2001 Discovery - short range expo build

[Mr. Pickles]

I'm taking all of 99Discovery's advice on the t-stat, drive shaft, and ScanGauge. Cost may be prohibitive for adding the CDL. At this point, I just want to get into 4 low! It hasn't gotten much above 15 degrees F. here and my driveway is ice-locked so I haven't crawled underneath yet. I did buy some PB Blaster though, lol! The t-stat has been ordered and I'm going to attempt to install it myself. I have an invoice for a reman. front drive shaft with greasable u-joints from ToddCo suspensions, but I'm going to wait to see if mine has been rebuilt already. I've been looking for best prices on a ScanGauge in the meantime.

Where can I find the grease points on the center ball? I think I can find them on the U-Joints.

 

[brushogger]

Stock drive shafts have no grease zerks. Taking care of this is a must! Many Discos have never been shifted into low range and end up with the linkage stuck. Keep at it with the PB and keep working it. Discoweb is your best source of info on these vehicles. I can vouch for Will Tillery and Drillbit over there. Both sell good new and used parts, have lots of knowledge and great service. They can get you a factory linkage for the CDL too. Dweb also has several DIY's to enable the CDL. On the O2 sensors, keep at them with the PB. Before trying to loosen them, run it on the road and get it good and warm. Also check the throttle body heater as it can develop a slow leak that you won't notice. The leak will run across the top of the engine and slowly drip on the passenger side O2 sensor plug and cause it to throw codes. It's about a $30 fix to replace the TB heater. Takes about an hour to lap it in and do it right. Spray out the O2 sensor connector with Electronic connector cleaner and put plenty of No-Oxide grease in it.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

I'm a mechanical newbie, but I'm trying my best to read up and look at digrams/manuals. So, is it the U-Joints that fry from not being greasable and getting cooked? Or is it the shaft itself? Or both? The reman. I'm looking at has u-joints with the grease zerks, but I'm not sure about the ball and splindle.

http://store.toddcosuspensions.com/larodiiifrdr.html

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I'm a mechanical newbie, but I'm trying my best to read up and look at digrams/manuals. So, is it the U-Joints that fry from not being greasable and getting cooked? Or is it the shaft itself? Or both? The reman. I'm looking at has u-joints with the grease zerks, but I'm not sure about the ball and splindle.

http://store.toddcosuspensions.com/larodiiifrdr.html

Its the grease inside the U-joints that gets cooked off. The bearings dry out, wear down the joint, it snaps, and you're out the cost of a transmission.

The reman greaseable units allow you to replenish dried up grease. That one looks right, although I would advise against going through ToddCo. I've had bad experiences with him. I'd go through Lucky8, their service is absolutely awesome.

Oh, and the best thing you can do to keep your Disco reliable? Never, under any circumstances, check out other rigs and be enticed by them. Never. Land Rovers get jealous and start malfunctioning out of spite. You may laugh, but it's true. My old Disco was notorious for it.

 

[brushogger]

Its the grease inside the U-joints that gets cooked off. The bearings dry out, wear down the joint, it snaps, and you're out the cost of a transmission.

The reman greaseable units allow you to replenish dried up grease. That one looks right, although I would advise against going through ToddCo. I've had bad experiences with him. I'd go through Lucky8, their service is absolutely awesome.

Oh, and the best thing you can do to keep your Disco reliable? Never, under any circumstances, check out other rigs and be enticed by them. Never. Land Rovers get jealous and start malfunctioning out of spite. You may laugh, but it's true. My old Disco was notorious for it.

X2 on Lucky 8! Justin is awesome, very knowledgeable, and willing to share it. He's one of few with big enough cojones to risk building up a P-38!

 

[Mr. Pickles]

I have Lucky8s info bookmarked on my future upgrades wishlist. For the record, Todd was prompt to respond and he answered a few of my noobish questions.

 

[Madlands]

For the record, Todd was prompt to respond and he answered a few of my noobish questions.

Todd as in ToddCo? What in the world is the secret to getting him to answer a phone, email, or anything? I have ordered a couple things from there, but both times I felt like I had been shorted. Called everyday for 2 weeks and sent 3 emails and never got a reply. I assumed they were out of business.

 

[jrose609]

Todd as in ToddCo? What in the world is the secret to getting him to answer a phone, email, or anything? I have ordered a couple things from there, but both times I felt like I had been shorted. Called everyday for 2 weeks and sent 3 emails and never got a reply. I assumed they were out of business.

How long ago was this? Todd has always been great. He had a family issue a while back and that messed up a lot of communication and fabricating for a while.

 

[Madlands]

My last purchase was in June and I'm not sure of the one before that, just that it was at least 3 months prior. As a small business owner myself I can relate to life throwing you unexpected challenges that make running your business difficult. And I'm unaware of what he was going through, I hope nothing too terrible. I was just disappointed in the lack of communication after I had spent my money. He may very well be a great guy and I hope my wording wasn't taken as a personal attack on him. I didn't know til now it was just one guy. I was just speaking from previous experience after a couple business transactions.

It's good to see that he is still in business though and has happy customers. There aren't a whole lot of Land Rover parts dealers out there and it's always a shame when one of them doesn't make it.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Did the following this week:

Upstream O2 sensors replaced

Front driveshaft rebuilt with greasable u-joints

180 degrees t-stat installed

Solenoid removed and transfer case is shifting smoothly now

Cleaned out the clogged blower motor (leaves)

New Issues:
getting the waterfall sound from the passenger side footwell- had trouble bleeding the coolant system after a flush - any ideas?

the warning ding comes on the entire time I'm in 4 low - is this normal?

Replacing the headliner got sidetracked while working on all the above

 

[brushogger]

If you can elevate the front a bit (ramps, etc.) it will burp easier. Not sure about the ding. My 04 didn't do it. Try connecting the "solenoid" with it off to the side so any ECU's or BCU's see it. Sounds like you're on the right track man.

 

[trialrun]

welcome to the forums! Not sure a disco will solve a midlife funk, but it'll definitely keep you on your toes and keep your mind sharp because it's always something new to figure out / fix.

 

[bigreen505]

Since you seem to have the maintenance working, let me jump ahead to the fun bits. Roof tents are the greatest things ever when you are in camp and sleeping in them. However, they significantly affect the handling on a D2 in any technical terrain, and the extra height of the D2 makes packing up a safari-style tent a real pain. The handling difference is not subtle. It isn't so much that it makes the vehicle extra top heavy (it does) but more that it unbalances the vehicle front to back. Regardless of your experience with roof tents on other vehicles, on a D2 the changes are significant.