1992 200tdi Discovery- gradually improving my daily driver

Started on the front suspension today. Passenger side spring and shock before I started...

Quite a bit of crustiness around! Undid bottom nut on shock by holding it through spring with pair of Stilsons.
One nut snapped when removing the turret, so they’ll need replacing when refitting. Turret removed, Stilsons needed again to get shock undone from top end too.

Coil spring compressors needed to get the spring off, didn’t want to stretch the brake hose lowering axle to do it without.

Got the spring off this side and started the other side. Bottom nut came off shock with Stilsons again, but I gave up on these two nuts holding turret on- god knows what’s happened here! Might need to carefully grind them off!

Plus I tried to loosen the front radius arm nuts- they’re bloody tight! Heat might help I guess.

Got those knackered nuts on the drivers side suspension turret off, managed to withdraw shock absorber. Spring came off easily using compressors again, both springs and shocks thoroughly buggered!

Cleaned up the area where it all sat with wire brush- going to Hammerite it before it all goes back together like everything else!
Made a start on the lower bolts on the radius arms, these are coming off to be polybushed. They’re insanely tight! Think someone’s put thread lock on them for some reason in the past... Got it this far and the gave up- can’t be doing with this with the other 4! Breaking out the grinder on them tomorrow...

I introduced the lower radius arm bolts to Mr Grinder... this was the result!

Not sure if the blue gank is threadlock or the remains of the nylock inserts! Anyway radius arms are off and painted now, ready for bushes to be pressed out.

Old bushes pressed out. Now we have 2 happy frogs!

Arms back in place, ran out of light hence crap pics. Thanks to Buster’s tours for the walkthroughs on this. Will torque it all up when it’s back on wheels. Springs and shocks next!

Got all the lower arms in place and tightened up roughly, will torque up when back on wheels. Steering rod with new ball joints on too.
Was on a roll so I thought I’d put a spring back in, was quite pleased with myself...

However bonus points if you spot what I forgot to fit before the spring...
Yep- the spring seat thing! Can’t be bothered with it now, so going to take spring off (again) and refit tomorrrow. Getting closer..!

Refitted spring with turret ring this time- looks great! Noticed that the spring and shock seem to be leaning forward slightly, but looking back it did this in the picture before I dismantled it.

Also how tight should the shock retaining nuts be? Made them pretty tight (bushes are noticeably compressed) but can’t put torque wrench on them, used a small spanner on the bolt in the middle but don’t want to round this off.

Just the other side to do now.

Other side done!

Decided to try the “stanced” look when reassembling…

Looks well wikkid innit?!

Anyway all back together, took it for a drive, felt pretty good! Going to have to get tracking checked as it was miles off, but so much less body roll and it no longer transfers every single bump to the steering wheel! Time will tell if the death wobble has truly gone…

K2tnt said:

Going to have to get tracking checked as it was miles off

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it's a fixed dimension, even mentioned in haynes.....

easy to check with a box of inches

Rich.

Yeah that’s true, will have a look.

Took it for a good drive yesterday, got up to 65mph on motorway and was much more stable.

However it STILL has death wobble! Nowhere near as regular as before though, so something must be better.

Next thing is I’m going to re-do panhard rod bushes with the ones from the poly bush kit. I did them last year but as I have new ones it can’t hurt. Then going to do the track rod ends (same story with them- did last year but will do again).

Any other ideas?! Re-check swivels maybe?

K2tnt said:

Any other ideas?! Re-check swivels maybe?

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Can't do any harm and tracking and steering damper - and all the usual suspects

I THINK I might have finally sorted the death wobble…

Re-checked the swivels and removed a shim from both sides. Without removing the entire hub unit, I set preload to about 6kg using a force meter. Now all the jolts & bumps aren’t transmitted up through the steering wheel, and I’ve had it up to 55mph over bumps with no wobble.
Touch wood it might be fixed…

Still need to do track rod ends, also it’s developed a habit of not stopping on the key so I think the stop solenoid is sticking. Oh and there’s a REALLY annoying clonk from the back sometimes…

K2tnt said:

I THINK I might have finally sorted the death wobble…

Re-checked the swivels and removed a shim from both sides. Without removing the entire hub unit, I set preload to about 6kg using a force meter. Now all the jolts & bumps aren’t transmitted up through the steering wheel, and I’ve had it up to 55mph over bumps with no wobble.
Touch wood it might be fixed…

Still need to do track rod ends, also it’s developed a habit of not stopping on the key so I think the stop solenoid is sticking. Oh and there’s a REALLY annoying clonk from the back sometimes…

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Clonk from the back, speshully on take up of drive will prolly be from the A frame ...

K2tnt said:

it’s developed a habit of not stopping on the key so I think the stop solenoid is sticking.

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had similar on my MUT, thought it was the solenoid but when I removed it I saw metal fragments on the solenoids plungers rubber end
eventually traced to previous owners replacing the fuel-sender/pickup on the tank & not tightening the unions so the pump drew air COMBINED with their removal of the sedimenter AND joining the plastic pipe with loose-fitting copper pipe so another bodge in the fuel system.
Remedied with new fuel pipework from tank to engine & replacement injection-pump due to damage from frothy fuel/air
Also took the opertunity to fit a Facet electric fuel lift pump so a good result

K2tnt said:

there’s a REALLY annoying clonk from the back sometimes…

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standard RR/LR/D1 noise....

Dippypud said:

Clonk from the back, speshully on take up of drive will prolly be from the A frame ...

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^^This

Rich.

When I had a clonk from the back, along with some vibration while declaration, it turned out to be the diff. May be worth a look?

Give the back end a push from side to side if you hear a clonk its the A frame.

My 91" had it bad.....

Thanks for replies.

Done A-frame bushes and everything when I did suspension rebuild- it’s all new back there (see earlier in thread). Sounds more like something on door or bumper, I probably need to get someone to drive around with me in the back and listen around.

Good news- fixed the clonking! Sat in the back whilst my Dad drove over some bumps, turns out it was the back door moving in the frame. Adjusted the door striker and that stopped it- result!

Bad news- like an eejit I accidentally put £5 of petrol in it on way home! Realised what I’d done then filled tank with diesel (£70), ran fine on way home? Reckon it should be fine with that but will probably keep topping it up for a bit and change fuel filter maybe too.

It'll be fine - My '89 Volvo manual advises using up to 15% petrol in winter if winter diesel was not available. That car has a Bosch VE fuel pump the same as your landy.

Rich

K2tnt said:

I accidentally put £5 of petrol in it on way home! Realised what I’d done then filled tank with diesel (£70), ran fine on way home?

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injector cleaner

RAW111111 said:

It'll be fine - My '89 Volvo manual advises using up to 15% petrol in winter if winter diesel was not available. That car has a Bosch VE fuel pump the same as your landy.

Rich

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a few gallons of petrol in lorry fuel tanks used to be a regular 'tune-up' in the past, not something I'd use with modern common-rail diesels but fine for the older 'VE' pump engines like the 200tdi (maybe less than a gallon in a tank though)

Rich.