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Cliff's Disco 2 thread

Cliff4WD

Moderator
Staff member
Annoyingly, I've been diverted from my Stage 1 restoration to attend to my Discovery 2. I've been documenting the various things I've had to do to keep my disco on the road in a thread I created on the D2BC.co.uk forum I frequent. I'll not duplicate it here but if you're interested at all, it's: http://www.thed2boysclub.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58130#p710754

I updated it today with the start of repairs and maintenance that I have to do to get it back on the road having been forced to SORN it this year while my house was being repaired :eek:
 
Been busy getting the steering knuckle ball joints sorted. Here's extract from my D2 thread:

At the risk of teaching granny to suck eggs, I'll continue to document the ball joint replacement process. Hopefully it will be of help to somebody. I want to write it up for my own record.
I first have to say that if like me you suffer from any kind of debilitating health issue, be aware that this job will test you. I'm in all sorts of pain already from this!
My first job was to unbolt the drop links from the axle mounts. I want to take the entire torsion bar assembly off of the vehicle so that I can refurbish it, fit new drop links, new mounting bushes, and a new dust cover on the ACE ram. Rather predictably, after struggling to undo the nuts on the drop links (I managed to get so far while using a spanner in the lipped mounting bracket while holding the drop link threaded taper with a torx bit), I resorted to cutting the nuts off with my angle grinder and cutting disc. The 2 bolts securing the torsion bar brackets came off without a problem, and the entire assembly was dropped to the floor.

IMG-20220317-122141.jpg
cool betta tanks

This should be a fairly quick and straightforward job but somehow, it took several hours.

Next up is to remove the brake caliper, rotor disc, and back plate...

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I wasted a lot of time on this trying to work out how I managed to remove the 2 caliper bolts with a 12 point 13mm socket. It was a while ago that I had the front caliper off and hadn't remembered that the the front bolts are 19mm and it's the rears that have the 13mm bolts. Doh! I thought I was going mad! I found the old cheap 12 point socket set I had stashed away in my garage and retrieved the 19mm socket. With a suitable extension and my breaker bar, the bolts were quickly undone.
I should point out that I spend time wire brushing the nuts and bolt threads getting them as clean as I can and then soaking with penetrating oil. This usually works well enough to enable cracking them off and getting them free.

...then it's remove the hub compete with the drive shaft

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Getting closer now to the main act. The steering link and tie rod ball joints were both undone and the tapers freed. I find that the taper is easily dealt with by using the 2 hammer method to break the taper; hold a lump hammer against the yoke and give it a good clout the opposite side with a hammer. So far this has worked for me every time so I don't have one of those ball joint taper release tools in my kit.

I reached the stage where I had the steering knuckle free ready to release from the two ball joints.

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I found that I was able to break the top taper with the hammer trick but the bottom one was not having it, also, it's not really accessible. I used a fork to hammer and wedge apart. It took a while hammering away, but eventually the knuckle came free.

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So now it was the moment of truth, am I going to be able to get those two joints out?

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I had invested in a removal tool (I went for the Kennedy HD job)

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Positioning the clamp in place utilizing the appropriate receiver tube is fiddly but it's important to get this set up directly in line, get it cockeyed and you'll be in trouble.

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It takes a considerable force to push the joint out and I had several goes using a 1m breaker bar. I also applied heat to the yoke with a blow torch to try and expand the yoke and thus the joint housing. Eventually, it moved and then pushed out.

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Now for the bottom joint. Before attempting to push it out, I first gave it a good clean with the wire brush and applied penetrating fluid again. I don't think there was much, if any, penetrating mind.

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The bottom joint proved to be quite a struggle, it put up an epic fight resisting movement until I realised I'd managed to position the receiver tube on the joint lip, doh again!
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Once I repositioned it came out.

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That's it for this instalment, I have a lot of work to do to clean up the axle case, etc., there's also the welding to do, and then there's the other side to do.
Oh, and seems I've managed to bend the thread on the C clamp tool B%$#@*&s!!!
 
I had real trouble trying to get the top joint back in. Read that it helps putting the Joints in the freezer overnight.
Eagerly awaiting the next episode :)
Griff
 
I had real trouble trying to get the top joint back in. Read that it helps putting the Joints in the freezer overnight.
Eagerly awaiting the next episode :)
Griff
Next episode? I wasn't planning on duplicating the Disco thread in full here, the link to the thread is posted above or in my signature. I could copy here too if there's interest, but only if people here actually want it.
 
Well here's today's instalment.

After a weekend recovering, back at it today. I started off by giving the axle yoke casting a good wire brushing

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I then thought I'd best have a closer look at the rot in the foot-well, wheel arch, and bulkhead/firewall.

OMG!

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This is serious and maybe terminal! Just goes to show what can be hiding behind all that undersealing. I guess I'd best discover the full extent of this, so removed the sound insulation from inside the engine compartment, and removed the arch liner.

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It doesn't look any better...

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...around the body mounting point too...

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...down by the mudguard mounting...

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(It wasn't like this when I made and fitted those mudguard brackets)

...and the bulkhead where the inner wing joins and the loom passes through is shot.

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Nothing for it then, I had to get the front seat out and remove the carpet, glovebox, etc., and get a better look and access.

