Disco 1 Fire on top of the gearbox

Disco1BFG said:

Thanks - just looked at them. The brake servo hose looks like it just worn over 25+ years from the picture ....

The HB cable is absolutely kaput - but you knew that - You might struggle to get a new clutch hose IIRC - but it should be possible to have a hydraulics place make one up .....

I notice that your front prop looks the wrong way round - the sliding joint should be at the TB end IIRC - certainly is on our 300's

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I have a new HB cable coming in the mail, so that's sorted. I'm also getting quite a few hits on searching for the clutch hose online. Not original parts, but still. We are talking about the flexible hose and not the piping, right?
It's totally possible the prop's been refitted the wrong way round. Quite few years and owners on this one What kind of symptoms am I likely to run into if it is installed backwards?

Arttu Korppivuori said:

I have a new HB cable coming in the mail, so that's sorted.

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Cool. And some new earth straps ?

Arttu Korppivuori said:

I'm also getting quite a few hits on searching for the clutch hose online. Not original parts, but still.

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Even better Cos i was sure it was NLA ( NoLongerAvailable ).

Arttu Korppivuori said:

We are talking about the flexible hose and not the piping, right?

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Yep - though, IIRC, the flexi is in the middle of two rigid pipes - and it all comes as one "bit".

Arttu Korppivuori said:

It's totally possible the prop's been refitted the wrong way round. Quite few years and owners on this one What kind of symptoms am I likely to run into if it is installed backwards?

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Excess wear on the sliding bits - the splines. The idea is that said splines are up out of the way of all the crud by being at the TB end - which orientation is your rear prop in ? ( of course if it still has the rubber doughnut - it's going to be pretty hard to fit that the wrong way round )

There are a few D1 workshop manuals that you might want to keep for future reference -

https://www.legionlandrover.com/manuales/electrical troubleshooting manual - discovery i.pdf
https://legionlandrover.com/manuales/manual de taller discovery (95).pdf
http://workshopmanual.com/land-rover/discovery

NPG said:

There are a few D1 workshop manuals that you might want to keep for future reference -

https://www.legionlandrover.com/manuales/electrical troubleshooting manual - discovery i.pdf
https://legionlandrover.com/manuales/manual de taller discovery (95).pdf
http://workshopmanual.com/land-rover/discovery

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Cheers! I've been going through the RAVE stuff on my own, but it's all been a bit overwhelming. But I'm learning something new everyday, it's all part of the experience

Disco1BFG said:

Yep - though, IIRC, the flexi is in the middle of two rigid pipes - and it all comes as one "bit".

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I had a gander under the bonnet and I see what you mean. What I'm seeing on sale is a flexi hose with connectors on both ends. However, on my Landy it seems the piping runs directly from the master cylinder to the slave, bypassing the damper altogether (see attached). There is a bit of red rubber sticking out from where the cylinder mates, I'm assuming it's the dust cover(?)

Disco1BFG said:

Excess wear on the sliding bits - the splines. The idea is that said splines are up out of the way of all the crud by being at the TB end - which orientation is your rear prop in ? ( of course if it still has the rubber doughnut - it's going to be pretty hard to fit that the wrong way round )

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Seems both front and rear props are mounted with the sliding joint closer to the diff instead of the TB

Arttu Korppivuori said:

I had a gander under the bonnet and I see what you mean. What I'm seeing on sale is a flexi hose with connectors on both ends. However, on my Landy it seems the piping runs directly from the master cylinder to the slave, bypassing the damper altogether (see attached). There is a bit of red rubber sticking out from where the cylinder mates, I'm assuming it's the dust cover(?)

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So, you have a metal pipe joining the master and slave - which explains why the clutch failed temporarily when the earth issue arose - the pipe became on of your earths.... Perhaps the new flexi just pushes on to the metal pipes - I've seen this on other vehicles ...

I'd try and get the right pipe to connect the master and slave together, and I'd also put the damper back in circuit too - it does make a difference ... and is there for a reason....

I can't tell from the photo what the red bit is ... might be a dust cover as you say, ... might be some red instant gasket type material (?) - be careful if you take the slave out - you might drop the pushrod into the bellhousing ... which is not very helpful!

