Thread: Engine and gearbox out in a Disco 1

if you're not going to rip the body work off first....

you have to seperate them to remove them.

the harness is somewhat intertwined pull it all out in one piece however lay it out on the ground as it was in the vehicle and peel away the insulation and it will seperate out easily enough. do the same with the rangie harness and where you need to make splices and joins will become obvious.

i have taken the whole engine, gearbox and transfer case out as one unit on both disco1 and P38, it helps if the angle of the hang can be altered during the lift and if the body can raised and lowered a little. most of the wiring is designed to come out with it, there are block connectors under the center console, fuse box, ecu etc.

Hi Rupert,
Well if you achieved that all I can say is "bloody good on ya", I've taken a few out and I find it by far easier to separate the two. Not having access to a hoist or a pit for me getting the engine gearbox and tranny case in one hit would be near impossible, I've only got a standard size 1 tonne engine hoist and a standard shed height.
I've got one of those tilting devices but I found that the top of the adjustment frame wouldn't allow the engine to go back far enough so I ended up taking the engine out again and putting it back in with a single sling to give me the ability to rock the engine a bit for alignment.
If you've got the gear go for your life, for me the safest way was to split the two and take the engine out the "traditional way" and the gearbox and tranny case out from underneath. Personal experience and opinion of course.

A friend of mine drilled out the spot welds holding in his bonnet latch panel on his '92 RRC so he could remove and refit the whole engine/trans in one go. There are now a bunch of 1/4 bolts similar to an early RRC.

The EFI wiring harness is mostly separate from the main body loom, I would undo it from the engine first (remove plenum top section, 6 off allen bolts) and remove it from the vehicle when you have better access around the engine bay. My friend removed his whole injection harness because of the 300TDi going in instead, and ran the diesel off a slightly modified V8 body loom without hassles.

As for the D1, is it going to scrap? Then you just cut out the latch panel and remove it. If not, then remove as many accessories off the engine as possible, remove the engine mounts entirely, lower the engine as far as it goes, then you get reasonable access to the bellhousing bolts. I did a thread with pics on swapping out a RRC EFI engine a few months ago.

its not that hard myself and nicho pulled his engine/auto/transfer out in one go and was a far better option than trying to separate the lot and all we removed was the bonnet

FYI - as mentioned by others, the whole lot - engine, trannie and TC came out in one hit with no damage to the rest of the vehicle. All done using an engine crane, and a small block and tackle hanging from the roof. Engine and box is now sitting next to the Rangie ready to go.

iv taken out the motor gearbox and transfer with leavers in gearbox out of a discovery, all in one hit and put them stright into a 2 door rangie all come out with no damage and went into 2 door just as easy.
only issue was the lt 77 has the gear leaver for transfer case further forward and top of gearbox is higher so had to cut the floor away in rangie.

While the engine / gearbox / transfer is out of the vehicle, now is the time to split them and replace seals, clutch, etc. It is disheartening to go to all the trouble of an engine / drive train swap only to pull it apart again to fix leaks, etc.