A milestone today! The body came off. But first a bit of pre-amble before we get to the pictures you want to see.
I spent a while looking through my Land Rover service manual trying to find out how to take the body from my discovery. As it turns out, this is not a service type fix, so didn’t appear in the book at all (nor does it in the Haynes manual). So I went to the next best thing, the internet. I visited any and every Land Rover forum looking for a rough guide. I learned absolutely nothing by doing this, it seems as though this is not well covered or I happened to find every thread that had someone asking how to do it, and others providing no answers. I decided to do what I should have done in the first place. Just go and look at the car, and build up a list of things travelling from the chassis to the body.
Here is my list of things to remove.
IN THE CABIN
The handbrake: Un-clip the cable from the lever, then un-bolt the lever from the chassis. Then un-screw the adjustor from the base of the lever. Finally tape all the required parts to the cable or lever and push the cable through the transmission tunnel.
The gear lever gaiter: If you wanted to keep it, you would drill out the rivets. I cut through it with a knife, and taped over the large holes to prevent large scale dirt or water ingress.
The throttle cable: Un-clip the cable from the pedal, and drag it through into the engine bay. I taped the pin and clip onto the cable.
UNDER THE BONNET
The radiator: Simply drain the radiator, remove the rubber hoses, remove and bung the engine oil hoses (I wadded up a ball of PTFE tape larger than the bore of the pipe, covered that with a rubber glove then duct taped everything), unbolt the two mounting brackets (the one on the right hand side (as you look at the front of the car) also holds the power steering reservoir, I chose to drain and remove it at the same time). The radiator should just lift out.
The transmission cooler: This one is a case of do as I say, not as I do (see further down). Remove the plastic grille from the front of the car, then remove the cooler from its mounts and tape to the chassis, or drain the transmission and remove the cooler from the car.
The ignition coil: At the same time as removing the power-steering reservoir (and radiator), unscrew the mounting bracket for the ignition coil. Either remove the coil, or tape it out of the way.
The earth strap: Just underneath the ignition coil is a braided metal cable connecting the body to the chassis, making both the earths in the electrical circuitry. Remove the nut holding the strap in place and tape out of the way.
The air filter: Unclip the air filter box. Remove from the car, then tape over the end of the pipe (on the engine obviously).
The clutch line: Follow the clutch line from the master cylinder, it will lead down to the bottom of the bulk head on the right hand side (as you look at the car). Separate the line and remove it from the body. Alternatively, you could remove the slave cylinder, which is right at the other end of the line, but I chose not to as it was extra faff.
The steering column: Remove the bolt from the universal joint closest to the steering box. Either slide the splined section apart now, or leave it to its devices when lifting the body off (expect a clang or a snagging point in my case).
UNDER THE CAR
The fuel tank filler/breather/over-flow: Loosen the the jubilee clip from the pipe(s) that travel between the filler and the tank. Pull the pipe off, then tape over the end to prevent dirt ingress into the tank.
The brake lines: Whilst under the car, disconnect the brake lines at the flexible pipes. At the front there is one for each side (right next to the springs), at the back there is only a single flexible pipe (above the rear axle). Again if they’re in good condition and you’d like to keep them unscrew them at the joints. I used a hacksaw blade to cut through them (I plan to get braided flexible joints).
The chassis bolts: One thing I did read on the internet was that people had a lot of trouble with these as they can be very rusty (and mine were no exception). To remove mine I sprayed them with 3 in 1 lubricant spray (WD40 knock-off) and left them over night. They came out quite easily, the hardest part was finding a way to get a spanner on top of the bolts. For this reason, I recommend asking a friend to help and using a 1/2 inch (or larger) drive ratchet with deep sockets. Most of them are 15mm nuts on 15mm bolts, but four are captive bolts with 18mm nuts (maybe 17 or 19mm I forget).
Anyway, here is an artists impression of the chassis and the mounting locations (remember this is rough):
ADDITIONAL
The LPG system: There was a T-connection on the left hand inner wing, two ends led to the tanks, and the other end went to an evaporator by the looks of it (it had coolant pipes leading into it). I removed that from its mounting bracket, then disconnected each tank and removed the T-piece from the body.
With all that seen to it was just the simple matter of deciding the best method of removing the body. I chose the straps through the doors method. The ones in the photos are used for lifting cows. Cows weigh more than the body of the Disco’, more than up to the task, so the only thing left to do was to stop wasting time and get on with it.
So drum roll please, here is the photo sequence:
We couldn’t figure out why the body wasn’t coming off. We checked over the car, last thing we came to at the front were the straining pipes of the transmission cooler (oops) and the steering column wouldn’t release. A quick bit of grinding and…
a bit more loosening (bolt removal)…
The body popped free!
And there it sits on blocks, how “trailer-park trash” of me. Job well done.
I would like to take the opportunity to say a massive Thank You to the Chamberlin Bros Farm for the loan of their JCB and son/nephew, Rob, to lift the body off. Thanks guys, I definitely could not have done this without your help. Also a special thanks to Rob for actually doing the lifting. Thanks Rob, I owe you one.
I should say that I am more than 50% of the way through this disassembly, just the; engine, gearbox, suspension and axles to go. Then it’s just recondition what I will re-use and finally start building.
