1992 200tdi Discovery- gradually improving my daily driver

Picked up some shiny things from Paddocks... going to make a start tomorrow!

It's been a good read, sad about the accident damage but you did a good job with fixing it .
Hope the new suspension sorts your wobble.
Looking forward to the next update

Haha cheers. Accident was almost 2 years ago to the day! Looking forward to getting started with the stuff tomorrow- will post updates.

I had no idea of timescale, I read from start to finish in one go lol.
I'm thinking keeping them original is a good idea, I'm getting mine on the road soon and have a winch bumper for it but I may stick with the standard one after a lick of paint.

Right. Made a good start with everything today. Wheels off, jacked up and ready to remove springs...

First annoyance- the spring retaining clamp bolts began to come out fine, but then the bolts sheared! Turned out a previous fixer had welded the nuts to the axle brackets...

Springs came off both sides fine, out came the grinder to get the remains of the nuts and bolts off the brackets.

Here’s the new springs compared to the old ones- weirdly enough new ones are a bit shorter? One is slightly longer for drivers side- found that out thanks to watching video on Britpart site.

New springs went into position OK, used new nuts and bolts to attach brackets to axles. Re-attached shock absorbers after lifting axle up a bit- see earlier in thread for when I fitted these.

Tried to get the upper arm link off the middle of the axle but even when I’d got the split pin out this bolt wasn’t playing ball... the only 30mm socket I have wouldn’t fit properly on the nut so going to find a lower profile/shouldered one.

So made a start on the lower arms- most bolts were easy to remove, but the bracket on the passenger side defeated me for today so going to get that off tomorrow.
Here’s the lower link from the drivers side removed...
And the new chassis mount compared to the removed one...
So going to get the passenger chassis mount off tomorrow and take the arms in somewhere to get the bushes pressed out. Might try and get a 30mm low profile socket so I can do the centre upper link as well. Fun!

I had to buy a 30mm ring spanner for the upper arm ball joint.

The new springs may be shorter but stiffer so will compress less.

Ah right thanks, that makes sense about the springs. Ring spanner might be the way to go- thanks for advice!

K2tnt said:

Ah right thanks, that makes sense about the springs. Ring spanner might be the way to go- thanks for advice!

Click to expand...

You can get a stubby 30 on it mate - my 30s were impact so bought a stubby just for this job. The plus of it is you can get a 5ft scaff pole on it lol

Ace, will get a stubby 30mm on it. How big are the bolts which hold a frame to chassis- are they 24mm?

Didn’t have that much joy today annoyingly! Got the other lower arm bracket off the other side and managed to loosen the upper bolts holding the a-frame to the chassis, but then they got stuck...

Began grinding them out but wore down the last grinding disc- going to continue grinding the crap out of them tomorrow so I can get the A-frame off. Cleaned up and sprayed lower arms before getting bushes changed...

Chassis bolts off now with grinder, just that central ball joint stuck! Ground nut off but the balljoint is well and truly stuck in the axle. Smacked it with a hammer, doesn’t seem to move at all! Going to try getting a bigger fork splitter to get it out...
Got the old lower arm bushes pressed out by a mate with a press so they’re ready to go back on.

Lower arms back on, just need torquing up. Lots of prying needed to get the brackets lined up on the rear axle but got there in the end.


Still need to get the balljoint off the axle for the upper link...

Oh no! Sure there should be something there...

Ah, there it is...

So anyway I totally failed to get the balljoint off, so off came the axle! It’s bloody heavy, especially with the A-frame still attached.
Putting a pair of Stilsons between the axle bracket and balljoint and ****ting it with a mallet was finally enough to get it out!

The remains of the balljoint...

Began cleaning rust off with wire brush on grinder, starting to look better.

Well surprisingly enough the bolts hold the arms to the fulcrum came out very easily, in a rare show of intelligence whoever had worked on it before had slathered them in oil. A frame is now stripped and primed ready for painting. Balljoint and bushes will need pushing out and replacing, going to give the axle a good going over and repaint it before refitting that too, along with replacing brake pipes. Fun!

K2tnt said:

Oh no! Sure there should be something there...
View attachment 235685
Ah, there it is...
View attachment 235686
So anyway I totally failed to get the balljoint off, so off came the axle! It’s bloody heavy, especially with the A-frame still attached.
Putting a pair of Stilsons between the axle bracket and balljoint and ****ting it with a mallet was finally enough to get it out!
View attachment 235687
The remains of the balljoint...
View attachment 235688
Began cleaning rust off with wire brush on grinder, starting to look better.
View attachment 235690
Well surprisingly enough the bolts hold the arms to the fulcrum came out very easily, in a rare show of intelligence whoever had worked on it before had slathered them in oil. A frame is now stripped and primed ready for painting. Balljoint and bushes will need pushing out and replacing, going to give the axle a good going over and repaint it before refitting that too, along with replacing brake pipes. Fun!

Click to expand...

Need a bump stop or two anorl ...

Good point! Think it had shredded them as a weight-saving measure ...

Oh and weirdly enough there were wires going to the back axle with a connector, most of which were cut off! So I’m guessing maybe someone fitted an ABS axle at some point despite not having ABS?! There’s a connector under the boot floor which I had to disconnect before removing axle.

Rear axle cleaned up and painted...

And rear chassis area wire brushed and painted too. Was pleasantly surprised how easy the remains of the bump stops were to get off! New ones bought from Paddocks, along with new flexi brake cable and fulcrum/balljoint.
Looking loads cleaner now!

New brake pipes on the axle, getting bushes pressed into A-frame tomorrow.

Kind of annoyed I can’t get hold of UNF fixings quickly- all the local suppliers only have metric stuff. Any ideas if metric bolts would fit in the A-frame fixings?

Fair play lot of hard graft going on

Haha! Will be tomorrow when axle goes back on- luckily got 16-year-old lad to help!