Disco 2 Speed sensor inputs

Hi All


Whilst on holiday recently and relaxing I got to thinking about cars and a bit about girls…. Anyway the car bit I will share with you. The more I drive and enjoy my Disco the more I am certain I want to keep and use it for as long as possible, preferably forever. The chassis is in great shape as are the axles, engine and gearbox. Apart from the auto gearbox which I think I would convert to a manual anyway given the chance all the running gear is pretty much Defender based so should always be as easily replaceable or repairable as the similar Defender. It is also equipped with the simple mechanical injector pump with only a single wire stop solenoid and also has no ABS or air con. In other words the chassis and running gear is in a forever spec.

However whilst the body is still in reasonable condition it is starting to follow the trend of rotting away, and that unless I start pampering it more than a daily driver can be, it cannot be a forever body. To this end I have been considering and researching, for a while now, about fitting a D2 body to my chassis. My searches show that mechanically this seems easily possible with only the rear body mounts possibly needing attention, the rest apparently all align ok. I would swap my non ABS master cylinder and pipe work over and remove all the ABS equipment from the D2 body.

I have considered selling my D1 and upgrading to a D2 but even disregarding the chassis corrosion, mechanically, they seem to be a much higher maintenance vehicle than the D1s. And I much prefer the 300tdi to the TD5 engine.

So I plan to get a D2 body in as basic a spec as possible with no sunroofs and preferably wind up windows. I plan to wire up a D1 instrument panel to operate from all my D1s chassis and engine inputs / outputs, I am confident that I could wire that side of things. However 2 signals that this easy first stage wiring would not re create are the vehicle and engine speed signals that a D2 body would expect from a D2 chassis, so I ask if any of the experts on D2s know of anything that the lack of these signals would screw up? ABS, Traction Control, ACE and air suspension will no longer exist in my scheme and any warning lamps created by these systems will not show on my instrument panel. However will BCM , IDM, Air Bags etc still work correctly, or will theses systems go into a “limp home” mode or fail to operate completely?

I have tried searching for existing threads on this subject without success, you may simply be able to point me in their direction if they exist.

I am looking forward to and appreciate any replies and thoughts you want to share.

David

As long as you replace only the body and disable the ABS, ACE SLS you'll not need those inputs, the D2's airbags have theyr's own ECU and decelerometers no need for engine or road speed signals also if the instrument pack will be a 300Tdi one i dont see any need of them

Many Thanks Sierrafery
Of the few posts about the internet about people who have done this swap the electrics are often stated as being a problem, but I couldn't see a problem by keeping a D1 panel. Perhaps there are if trying to retain the original instrument panel, which I have no plans to do so.
If the plan goes ahead I would assume a Nanocom would be a wise investment as well.

David

Nanocom would be very handy but for those systems which you are planning to get rid of