Arttu Korppivuori said:

Cheers! I've been going through the RAVE stuff on my own, but it's all been a bit overwhelming. But I'm learning something new everyday, it's all part of the experience

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Be reassured by the fact that a D1 is FAR less complicated to work on than a D2!
As for the clutch pipe, there are usually specialist pipe companies who will make one up for you to match the old one if you take it to them.

Arttu Korppivuori said:

Seems both front and rear props are mounted with the sliding joint closer to the diff instead of the TB

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indeed. I'd be sorting that out .... and if still avallable for the 200 series, I reckon I'd be putting the rubber doughnut back in the rear prop too.

You can still get an old fashioned Haynes manual for a D1 and I used that on its own. I only started to need RAVE for my D2

Arttu, as an ex-modern languages teacher can I just comment that your English is ferkin brilliant! Why is it that so many Finns seem to speak such brilliant English?

Stanleysteamer said:

Arttu, as an ex-modern languages teacher can I just comment that your English is ferkin brilliant! Why is it that so many Finns seem to speak such brilliant English?

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Why thank you
This is so far removed from the actual topic, but what the hell Finnish language teaching is pretty heavily inclined towards grammar and vocabulary, so I guess it just gets drilled into people from a fairly young age. Of course we also get plenty of UK and US TV shows which are subtitled, so you get plenty of exposure to spoken English while still reading your native language, so I think the two get meshed in your head in some way. That's at least how I leaned my first English words and sentences bit by bit, from watching The Turtles and Lucky Luke on the telly
Personally speaking, though, I followed up that learning by eventually studying English translation and technical writing at uni, and have since worked on translation and documentation for over 10 years. I should hope I know the language well enough by now I actually even did a short stint in Slough, working for a translation company that mostly handled automotive texts. So the terminology is fairly familiar, but this is the first time I've actually owned a vehicle I have/get to work on.

It is the colloquialisms that you use, things like "smoke billowing out", etc that so impress me!
Slough, what a dump! As an English poet once said "let the bombs fall on Slough" (John Betjeman). Still, you may well have loved it, how can I know!
I speak really good French, having taught it for 34 years, but I wonder if my French is as good as your English.

Well spotted @Stanleysteamer and well done @Arttu Korppivuori. I was wondering that as well and then I thought to myself he must be an Englishman who enjoys the Arctic more than he does the Caribbean. And then you wrote "I had a gander under the bonnet...", which I admit, lost me for a while 'cause I thought some male goose must have made its way to the engine bay and caused that fire. But that sentence was a dead giveaway as you rarely come across a native English speaker using the Olde English form.

From the Old English "gandra" apparently, which I never knew.

Linguistics aside, I finally had the time to check the earth points and replace that HB cable. The original cable had indeed melted near the brake drum. New cable fitted, and the brake works nicely. The earths were also in better condition than I presumed, and I got them nice and clean with some sandpaper and elbow grease.

After all this, though, I'm faced with a brand new issue. After connecting the battery, interior lights come on, headlights work so there's some power, and battery voltage is at 12 sharp, so pretty poor, but still. However, no lights come on the dash when I turn the key and there's not even a click when trying to start.

Sounds like you may have another wire damaged somewhere.
Have a look at the small wire to solenoid. Check connections to starter.(big cables) and fuses/fuse box (not sure of location in yours so could be affected)

In post #25 you show a relay, what’s it for? Because that also was close to a lot of heat.

You have checked your earth connectors but are the leads ok? ( add some more if not sure)

Make sure the battery is fully charged first though

Good luck

J

marjon said:

Sounds like you may have another wire damaged somewhere.
Have a look at the small wire to solenoid. Check connections to starter.(big cables) and fuses/fuse box (not sure of location in yours so could be affected)

In post #25 you show a relay, what’s it for? Because that also was close to a lot of heat.

You have checked your earth connectors but are the leads ok? ( add some more if not sure)

Make sure the battery is fully charged first though

Good luck

J

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Got it figured. Or, well, at least I have power again. Loosened up, wiggled about and re-tightened all larger connections. Won't start with the battery that low, but everything seems to be good otherwise