Thread: What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

A sad day for me. The D2 has been sold to a guy in WA and it’s now at the transport company. I’m no longer a D2 owner. Sad face.

Just a few clues from my recent FPR change.

My car has done 206KK so I decided to fit a new FPR as I was worried about the flexible hose to the front of the head.
And I should have worried as after I changed it I tested it's flexibility and it snapped like celery.

While you have the manifold off , it is time to replace the contacts in the starter solonoid. It is almost impossible to reach the top nut with the manifold on. I can confirm that a 1/2 inch drive socket will not fit due to a protrusion on the starter housing. I used a 3/8 socket with a jack handle as an extension to loosen it.

While you have the manifold off it is also time to replace the glow plugs. I was alarmed to see a Pom undo the glow plugs with a socket and universal with the manifold on. To me there is a high danger of breaking one off in the head, so I was VERY careful to turn a bit , back a bit and so on. They all came out and had a wide variety of resistance so I replaced them all. The plug tops all fell apart so I used some heat shrink to cover the ends.

When I started the car up , fuel ****ed out everywhere. I was tired by this stage but realized that I had to take the FPR off again to see what was wrong. I couldn't face taking the manifold off again so I undid the bolts with the manifold in situ. What a job. I could find nothing wrong. It was only a day later when I was thinking what the hell! that I realized that the hose to the front of the head came undone very easily. It had never been tightened probably to make the whole setup more compact for shipping.
I also learned that the idea of cutting longer bolts as guides was a good one. I called friend to help with the bottom bolt. One person guided the socket with the bolt held by duct tape and the other then turned the socket.
However at the very end I found that if you lie under the car with your head in just such a position you can actually reach up with 2 fingers ( no thumb mind you) and start the bolt. Further you can actually reach the bolt with a 3/8 socket and 2 x8inch extensions , and be able to turn it while under the car with your head between the chassis and wheel arch with the socket handle in the wheel arch.
Apart from bruised hands and forearms I am now just about recovered.
If I EVER take off the manifold again , I think I will drain the cooling system and remove the fuel cooler completely as it is a PITA to reach the manifold bolts with it in place, and just loosened.

So far so good. Only a couple of OIL drips now.
Oh ! and the loom to the MAF etc goes through the FIRST hole in the manifold , not the second as I had it from last time.
Regards PhilipA

Phillip. Get some new tools, all the jobs you did are far easier with some suitable tools.

Starter is a 20 min job to pull, do contacts and refit from under the front.

Manifold and Glow plugs are easy...

FPR - small tools and guide bolts makes for easy work.


Well done on sorting it all, and good proactive maintenance.

Originally Posted by Tombie

.....

Starter is a 20 min job to pull, do contacts and refit from under the front.

.......

This bit I can confirm!

Bro(D2 TD5) is a bit of a kludge. When something don't fit, use a larger hammer type attitude type of kludge!

His D2 had two anomalous starting issues on a camp trip we did, just refused to start out of the blue.
Showed him to get under car, give it a "tappy tap tap tap" ... and off we were again.

When we got home, he already had a starter rebuild kit bought for fear of it acting up(which of course it did), and he called me to tell me he'd changed it in about an hour(removal and refit).
Explained he 'lucked' getting the difficult top bolt in one go when he refitted.
I know he doesn't have a 3/8th socket set, so could have used his 1/4 drive set to get too it if access doesn't allow a 1/2 drive socket.

Personally never seen it, let alone done it, but from all accounts by others(here) seems to be a difficult one to do.

use old ( or new ) exhaust manifold studs for fpr guide bolt ( 8x1.25x 35 or so mm )

Phillip. Get some new tools, all the jobs you did are far easier with some suitable tools.

Starter is a 20 min job to pull, do contacts and refit from under the front.

Manifold and Glow plugs are easy...

The point I was making is that it is a LOT easier with the manifold off to do the starter and the glow plugs.

I do have a very extensive range of tools with 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch sockets and many extensions.
Some of the most useful are the ratcheting ring spanners , particularly for the FPR with the manifold on..
Maybe my hands are a lot bigger than some.
The Starter motor top nut was very tight and was impossible to move with just a normal length 3/8 socket handle, so it is probably the luck of the draw if you can get it off with the manifold in situ. The 1/2 inch socket was too long to fit on the nut as there is a boss on the starter body.
Regards PhilipA

I take the top nut out from below.

And I know all about larger hands... I struggle for choice getting motorcycle gloves.

Took family for a spin. 350,000k and she's as sweet as a nut (but the MAF is old and needs replacing). Great machine. V8.sings.

Cheers