Thread: What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Hey also check out the swaybar down links as they knock before they fail - notably the top of the rears. Also sway bar chassis bushes F&R.

Thanks Slunnie, but sway bars have been removed by a previous owner.
I'm going to use my spares to re-instate. I'm not interested in 10/10th offroading, so the loss of articulation won't be a problem for me .. doing a shopping list of all the bushes needed for installing to the D2.
I thought maybe the lack of sway bars may be why the slight uneven ride - floaty feeling it has, but I'm tending more towards the rear springs .. more specifically the driver rear feel like it's more floaty than the pass side.
Fronts feel fine tho.

Originally Posted by simonmelb

.....

On the drivers side, just undo the 10mm nut holding the ace pipe bracket, push aside then the shock tower comes off.

I see yours is TD5 too. Didn't you have to remove the turbo to intercooler pipe and push it towards the engine?
Not a major pain to do, but on mine, tower will not come up and out without at least the pipe section moved away. Then the inner guard section also binds on the ABS pipes too, but not a propblem to move those pipes a smidge outwards and it's free to come.
Problem is when doing it with no help needing to work against the force of the new gas shock from above and then trying to get a nut or two on the tower retaining studs from below.

I had it 'on the ground' in the sense that body wasn't raised, but just had axle lifted just enough to get wheels off for better access to the lower areas.
With hindsight, I should have raised body fully, on stands and axles hanging. Damned gas shocks and their resistance!

Front shocks I always do by raising chassis, dropping spring base off and sliding shock up and in.

Much quicker, even with a 4” lift coil.

Fitted a reversing camera, uncovering 20+ years of dirt buildup behind the trim as I routed the wires. And it wasn't disappointing to discover that in order to get the plastic surround off for the rear external door handle, the locking mechanism needed to be extracted, which has near zero clearance. The only real enraged swearing though was when I screwed the door back together, only to close it and then discover I couldn't open it from either the inside or outside. Despite the initial panic, it turned out only to be mussed up from having the power lead disconnected and the accessories switched on.

Originally Posted by biggin

I work Tuesdays to Fridays but if you need a hand to remove the transmission I’m happy to lend a hand, and tools if needed. Although I’ve never removed a transmission before, it can’t be that hard, surely.

Thanks heaps for the very kind offer.

I've done it before and although it isn't hard it's pretty long winded and pretty heavy.

I have a couple of hulking great grandsons and an equally hulking great step son. Better yet, they all owe me favours and they have jacks and tools We'll probably do it on Wednesday.

When the hose let go I just felt like burning the thing until my wife reminded me that arson was illegal and claiming on the insurance would be fraud which is also illegal...

Originally Posted by Tombie

Front shocks I always do by raising chassis, dropping spring base off and sliding shock up and in.

Much quicker, even with a 4” lift coil.

Yeah, sounds quicker for the passengers side, but driver side was easy peasy to remove the tower. Unclip the expansion tank and then 4 easy nuts to undo and redo.

So, one of the other things I recently found out(whilst doing the shocks) that some people simply have no idea. The travel on the OMEs was sufficient enough that at full extension, the std brake hoses(and rear ABS lines) were under too much stress.
Now with the ever so slightly longer 995/994 combo .. even more so! .. so no off-roading till my newly ordered extended brake lines come.
Front brake lines were also under stress, but the ABS lines had a small amount of leeway remaining.

Also! .. I didn't have enough lift in the trolley jack and timber stacks to safely lift the body high enough to fully flex.... then I realised the std brake lines are not long enough!

Considering the past 6 years of history with this D2(my brothers ex daily) .. I'm amazed the std brake lines haven't snapped clean off actually!

I'm currently searching for longer/higher axle stands too.

Well, FPR removal for fitting the in block gauze filter and lets say it was fun, of sorts. The water hose from the bulk head to the cooler was fused on and once this removed the job was relatively straight forward. The lower bolt was actually not a problem with a long shaft (50- 60 long) on the ratchet, much too tight to get in there with the manifold in place with otherwise I found -the bolt at the top was hard against the shield at the back of the engine and this caused problems fitting the spanner - bit dark down there to see it was against the shield - moved it back and easy peasy.

Only used one locating bolt when refitting it but it certainly helped keeping it against the angle of the block and ensuring the gasket was held in!

Started fitting all the air plumbing and it quickly became apparent that the space was too tight for an over the top intercooler path when the airbox hogged all the area. So went and got the original metal pipe, had to cut this down somewhat and clocked the turbo again and it was easy with the silicon pipes we had to get a good flow from turbo to the intercooler and fits without issue under the airbox and pipes. Even kept the nipple for feed into the turbo.

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Too nice a day to hassle, so a couple of beers after an early finish, yessssss!

Originally Posted by AK83

Yeah, sounds quicker for the passengers side, but driver side was easy peasy to remove the tower. Unclip the expansion tank and then 4 easy nuts to undo and redo.

So, one of the other things I recently found out(whilst doing the shocks) that some people simply have no idea. The travel on the OMEs was sufficient enough that at full extension, the std brake hoses(and rear ABS lines) were under too much stress.
Now with the ever so slightly longer 995/994 combo .. even more so! .. so no off-roading till my newly ordered extended brake lines come.
Front brake lines were also under stress, but the ABS lines had a small amount of leeway remaining.

Also! .. I didn't have enough lift in the trolley jack and timber stacks to safely lift the body high enough to fully flex.... then I realised the std brake lines are not long enough!

Considering the past 6 years of history with this D2(my brothers ex daily) .. I'm amazed the std brake lines haven't snapped clean off actually!

I'm currently searching for longer/higher axle stands too.

Should note when jacking up the axle on the drivers side to get the spring out, even with extended brake lines fitted (+50mm) extended these out to max length, surprised me somewhat as the axle still had more to go. This is of course with ACE which means the roll bar is not inhibiting the travel.

Originally Posted by RRT

Should note when jacking up the axle on the drivers side to get the spring out, even with extended brake lines fitted (+50mm) extended these out to max length, surprised me somewhat as the axle still had more to go. .....

I think it depends on what shocks you have installed, and if they are installed.
Also condition of bushes plays a small role here too.

With shocks removed, you can easily flex the axles more than enough to get quite long travel springs out too ... so yeah brake lines have a max limit.
When I pulled my shocks out of my D1 a few years back to change bushes(totally cactused!) and remove springs to replace one of the tower bases(3 broken studs!) and also change the towers(got a pair of tube types) ... the axle drop wasn't enough on it's own to remove the springs.
Had to use the hydraulic jack to extend the axle just that little bit more, maybe only 10mm or so. But with everything released, it was obvious that at that maximum droop point, the bushes were the limiting factor.
Can't remember if on the D1 the brake lines were stressed, I definitely didn't undo them .. but (so long ago now, just can't remember) I may have removed the the pipes bolted down at the hubs or something to get a bit more extension.

I could do this with the D2, just to correct the previous 'mechanics' rear spring stuffup, but I'll do the brake fluid anyhow .. so new lines and brake flush its going to be ... and still undecided on what springs to get.

Currently thinking just dobinsons direct from them .. or LRA's dobinson combo.