BennehBoy's D2 adventure

But I'm not gay.

Neither am I....

Least I don't think so.

Nah, can't be, my garage is a mess and I don't give a stuff about clothes.

You sure about that? You are very OCD about your workshop.

If that's OCD about keeping it a shambles, possibly.

Anyhow, back to the question at hand, the rear wheels I think will be turning faster than the front, 3.75 revolutions to 1 axle rev, as opposed to 3.8 to 1 for the front, so I guess it's the front that needs some air out...

34psi rear, 32psi front, not really any difference.

Well, it could be terminal for my body, the rot is worse than I'd feared and is also in other areas....

My mate & I decided to not try a repair with our limited skills and a friend of his who's done a lot of work on D1s is going to have a go/look next w/e.

Pretty sure I shouldn't be able to see through the footwell...

Ahh... That's not bad! What's the worst bit? When my D1 had its first mot under my new ownership the tester went to town with most of an aerosol can of yellow paint as that was easier than writing up all of the corrosion!
Then I had the usual two weeks to work through my comprehensive 'failure pack' and get it ont road...
Surely a man of your talents and obvious perseverance can drive a welderizer!

You done so much on it it would be a shame to bin it now! It's so nice for a disco 2 as well

I've not given up on it yet

Few jobs done...

Did the injector seals again - all annealed this time, 1, 3 & 5 all showed signs of a bad seal, soot on the washers - found some 'tiny' hard lumps on the seats and used a wood 'poker' to scrape them off. No 1 proved to be a right pain so got some scotch brite down it and wow did it come up clean. Now thinking I'll redo the lot and scotch brite them. Anyhow it's idling much better.


Fixed rear drivers side door latch mechanism, it had manage to dislocate itself inside.

Had some welding done... Kev - 07825443502, he's in Castleford.



Started chopping out


Plate seam welded in


From the other side, part way done


Etch primed, seam sealed, red oxide, & undersealed - missed a bit oops!


The complete underside will be undersealed as soon as I've got time to clean up some of the surface rust showing in a few spots. Drivers side sill front mount needs work still - going to have the MOT place sort it.

Also went over to a mates today who has some 'boost bungs', blocked both ends of the induction off and presurised it to 1.5 bar. Found that the mikkalor clamps were leaking boost so binned them and replaced with jubilees. Seems to now get on boost quicker which is grand

Oh, and I changed the R380 oil today, it's been in a year and done 8k miles.

Came out full of golden metal 'motes' swirling about - think this must just be the new baulk rings wearing in, no big chunks came out but the usual filings on the drain plug magnet.

Is this normal James Martin?

was it the first change since rebuild, some is normal ,

Yep first change since rebuild, should I have done a change sooner? hope I've not shortened the bearing life.

Other side got welded up yesterday, the local Indy that did it was gushing about the motor - made me feel quite proud

Sailed through the MOT today, no advisories. MOT was done while I waited and again the tester was gushing about the car

Only down side is that the rear passenger hub decided to start making some noise on way back from the test, I suspected that I may get a failure after pulling the hubs to fit in the new axle. Going to go with a britpart 70 quid job and see how I get on.

Changed the axle and transfer box oils.

Tbox oil was a little golden, probably just normal wear on the cdl brass bushes - but it's been in there for 10k miles.

Front diff oil was fine - but it's only done 500 miles, wanted to change it anyway just to be sure any crap left in the casings was flushed out.

Rear diff oil was a bit mucky, guess I hadn't cleaned the casing as well as I'd thought, anyhow main thing is there were no metal chunks in there. The new super strong drain plug magnets from Nige work a charm though, ultra fine particles that the old magnets would miss picked up no problems.

Set out to do a couple of jobs yesterday...

1) finally sort the bloody injectors - annealed washers, and scotchbrited the bores - verdict is, SORTED!

2) Remove the Allisport exhaust manifold to get a straight edge on it - they've agreed to swap it out as it's warped stating that it will be only the 2nd return in 8 years!

So... got it off... don't think it's sposed to be bent...


Anyhow I refitted it with new gaskets because I need to drive it in the interim, the new gasket is doing ok but I can see the start of sooting already.

Whilst I was on with all this I managed to lean on the reservoir return line spigot on the radiator, and cracked the bastard off faffed about with glue for an age but it wasn't having it.

Popped to the local Screwfix and picked up a 1/4 BSP air line barb - 11mm drill on the rad cover and screwed the fitting in with some PTFE - job jobbed!



It's weeping ever so slightly so will slather some more PTFE on it in a bit.

Few pics from previous days...

Replacement CPS loom:


Hub replacement:

Well true to their word Allisport have just popped a replacement manifold into the post - brilliant service!

So, being an idiot, I decided to re-time the engine in case that was the cause of my poor idling....

Took out the chain tensioner, rocker cover off, rotated to top dead centre and gold links centred (no real need for gold links centred but hey ho), put crank pin in, put the cam pin in, slackened off the 3 cam sprocket bolts and found that I could rotate the cam sprocket counter clockwise a fraction (it should not move and the chain at the RHS should be under tension).

So, thinking I was on a winner I locktighted the bolts back in holding the sprocket in the new position.

I then reinserted the tensioner and screwed it in, it was a bit tight going in.

Then took the pins out and rotated the engine by hand a bit just to be sure. It was very tight - thought nothing of it.

Fired it up, took a bit to start, then sounded like it had a supercharger fitted, whining. OH OH.

Pulled it all apart, only to find that the chain tensioner was locked absolutely solid in the extended position - no idea why it would fail but it has. Perhaps it's been failing for a while and I've been chasing imaginary injector sealing issues. Who knows.

Anyhow new part ordered, 85 quid.

Note to self, don't faff!

New manifold arrived yesterday, fitted it last night. Top service from Andrew @ Allisport.

Picked up the new chain tensioner this morning, turns out my failed one was aftermarket (spits on the floor in disgust!), fitted it first thing then headed off to work on the motorway.

First impressions... wow, so much easier to drive, appears a to have a lot more torque at all revs - whether this is the fact that the manifold isn't leaking or what I'm not sure. Also appears that the erratic hunting whilst idle has gone... we'll see.

Very happy.... no more tinkering!

Decided I'd better get my Ashlocker plumbed in....

First job was to extend the power loom


Then took the wing off so I could drill through to mount the compressor next to the ABS module, painted the drilled holes afterward and sprayed some surface rust with Fertan


This is where the bracket is going, only sacrifice is the window washer jet feed needs relocating


Compressor mounted, the switch loom passes through a gromet next to the ABS/Light loom


Ran the power loom round the back of the bulkhead


Air line installed, the blanking plug in the locker was a right git to remove


Will take a pic of the switch setup tomorrow.

No air leeks, locker works on the button, tested by jacking up one rear wheel, handbrake off, gearbox in neutral, spins freely when unlocked, stops dead when locked.

So had no issues at all since the last work I did on the motor in August, then a week ago lost all brake function on the M62 - brown trouser moment.

Got off at J26 to find that the front axle breather (PTFE pipe) had rubbed through one of the copper brake hoses running to the rear... wtf!

Anyhow, big yellow taxi home, new pipe fitted, breather re-routed and all is well.

Wow bet that shook you up.
better look at my brake pipes, seems that copper pipe gets rid of the chances of corrosion but then adds other possible problems.

Yeah it was mildly distressing

Kunifer seems to be the best option.