of performance back. I don't really want to fully remove the cage but those parts bolt on and don't offer anything for green laning or normal driving.
 
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No, I have no idea why the electric heater is falling off. I'd remove it but it's hard wired.

Ha, funny seeing that, my brother had one in his first car, a 1994 Ford Bronco when the rear defogger wiring failed somewhere.
 
Ha, funny seeing that, my brother had one in his first car, a 1994 Ford Bronco when the rear defogger wiring failed somewhere.
I don't think the rear defogger worked on this rear door even when I bought Keely! That door was made in 1994 so maybe it's something about that year, I keep meaning to look at it but it's never an issue.

Neither the original heater nor this electric one do much more than make noise, I've mentioned before that it's tempting to get the windscreen replaced with a heated one and blank off the factory heater entirely. After replacing the hoses there are currently no leaks so it would probably be wasted effort.
 
The drive on main roads once again brought the issue of overgearing into sharp focus though. I really need to get that sorted. 2nd is too high for low speed driving (where 1st would be too low), 4th is too high for town driving and 5th is too high for 60mph. Any incline and I lose speed because the engine just isn't in the power band. Still not sure what the best option is.
Bigger engine and more turbos of different sizes
 
Bigger engine and more turbos of different sizes
Well that's it, I'd love more power and I don't want to spend £500-£1000 changing the gearing only for it to be completely wrong further down the line. If I wanted to swap in a V8, the gearbox I have won't work as the input shaft is wrong so I'd have to change it anyway. A Td5 diesel can produce up to 300hp and the 5-banger sounds good with a straight through exhaust, just so many known issues with the engine and the electronics that go with it. I've been watching a series on the basic rebuild of a Rover V8 though and the cost for a very minimal rebuild can spiral...

It just keeps pointing back to an EV conversion. The ultimate sleeper Disco.

Anyway, I have news. Turns out I was wrong about me sorting the clutch by topping up the fluid. That was just a coincidence. My dad helped me attempt to bleed it today, initially trying to reverse bleed it and then just trying to bleed normally but we couldn't get a pedal either way. It was only when my dad was pumping the pedal, the fluid was disappearing from the reservoir but I had the bleed valve closed that I realised that the slave cylinder (at least) is shagged.

I didn't trust the master cylinder either as we tried to empty the reservoir by pumping the fluid through and it didn't really do it, I've removed both and I intend to replace them as a pair. At least I know they're both good.

Something is missing.
 
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