Saturday and Sunday were hectic....again.
The previous evening I managed to finsh the front hubs off with a pair of new swivel seals and vaseline impregnated leather gaiters. The hub assy's were then fitted first thing Saturday so the 109 chassis was then rollable and could be moved around later in the weekend.
Saturday I tackled dropping the gearbox out and lopping the remaining engine attachments. The exhaust looked quite new and was pulled for a possible later parts source. Props all looked good and were put to one side for scrap or sale.
To get the final top 10mm nuts off the top of the bellhousing I removed the gearbox x-mem then lowered the complete gearbox assembly onto a hydraulic jack. I could then get access. This seemed the easiest method and allowed the gearbox to be dropped onto the gravel and dragged out with a towing strop.
I eventually managed to make it indoors at 2230!
Sunday started at 1000 with the arrival of my father, Richard ('Rogue Trooper') and Stu ('Twizzle'). Richard was excited by the thought of an almost bottomless box of 1mm chop disks and a Disco front end to 'open up'.
The amusing spectical after pulling the engine was for the 4 of us plus a neighbour attempting to 'shuffle' the rolling Disco shell around the inclined parking area swapping position with the rollable 109 chassis. Lacking brakes we had to use wooden blocks chocking the wheels for every meter of movement downhill to stop it colliding with us/neighbours garages/cars/pedestrians......! After a bit of excercise we managed to get both where we wanted them! I didn't want a recurrence of last weeks 'garage door' incident :)
Engine ready to 'drop in'
After about 2 hours wobbling and fettlin' the engine was in. We used the original 2.25 petrol engine mounts with new Series petrol rubber mounts. It took a bit of fiddling on the RH chassis mount to get everything to line up. The original mounting hole had to be slotted by 1/2".
We popped the Discovery 200tdi turbo assembly on just to see where it 'landed' in relation to the chassis rail. As Glen Anderson had quite rightly said to me before.....it does make contact with the LH rail. But Twizzle's install saw it missing with about 3/4" of air between the two. The difference there was 2.5N/A rubbers, Perkins chassis mounts and a non-1 tonne chassis.
The engine position still needs a bit of a fine tune as it sits a few degrees to one side. But the gearbox is still to be installed and there is room on the mounts to add some spacers, if necessary. I will wait until it is all bolted up before I 'tweak' it.
The first 'dying' Disco bits buyer arrived as Stu and I finished on Sunday and took away the track rod arm, cigar lighter, headlights and the one sun visor clip. Total £30 in the bank. Rear half shafts and rear prop on their way next week for a further £30 and I have had an enquiry for the front diff (10 spline). Also had one call about the 3 brg petrol engine that came out of the old 109 chassis! Transfer box has also prompted an offer £100 too.
I have now decided to keep the rear diff and drop that into the front axle of the 109. Rich has a spare Range Rover diff (with filler port) that I can have for the rear. So we are going 3.54:1 instead of the original 4.7:1. But I will hold onto the old diffs just in case.
The plan next weekend is to fit both new front and rear crank seals, replace the cam belt and tensioners and complete the engine clutch housing stud mods. All parts are on order bar the 4off 10x80mm cap heads for the base of the clutch housing which will have to wait for a few days.
Also I hope the Ebay sourced Disco 300tdi turbo assembly will have arrived. This will offer a higher turbo outlet and also a better angle for the exhaust downpipe as well. If I get time next week I will get that offered up!
All that now needs to come off the Disco 'shell' is the front diff and maybe the hub assy's (have another buyer) and parts of the tow bar assembly which I can re-cycle. I might also save the remaining track rods.
