Think I've got double trouble (200tdi Disco1)

Hello all, think I'm needing therapy

last September I bought a '94 200tdi Discovery (one of the last 200 series) as mot'd but needing work and with it was the remains of another donor 200 D1 (gear/transfer boxes / f&r props, turbo / head / inj pump,doors & other bits) that I started enjoying as a daily driver until the mot expired...
I was aware of tinworm so ordered a pair of Froggatts inner-wings - the basic version without headlight boxes or mounts & started the surgery..... in early November
passenger inner-wing fitted & finished in a weekend including repairs to the bulkhead & 'A' panel
started the drivers side on 22nd November with mass cutting & swearing as was rougher
then work pushed in & weather was an issue along with many 'Buggerit' comments so that side was completed mid June Not fair is it?

cut forward a little & I was afflicted with that horrible ailment, Drunk in charge of Ebay so a few messages then a cheeky bid & bed, wake & head to work thinking about the possible outcome?
breakfast time in work & I get a notification on my iphone that the auction was ending soon, no other bids! then auction won
then the realisation thet I live in South Wales & the Disco was in Stamford - sorta 250 miles away
okey, deep breaths & joyous thoughts as after all I had bought at worst a spares wreck with mot & at best anything better

All because my partner constantly moans that we don't have anything to tow her horse box as I'm too lazy to finish the disco

anyway, fast forward 2 weeks as I couldn't collect immediately, loads of traffic on way up (who said Sunday traffic near Birmingham was not enjoyable?) & several fresh accidents including a German Chelsea tractor stopped in the fast lane! we arrived, paid then got brave & set off on the way home.....

after 60 miles we stopped at motorway services near Coventry, I had added 20l diesel from a gerrycan before we left as a 'starter' but the gauge showed it was gone! 60 miles on 20l? 15 miles to 5l....
luckily I had brought new fuel & air filters with me so services servicing & a nibble from buggerking then back on the road. now we had a bit more power and as it happened a slower moving fuel-guage
the rest of the journey was somewhat un-eventfull if not a bit slow as I stayed around 60mph in the unknown Discovery (with my partner Alex following in her '04 foucs)

several known jobs were :-
1. gearchange centralising plate had broken (common on lt77 boxes)
2. exhaust downpipe was snapped & sorta bodge repaired so a dig in the garden for a spare (changed whole system as I had one matching the downpipe)
3. go through all of car (having already printed the mot history I knew that advisories were for shox & springs being rusty - I have yellow Bilstein b6 shox here so just need hd standard hight springs)
4. decide where transfer box is leaking from & decide if the gearbox / transfer splines are usable or doomed
otherwise just enjoy driving it

turns out I had bought a 3 door '92 Discovery 200tdi with 7 seats, no sunroofs, original 'Discovery' radio/cassette player, steel 5 spoke spare with plastic centre cover & vinyl tyre cover, clean interior with no droopy headlining (this only happens on sunroof models?) that is on 140,000 miles with aprox 1,000 miles each year between mot's,

anyway, photos coming hopefully

Rich.

Struggling to add photos from my phone, will keep at it...

Good to hear you've bagged a 3 door. I always find them more attractive somehow, but there aren't many left by the looks of things.

Brown said:

Good to hear you've bagged a 3 door. I always find them more attractive somehow, but there aren't many left by the looks of things.

Click to expand...

Ha! got 2.....





L625 is the one in surgery & J609 is sorta roadworthy & another work-in-progress

so far L625 has had its headgasket changed (its a 200tdi so I was waiting for it to blow when bought, luckily I had a spare head ready to play ) and both front innerwings replaced with bulkhead & 'a' panel repairs. next on the list is sills then I'll look at the rear crossmember (needs 1 body mount so maybe a full crossmember?) & bootfloor area....
also the clutch pedal is low so I'm going to drop the box & change the clutch fork, also clutch as I'm in there (I have re-built a gearbox (Lt77) and transfer box to use but will probably fit these in J609 & re-build what comes out as a cycle

J609 being mot'd will be the tow-car so I'm going to pre-empt any gearbox / clutch issues by replacing this week (weeks holiday), today I investigated the lack of performance & discovered a siezed wastegate, prior to this I had removed the inlet manifold & drilled 12mm as tapping 1/4" bsp for a leftover of rallying escorts - an RS200 oil-pressure guage pipe cylinder-block fitting & 90' pipe-end for the boost-gage's 'take-off' & noticed a 'strained' 12psi max under full load uphill 3,000rpm+, since freeing the wastegate I was seeing 4-6psi but drove better..... maybe my spare turbo will come out to play?
the ip has been looked at with the boost-pin being turned slightly along with it's stop-spacer being removed and the 'max-fuel' screw being turned in 1/4 turn. now performance matches L625 but with some off-boost smoke-screen, turbo change tomorow

there will be pleanty more in the 3-door saga

Rich.

De-greaser & Jet-wash fun today on J609's engine & under-bonnet area to try & decide how bad the oil-leaks are, also jacked up & given a good blasting around the gearbox / transfer box as they were covered in oil from a suspected front prop output bearing failing & eating the oil-seal - tomorrow I'm dropping them out to replace with re-built ones & replace the clutch / @*$%arding fork as pre-empting the failure....

needless to say I got wet & covered in used Discovery crap

bought a couple of wading-plugs today to make a timing-checking tool for the bell-housing / flywheel, then remembered a story about using a reversing light switch from an R380 gearbox?? oh well, more fun making stuff anyway

Didn't change the turbo either as I'm not convinced on the pressure (go faster BOOST ) gauge that I'm using to check with, will try an industrial & calibrated gauge that I have stashed somewhere in the shed-of-dread

more fun tomorrow

Rich.

J609 now has a re-built gearbox & transfer box, clutch (britpart) that seems to drag a little but I might replace the clutch slave cylinder to isolate that as a possible...
& now no oil leaks (maybe I forgot to fill with oil?? ), boxes changed Tuesday with mount, exhaust & props fitted in horrible rain on Wednesday sorta took all day as I had no interest in getting wet
much nicer to drive now without the classic lt77 main-shaft spline clunk on taking up drive

collected some 'junk' today - 2 starter-motors, a 300 type alternator, a 300 type turbo & manifold, a 200 type injection pump and a defender rad / inter-cooler & surround but going back tomorrow for the engine, is a defender unit with high-mount turbo & drop/angled injector-pump mount timing cover apparently had re-build with a new rod & piston as had sucked a bit of water
will go with the lt77 & 1.2 transfer box / props, disco 200 type turbo & other odds in the shed-of-dread for when I next break something

on the plus side, I now know I can fit my 9'6" surfboard in the Disco if i recline the passenger front seat so it had its first trip to a beach last night, lovely sunset surf at Rhossili at the end of the Gower

Rich.

My shedly old donor disco 1 300tdi is a 3 door

Let me know if you need any bits. I just want the engine, boxes and a few other bits. The interior is a bit crappy though. There is bar on it too.