Well I did a quick look up of the module that I took a picture of and it turns out that’s the steering wheel controls module. Now I know why Crutchfield didn’t offer a solution to do it like I had in the last Disco. Meh, I rarely used them anyway and the new HU has a remote anyway. Hopefully that helps someone.

 

I got the rear spacers in and “new” brake pads today. I replaced one of the air bags as well. I started on the front but frankly got tired and the rain came pretty good (once again, I need the barn done!). No pics as I was working pretty hard to beat the rain, but I now have a cool looking 70s hotrod all jacked up in the rear.

I don’t think it will be until next weekend to get the front done, but I’m excited to get it there. I’ll be doing the shocks, springs, rotors, pads, and tie rod/ drag link from the Giverny. I think I’ll get an alignment done as well at that point.

The last bits I want done before winter will be the windshield, A Pilar trim, and windshield cowl. I may try to rattle can the rack and get it transferred over. At that point, it will finally be good enough for DD duties. By next summer I’ll try to get the HSE wheels refinished and tires for them and get them back on.

 

nice work so far ! keep it up

 

OK, I finished up the lift (or suspension swap as it were) today.

It FINALLY looks like Disco should.



Poor Giverny is looking all low and lonely. Your turn will come, just be patient…





It seems REALLY tall, but I love it. I forgot how much difference a 2” lift can make.



The springs didn’t really look much different prior to install.



And I have ZERO clue how anyone could do this without spring compressors or disconnecting the sway bar and/or driveshaft- even with the OEM height ones.



I took it for a drive for some errands and it is wonderful and FINALLY feels like a Disco should. I still have to bleed the brakes and I ran out of steam to do the tie rod and drag link swap, but the baby steps are plenty satisfying for me. I may even drive it to work a couple times this week.

Next up will be to get the rack off the Giverny and touch it up if not refinish entirely. After than will be the windshield, cowl, and A Pilars. I may actually go back to trying to figure out the P0501 then…

 

I took a little break from chores today and took the children of the corn out for a quick ride today. This is the first time the Alveston has done anything appreciable other than in the yard.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Cars/Land..._8799-1280.mp4

It did darn well and quite a number of wheel stands. The kids were funny, though, as they both said for hard stuff they prefer the Jeep (which on this same little hill literally idles up even without the lockers).

I took the pressure to down to between 15-20 psi for the washboard which helped immensely, but the shocks are more worn than I thought, so if there is to be any off roading to be done, that will be on the short list.

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

My reward for being so encouraging to the Disco yesterday? P0300. I’m going to do the air filter and finally get the new MAF I’ve had laying around in, but I think the used coil pack the PO put in was not in the best shape, so that all will be done here in the near future. I suspect O2 sensors will be not too far after that.

I have said it a few times in this thread: it takes a year or so to get these vehicles to good running order and I don’t care how perfect they seem. I think it’s hilarious because you not only have design flaws that have to be corrected, you have to address all the negligence/ignorance of all the previous owners. I’m pretty convinced this one was a soccer mom mobile until she got tired of having to deal with a bunch of this stuff.

Ah well, I’m having fun, and it’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into.

Oh yeah, I spent a few minutes lowering the rear suspension a bit as I think it was too high. Having a Nanocom or equivalent is more or less a requirement if you are going to keep abreast of the fun and games with a D2…

 

The hilarity continues! And this is why I’ve fallen so hard for these stupid things. They really do speak to you. You just have to listen correctly. Like a relationship, it’s all about communication and hearing what your partner is saying.

Anyway, the misfire was really my own doing as I thought. Well I had some time today as it was nice and needed to get out with the boy a bit. He came alone with me after I found what I thought to be the issue. So I made a thread about the trim values looking wonky and I’ll just repost my findings from there.

I found this video that Gerry made:


After doing some digging and getting great insight form the forum about being totally off base on my thoughts of it being the coil, I found that video and decided it would be fun to see if it actually worked. I put together the parts he had and did the same setup and sure enough, it friggin’ worked!

Here’s the video I made:

https://longtallsallygs.smugmug.com/...ry/i-vzvWzgJ/A

Zero dollar fix and I was about to put a few hundred bucks into parts that weren’t even close to fixing my issue. Here is the real explanation that I hope helps the collective:

I set up a fuel trim page on the Ultragauge to see the short term and long term trim values for both banks of cylinders. As I didn’t really know what that meant, I finally did some research on the values that show up there and now I really get it. If I’m understanding it correctly, positive numbers means the controller is richening the mixture and negative means less fuel. My numbers were REALLY high for the long term:



They were also varying wildly on the short term from high negative numbers to even pegging at 25 on the positive side (which is apparently the most that can either be read by the gauge or dumped by the fuel system). Based on what learned from the folks that answered that thread I did as well as other research on the UG readings and the like I agreed with everyone and determined this to be a big vacuum leak.

