Z

Zonda_

New Member
Had an email from the garage doing the conversion today, I'm not clear what they need as I'm not up on my Land Rover stuff, I thought the Discovery gearbox would be ok? Help please!

"tried to get a bit of work done on the defender today, thought i might get the gearbox sorted and mated to the engine ready to go back in, however we cant use the disco gearbox, the remote selector wont swap over as there is an additional housing on the defender box that the disco doesn't have. usually when we are doing these conversions from 2.5 td to 200 tdi the gearbox already in the vehicle fits straight on by removing two studs, yours has a v8 gearbox that has the wrong shaft length to marry up so we have to source a gearbox from a defender. the one you want is called an LT77 and it must be from a defender, not any other landrover.
until we get a box the job stops as theres not a lot i can do until the engine and box is in the vehicle."
 
Disco gearbox has a longer bell housing and input shaft therefore either the gearbox would be too far back or the engine would be too far forward. Hence the need for a defender gearbox. There shouldn't be a problem getting hold of one try ebay.
 
it depends how he is going to do the conversion in mine i used my old lt77 gearbox which has a short bell housing used in 2.5na and td's which meant I could use my existing eng mounts but the engine is 100mm rearward that a factory tdi. This gives you a few problems:

1 the exhaust is tight to the passenger footwell and needs a trick piece of exhaust making or buying.
2 clutch pipes need moving from location on the passenger footwell
3 all plumbing work rad, oil cooler and intercooler are 100mm short as the rad sits in same place as standard rad

If you use a disco gearbox or defender lt77 that is fitted to a tdi from the factory the bell housing is the long type which puts the engine where it should be as the factory ones are gives more room for the exhaust and plumbing up some parts could then be standard parts.

What you need is a 90 or 110 defender long stick gearbox, then you need to decide if you want a long or short bell housing weigh up pros and cons

Def go with the disco transfer box after my conversion my mota flew up to 45/55mph but then the gearing was all wrong so keep the disco lt230 box and fit it!

Jai
 
Mine has just been done.

The mechanic has used the gearbox from the disco along with the disco bellhousing.

Like someone else said this pushes the engine forward about 4". Therefore the engine mounts need moving. However once this is done the engine fits in a treat and there is no issues with the downpipe fitting and all of the pipes for the intercooler and power steering reach without a problem.

Also looking at the finished job. The engine is now far more accessable for future work! and you dont get the gap in front of the fan!
 
HuN73R said:
Mine has just been done.

The mechanic has used the gearbox from the disco along with the disco bellhousing.

Like someone else said this pushes the engine forward about 4". Therefore the engine mounts need moving. However once this is done the engine fits in a treat and there is no issues with the downpipe fitting and all of the pipes for the intercooler and power steering reach without a problem.

Also looking at the finished job. The engine is now far more accessable for future work! and you dont get the gap in front of the fan!
Click to expand...

Using the disco gbox, how do you make the levers fit? Can you bolt bits from the top of the old lt77 box into the disco one?

Is there any way of fitting the TDi onto the existing engine mounts, like putting bellhousings from one gbox onto the other, or summat?

Ta much!
 
boydy1989 said:
Using the disco gbox, how do you make the levers fit? Can you bolt bits from the top of the old lt77 box into the disco one?

Is there any way of fitting the TDi onto the existing engine mounts, like putting bellhousings from one gbox onto the other, or summat?

Ta much!
Click to expand...

You can bolt the disco TDI onto the original mounts. Most are done like this. But you need to **** about with the downpipe and other pipes for the intercooler and powersteering.

You are right about the gearbox from the disco. The leavers are different. But the guy who did mine swaped the "not sure what they are called" from the defender box to the disco box.
 
HuN73R said:
You can bolt the disco TDI onto the original mounts. Most are done like this. But you need to **** about with the downpipe and other pipes for the intercooler and powersteering.

You are right about the gearbox from the disco. The leavers are different. But the guy who did mine swaped the "not sure what they are called" from the defender box to the disco box.
Click to expand...

So the original mounts if used also make the old N/A gearbox line up OK, but just not the pipework... I could deal with the pipework, I don't have power steering, surely its not that complicated to extend the pipes by a bit? Or, does the disco bellhousing just go straight on to the def box? Or, can you use the standard disco levers and make them come up where the centre seat would be, or are they too far back?

Sorry to be a pain, but i've heard so many stories about doing this conversion and why you can't, and they are all different, so i'm kinda trying to gather together them all! Have you got any pictures of yours?
 
boydy1989 said:
So the original mounts if used also make the old N/A gearbox line up OK, but just not the pipework... I could deal with the pipework, I don't have power steering, surely its not that complicated to extend the pipes by a bit? Or, does the disco bellhousing just go straight on to the def box? Or, can you use the standard disco levers and make them come up where the centre seat would be, or are they too far back?

Sorry to be a pain, but i've heard so many stories about doing this conversion and why you can't, and they are all different, so i'm kinda trying to gather together them all! Have you got any pictures of yours?
Click to expand...

No worries. I went through the same hassle myself. I didnt do mine. Ive had a mechanic do it for me. But I will take some photos for you when i get it back tonight.
 
dont use a disco gbox as the levers are all wrong - and, I am lead to believe, are a bugger of a job to change - stick to a defender box with Disco Tbox.

as both Goxes are LT77 - erither bellhousing should fit straight away, except I think a bolt needs to be removed from a defender housing to fit on an 200TDi injun.
 
The Mad Hat Man said:
dont use a disco gbox as the levers are all wrong - and, I am lead to believe, are a bugger of a job to change - stick to a defender box with Disco Tbox.

as both Goxes are LT77 - erither bellhousing should fit straight away, except I think a bolt needs to be removed from a defender housing to fit on an 200TDi injun.
Click to expand...

I dont know exactly what was involved in making the disco gearbox fit the defender. But I do know the mechanic sent it to his mate and it was done in a day.
 
I think that proves my point - if it takes a trained mechanic a day to change the levers over then, unless you have to, dont.

And I spose it depends whether you are paying to have it done - or not.
 
If i was to do this I would do it all myself, but im kinda concerned about buying an old disco that has perhaps been bashed, just to find that things wont fit easily or will be a pain in the arse.
 
Mine is done the same as HuN73Rs. Works a treat. You can use the same rad/intercooler pipes. Even solvs the exhaust downpipe problem, you can just do a cut and shut on the discos down pipe instead of customing a twisty one. Dare i say it also puts the gear stick in a more convinient place too. Also the Disco Tdi is a little more powerfull, which is nice. Landrover should have done it like this as stock. :D
 
woods767 said:
Mine is done the same as HuN73Rs. Works a treat. You can use the same rad/intercooler pipes. Even solvs the exhaust downpipe problem, you can just do a cut and shut on the discos down pipe instead of customing a twisty one. Dare i say it also puts the gear stick in a more convinient place too. Also the Disco Tdi is a little more powerfull, which is nice. Landrover should have done it like this as stock. :D
Click to expand...


Have you got any pictures? :D
 
it is possible to use the disco box in a 90 cos i know a fella in rochdale wots done it , its a bit of a faff i believe . other than that i dont know my arse from my elbow about how he did it so i'll shut me face on the subject ... i dont even know why i posted that cos there aint nothin worth a crap in the post ..... i'll shut the hell up now shall i ??
 
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