Thoughts and repair advice - Possible Clutch Drag

[ozm29c]

G'day all,
I am asking for thoughts and repair advice from any Landrover Discovery scholars out there as to what I suspect may be a "clutch drag" problem that has raised its ugly head on my Fathers old property runabout 300TDI disco.
Here are the symptoms: With the engine is running, the disco stationary and the clutch pedal is depressed, I am unable to select any gear, only grinding. Select low range and the disco can be literally coerced to move forward by forcing the vehicle into gear. When mobile, the disco wants to “pull” or drive even when the clutch pedal is pushed down to the floor. If the foot or handbrake is applied (clutch pedal down still) the vehicle will forcibly come to a stop (under protest)with the engine really labouring at idle. If the clutch pedal is partially released, the normal take up point can be felt. By releasing either the hand brake or foot brake, the disco will take off again. BTW I have serviced both the clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder and I am satisfied that they are not contributing to the problem. My best guess is that the clutch disc is sticking on the spline. Also the lower bell housing plug is fitted.
Thanks in advance for your best advice to address this problem.
Cheers
John W.

[gazby]

John, have had this problem with my '98 Disco Tdi300, tried all the usual hydraulic solutions to the problem but no such luck. The clutch fork will have either failed at the pivot (fulcrum) ball, or as in my case one leg of the clutch fork had snapped off giving the remaining leg all the push, (of which the stroke is now halved) onto the clutch release thrust bearing.
When removed the old fork as well as being broken at the thrust bearing end had just started to break through at the ball/pivot point, this I'm told is a very common failure, thus modified forks are available.
Although it will not cost a fortune to fix, (new uprated fork was about $65), if you are handy and a fit amature mechanic on the spanners, I'm afraid it can only be cured by taking out the gearbox completely to get into the bell housing area.
On mine many of the bolts/studs that held the bellhousing onto the back of the engine had also broken off or were loose, not sure what that was about but have read of similar occurrences on this forum before.
While my gearbox was out I decided to fit a new pressure plate and clutch (driven) plate, even though the originals (at 170,000 Klm) were still looking ok, just to save the drama of going through the whole gearbox removal again in the short term.
You only drive this one about the paddocks, I drove mine from North Brisbane all the way back to Cairns in the same condition, that's a life changing experience!
Hope this helps, regards.

[ozm29c]

John, have had this problem with my '98 Disco Tdi300, tried all the usual hydraulic solutions to the problem but no such luck. The clutch fork will have either failed at the pivot (fulcrum) ball, or as in my case one leg of the clutch fork had snapped off giving the remaining leg all the push, (of which the stroke is now halved) onto the clutch release thrust bearing.
When removed the old fork as well as being broken at the thrust bearing end had just started to break through at the ball/pivot point, this I'm told is a very common failure, thus modified forks are available.
Although it will not cost a fortune to fix, (new uprated fork was about $65), if you are handy and a fit amature mechanic on the spanners, I'm afraid it can only be cured by taking out the gearbox completely to get into the bell housing area.
On mine many of the bolts/studs that held the bellhousing onto the back of the engine had also broken off or were loose, not sure what that was about but have read of similar occurrences on this forum before.
While my gearbox was out I decided to fit a new pressure plate and clutch (driven) plate, even though the originals (at 170,000 Klm) were still looking ok, just to save the drama of going through the whole gearbox removal again in the short term.
You only drive this one about the paddocks, I drove mine from North Brisbane all the way back to Cairns in the same condition, that's a life changing experience!
Hope this helps, regards.

G'day Gazby,
Thanks for your good feedback. Your informative reply confirmed that mechanical surgery will indeed be the order of the day. Next question, to access the Clutch assembly, what is the recommended repair option; Engine out or gearbox/TC out. Keeping in mind I have an engine gantry and floor jacks but I do not have the special adapter plates necessary to lower and remove the transmission assemblies.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
John W.

[460cixy]

Pull the donk is the easiest way to go un less you need to do anything to the gear box or transfer

[gazby]

John, I had wondered the same thing initially and because I had to do the job totally unaided and within a small garage, I decided on the gearbox and transfer case out option. I fabricated from RHS a small gantry device that sat upon the floor either side of the tranny tunnel with a long screw thread device with a chain and small adapter bracket to bolt onto the top of the gear/TC assembly. A floor jack helped to lift the front of the vehicle to get the height to pull the gearbox out from under the vehicle
So with the centre console and gearshift & T/C lever mechanism removed I unbolted the drive shafts (F&R) the tranny mounts and the remaining bell housing bolts (many were broken off) and using the 16mm screw thread and nut slowly lowered the assembly down until it could be separated from the engine/ clutch spline. Once the spline was fully disengaged my device allowed the gear unit to be lowered to the floor and slid out from under the vehicle.
If I was currently at home in Cooktown I could send you some photos of the simple but really effective device which I made, it gives you precision control of the lift and positioning whilst working and it worked really well for both removal and replacement of the gear unit, which by the way is extremely heavy unfortunately I will not be back there for a week.
I got the idea from when we used a pull-lift (handy Billy, Lever block) slung off a piece of 4x2 spanning between the top of the dashboard and the rear seats of a mates LR County to do a gearbox/transfer removal, doubt a Disco dash would take the weight. You could use an engine crane through a front doorway the same way.
It is relatively easy to determine the lift center and make a two bolt lifting point off the top of the gearbox to the rear and to the right.
Hope this helps.