After I did the above video, I repositioned the boot and tightened accordingly. I then hooked up the Nanocom, cleared the codes and reset the adaptive values. EUREKA! I started it up and of course as it was cold the trim values pegged at 25 for a while, but after it warmed up, sure enough they settled at single digit changes from positive to negative and even zero for some of the cycles (I assume that means the mixture is going as good as it can with no alterations).

So like I said, it is another way the Disco can be a lot of fun to diagnose and figure out what is going on. In this case, I screwed it up, which is just fine as it was a zero dollar fix and I now have a tool for future use.

Here are some pics of the contraption:









Now I can get back on task. Next up will be saving for shocks and getting the brakes bled and new front brakes. In the coming weeks I’ll be touching up the rack from the Giverny and getting it on. After that will be the windshield with new A Pilar trim and the cowl I have. I suppose after that will be to start the refinishing process of the wheels.

Today was a good Disco day and I’m having fun.

 

I got the rough idle finally!!!! I did the PCV mod/update and a new hose clamp up top as well as some RTV around the input for the vacuum booster to the plenum.

I also pulled out my hotrod smoke tester and jut blew through the hose on one end. It blew back at me. That doesn’t really say much, but no large vacuum leak.

The PCV mod went perfect per the thread and the pin came out of the valve cover and went back in easy peasy.

WOOHOO!!! Gotta celebrate good Rover days.

Next up is to finally do the heater plate (I already have it) as it was a scoshe low on coolant and I saw a leak there before that is very minor, but I’ll do that and hopefully engine work is done for a bit.

Here shortly will be shocks and front brakes. Then I’ll try to find time to clean up the rack and get it put on.

Of note, been sitting here for 15 minutes idling while I type this after a short drive and it is running perfect.

 

I say time and time and time again, it’s not so much the design flaws, it’s correcting neglect and/or poor repairs over the years that makes these thing a challenge (a fun one for the most part).

Today’s adventure is replacing the throttle body heater plate. Yeah fine, I know I should just cap it off, but whatever, the part was cheap and doing the repair really isn’t a big deal. Plus, it’s just another opportunity to inspect and learn more about the myriad of connections and other nonsense that is in there and see possible future issues and/or take further corrective action.

And as such, sure enough, the P0441 code I’ve been getting I believe is correct as when I disconnected the vacuum lines from it, one of them gave a big hiss. I have to believe the valve is stuck then. Part to be ordered…

Anyway, getting back to the task at hand, my temps are generally at 188F, but once it idles for a minute it will climb to 201F. Not the danger zone, but higher than I want. I had a scare some time back honking the head gaskets we’re going as there was some coolant by the valve cover, but I discovered it was the heater plate. Meh, everyone knows the drill on them, so I ordered the part and figured I’d replace it at some point.

Well, I got my answer on why it’s leaking.





Next up is the purge valve and maybe THEN I can get back to the other stuff.

 

I’ve not done an update for a bit, so thought I’d throw in some. As we had family at the house for Turkey day, we planned on taking everyone deep into the mountains like we did last year to get our tree:



That was a really fun family day as I packed the camping cooking stuff and we made lunch out there. We took all 3 mutts and shoe horned everyone in the Jeep then and made it work. The best part was didn’t see another soul the whole time out. And yes, the tree was about 15’ tall (it’s a thing for the boss to get really tall trees- might be why she married me).

The plan this year was to take the Disco and the Jeep and both families, all the mutts and go do the same thing. Even though the Disco isn’t completely set up for real off road (last year we actually needed 4 low and couple more of the Jeep’s toys to get in and out), I figured we could extract the Disco with the Jeep should the need arise. Well, the Jeep ended up needing a clutch (after 100k miles of abuse I’ve given it- and actually only the throw out bearing is bad), one of the family members had to work the Friday after Turkey Day, and we just couldn’t get it together.

The good news is we got the rack put on, though. I’ve not refinished it yet, but it will be fine for the time being.





I also replaced the purge valve for the SAI and ordered new shocks. I just did Terrafirma HD ones. Meh, for my use case, they’ll be fine.

Oh yeah, we did get a tree finally. This is the 3rd Disco for us to get our Christmas Tree.



The first one:



I can’t find a pic of the blue one with a tree, but we did that one too.

The handling is now off the charts, so I feel better than I ever have with the Alveston now. I’ve decided that I’ll be doing tires on the Comet wheels when I do them, so hopefully I can swing that next summer.

Also on the good news front, I found a dash! So that will be done here at some point.