disco 2 inhibiting ACE pump.

Hi all,
After hearing a vibration/drumming noise whilst driving home Last night I've today checked the ace reservoir to find it empty, and the flexible portion of the rear hose split due to the anti roll bar link arm bush having come apart and worn through the pipe. as a quick fix over the xmas period im hoping to just bypass the ace pump on the fan belt to prevent killing the pump and doing any other damage to the engine. However on all the forums from all over the world there's no definitive yes or no on whether the non-ace belt will fit straight onto an ace enabled disco without any other parts.
Hope this makes sense!
Also, I do have A/C.
Thanks in advance.
Jeremy

I don't THINK so, as the non-ace disco has an idler pulley fitted instead.

But a definitive answer should be along shortly ;-)

Cheers David, hearing so many conflicting things from different sites!

If you ran it long without oil the pump is already dead IMO cos it's self lubricated and cooled by that oil. There is some other problem too with the system cos you should have got a red ACE warning with an empty tank... if you have hopes that the pump is not fried yet and you want to fix this system in the future find the outlet pipe and redirect the flow to the return pipe, fill the reservoir with ATF and it will reirculate there (you'll get loads of advices to bin it... not from me though cos i like the D2 as it was conceived)

AFAIK you can't route a non ACE belt as to not be disturbed by the pump's pulley so if you remove it you must fit the idler instead...then put a nonACE belt...or find a much shorter belt and bypass the ACE pulley going from the aircon pulley directly to the PAS pulley, but for that you have to measure with a piece of twine or something and find a proper lenght belt(from some other car)...if i recall well i read somewhere about that but i'm not sure it works

It's not a bad way that it was conceived, but if only they had used sensible connectors on the block and sensible pipe routing, then it would be fun!

I want to find the guy who tapped the ACE block for conventional hydraulic fittings. I could use that done to mine, the front pipes are held together by enamel paint and underseal....!

Putting badly coated steel pipes into an ally block where all the water/salt gets directed - not a good idea really....
The only way is to do a regular wash off and recoat with old oil/waxoil.If the rest of the pipe is OK,just the last bit going into the block correded then you can join them with 10mm compression fittings.Then you dont have to deal with fitting them all round the houses.

Cheers sierrafery,
I only drove for maybe 20mins after the thudding vibration which I guess was when it dumped all the oil so fingers crossed its okay, re-routing the send/return pipes was going to be my plan if it turned out the shortened aux belt wouldn't do the job so looks like that will be tomorrows job! Anyone any experience doing this?
Cheers for the help.

I am in the same boat. Somewhere around the bracket that holds the pipes just before they change to flexie is leaking at the rear ram. I have fitted an idler pulley and belt and pulled the fuse for now but want to get it working again.
I have heared about getting long flexie pipes made up and thought about replacing the lot in one go as I don't want to chase leak after leak. The pipes for sale on ebay are a rediculous price. Even removing the system would cost as much as replacing just the rear pipes. If I could see exactly where it was leaking I could cut the pipe through and fit a connector.
I have searched hard but can't find anything on the net that helps.

IMO you can improvise and fit something flexible just make sure that the pipe and the end couplings will bear 150 Bar...there are several types of high pressure pipes and connections...you just have to find the proper one