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The rot is extensive and rather typically for Land Rover, is rotting from the inside out. The foot-well has a strengthening panel spot welded to inside surface covered with sound deadening. Water ingress and condensation in the cavities between these layers has eaten away at it. Also, the known issue with water working its way down into the engine compartment, sitting in the valley between the inner arch and the firewall, hidden under the sound deadening, has eaten away unseen. All those of you with wet carpet in your foot-wells take note, and have a good look at what is going on as you may get a shock!

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Really bad

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Well I don't mind admitting that I'm seriously wondering if it's time to give up on the poor old thing. However, the emotional bond is strong having come this far together, so I took a deep breath and made the first cuts

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This is going to take a lot of work and is going to be dead awkward to access. I think I have a plan, but we'll see. Nothing ventured... as they say.

I left it there for today. More next time.
 
Today's progress:

There's a whole nest of wiring right behind the passenger footwell that needs to be shifted from harms way in readiness for welding, 3 ECUs too that are vulnerable.
I also need to get enough room as I can so that I can get right in there and get shot of all the rot and then with the welding torch.

If only it was as simple as written up in RAVE and now here. :lol1: Suffice to say, a long and protracted struggle was eased by pulling the dash panel forward an inch or two and removing the ECUs...

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... before there was enough wriggle room to get the heater blower assembly out

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It actually took a bit of contorting and swearing to get all the connectors unplugged and the various nuts and bolts out, but that's kind of par for the course with vehicle repairs.

Having cleared the space, I now have a large bunch of wires to move aside...

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...which I literally tied up out the way (well as far as the limited slack in the loom will allow)

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It was now time to trim up and get rid of the rot and get to sound metal

Not finished yet, but much cleaner

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I'd managed to eat up 5 hours just to get here and had enough of it for today, so packed up and went for a nice warm shower.

Next step will be to make a template and fabricate the replacement panel.
 
Woke up this morning and my left eye is swollen a bit and everything is blurred, I can't see anything clearly. I'm struggling to read this as I type it. 👓
So much for safety glasses, still managed to get sh*t in my eye!
 
2 days off wandering around half blind unable to get on, but today after some antibiotic eye drops I was able to resume work. I decided to make a template for the footwell panel first. I started off with a sheet of paper as it's a lot easier to manipulate into the awkward and confined space.

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This gave me the basic shape and allowed for the twists and bends in the surface. I then transferred the paper template to a sheet of card (Cornflake packets work a treat and I have a stash).

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The basic cardboard template ...

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... is then fitted back in the footwell and adjusted to fit

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With the template more or less the shape and size required it's laid out on a sheet of steel. I'm using 2mm for this which I'll add stiffening to later on.

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With the outline marked out...

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... cut it out

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Now it's start bending and shaping it to the required contours ...

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... and fettle away

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It actually took quite a bit of adjusting before it made a reasonable fit

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That's it for today. I need to finish cutting and cleaning the hole the panel is going to go into before the welding starts, so do that next time.

TTFN
 
The plot thickens. Having made the replacement piece to fit neatly around the body mount bracket, it soon became apparent that all might not be so good below the surface of the metal covering the bracket. Nothing for it other than to move to plan C and sort this properly (plan A was the ball joints, plan B was patch the visible rot). In an ideal world I'd have the body off to do these repairs but I live in my world so ...

I thought it might help to get a bit of extra access and light, so decided to remove the blanking panel the covers the hole for LHD vehicle, just a few 'tight' bolts to undo

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I really didn't like the look of the body mount. Looking down from above it's coated in mud and visible surface rust. I should have given everything a good pressure wash before I started work, unfortunately I didn't and now I don't want to flood my work area, so lesson learned, don't be lazy about cleaning.

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I decided I'd best cut the strengthening layer away and see what's underneath, there's obviously rot as a few flakes fell out when I was trimming. I drilled out the spot welds to release it before cutting ...

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... and then started to cut ...

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... and prised the section out of the way. Low and behold, a right bloomin mess

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I'll have to do a bit more cutting I guess and replace more than I thought. I'll need to check the mounting bracket itself too. Ah well!
 
Who would have thought it would start snowing! I had to stop work and wait for less inclement weather. I managed a couple of hours this afternoon. Didn't achieve much (it takes an age drilling out spot welds, etc.) but I did get the ribbed strengthening panel off.

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It's pretty clear that water has been getting in through the perforation where the inner valance/wheel arch attaches to the bulkhead/firewall. It then runs down between the two sheets of steel and feeds the rot, eventually finding its way out via perforation at the bottom behind the body to chassis mount bracket.

The witness trail is evident on the back side of the strengthener ...

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... and the now exposed bulkhead/footwell panel.

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As I said, not much to report today but hopefully this makes it clearer what's probably going on with most D2's. IMO, there's a fundamental design flaw in the way rain water is directed down from the screen and into the gutters either side of the engine bay/bonnet. It wouldn't be a problem if the water complied with the designers wishes instead of finding its way into the scuttle and down into that valley between inner vallance assy and bulkhead. Anybody with wet carpet in the footwells would be well advised to attend to this weakness rather than believing it's all due to sunroof drains or AC drains, etc.

Next task will be to decide how much metal to remove and replace, etc.
 
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