Hello firstly am working with a 1996 Discovery 1 SD 4.0L with coil packs, and MT. Currently it will crank over till the battery(pretty much crap) dies(about 5 tries @ 3sec each), and needs to be charged. I will go into what I have done, but first I should explain the situation. In 2022 it ran fine with no issues, used it as a daily driver until I had to have back surgery, and then it wasn't used daily, but was still used frequently(by my mother). One day we had to take a cat we had to the vet in the next town over, and that was a 60 mile round trip, and it ran fine, but after getting home I turned around and noticed that it was dripping fire under the car. Got fire out and what not, turned out the clutch slave hose had burst and fluid got onto the cat. converter, and there ya go. After a few months I was able to get all the wiring and such that was damaged in the fire fixed. However the clutch was a bit too stiff for me to be able to really drive it all the time so it did sit quite a bit. Fast forward to end of June 2023, and I am going back in for emergency surgery on a 7mm to the left shifted spine. Doc of the first surgery told me oh it's been a month you should be fine to do whatever. Doc of second surgery said uhh no, and was not happy when they heard what the first doc said.

Anyway after months of recovery I a couple weeks ago started to play with it trying to get it to run as it fired up and I drove it a little, but then it just refused to start again. Replaced plugs, wires, put new gas in it(5 gal. 92 octane) with some Lucas gas treatment, tested fuel pump, but nothing worked. Then one day it decided to run again, so went down and put about 8 gallons of 92 in it and drove it home with no issues. Went to take it out again a few days late but back to no start. This time it threw a crank sensor code, so I ordered a new one after I got under and looked and noticed that the crank sensor wiring from a donor harness that I used to fix the fire damaged original had broken insulation, and the wires were touching each other. So while waiting I decided to order heat shielding and copper braiding to create new wiring from plug to where it comes out of the harness above. After doing all that and putting the new sensor in still the same of cranking and cranking, but no start. I checked the rail and the fuel that came out from the pressure test nipple did not smell nasty or bad, and then checked fuses, pressed the immobilizer on the firewall for 5, and 10 seconds, also tried a couple other things I found about ignition relay and one where someone had if the rear door was shut the car wouldn't start, but open it would. None of those changed anything, so I went and tested the spark, and had none on the two I was able to check before the battery died again. Also checked the main ECU for any rust/corrosion damage, and opened it up to check solder joints, everything inside was fine, and no outer damage where any liquid could get inside. Also no liquid inside the plugs.

I am a bit confused as the coil pack is getting power just fine, and the only thing that is a bit off from my new wire for crank sensor is that it is 16 awg rather than what I am guessing is 18awg as the insulation was mostly gone on the older stuff from donor harness, and that it was a bit longer(about 6-8") than the original wire was. Also it is not throwing any sort of codes, and even checked the ETM and noticed a thing about the alarm led blinks and codes, but all it reads is the alarm is armed. I am planning to run a multi-meter test on the ignition relay, and crank sensor(both old and new) tomorrow or Wed.,and getting a fuel pressure tester as I don't have one, but am at a loss as to what could be going on other than possibly the coil pack being bad, or I got really unlucky and got a brand new bad crank sensor. Any assistance and suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I would love to be able to get the beastie back on the road and running again. Thank you for reading, and any info/input you may provide

 

There is a spacer involved with mounting the CKP sensor. It depends on the model, I think. Make sure that is correct.

 

You can do a quick and dirty fuel pressure check while you wait for your gauge. Just press in the Schraeder valve (where you’ll connect your gauge). If it spurts fuel, you at least have some pressure. If not, no fuel pressure. (Use a rag when you do this to prevent fuel spraying everywhere).

 

Thank you for the suggestion, I went out today and pulled the new CKP as I was going to anyway, but your mentioning of the spacer got me to thinking. I know next to nothing about the CKP other than how to take it out and put it back in many times :P, but the old one and new have two different spacers on them, so could that possibly be part of the issue?

Left side is one that came on the Disco Right side is the new one

 

Got lucky and the local Autozone had a decent one in stock, but haven't been able to test yet. I did do a rag test where I had someone crank the engine over and pushed down on the valve. It did get the rag rather wet, and didn't smell horrible, not like bad gas, but also not as good as a fresh tank.

 

Would like to thank JohnZo and Harvlr foe the suggestions and help. It turns out the isaue was the spacer on the new CKP was too thick. Swappes the space from the old CKP, put the new one back in and starts up everytime. So I would say if anyone has the same issue then first check the wires. As that was probably the only issue and didnt need to get another CKP, oh well at least it should last a good while.

 

Good news!

 

So now you have a "Known Good" spare CKP sensor. Glad we could help.

 

Indeed, cleaned the old one up and other than a few scratches on outside, and a bit of oil/grease staining it looks good. I really should remember to check the smaller stuff first with this thing, as so far every issue hasn't been anything major. First issue I ever had with it was it running really rough and underpowered. Replaced plugs, wires, injectors, rails, then found out compression was low on cyl 6 and 8. Got rebuilt heads, and gaskets, and when I pulled the heads the issue was just a torn/burned/dead spot on the head gasket between 6 and 8 lol.

 

Indeed, it has been sitting far too long, and now I am recovered enough from surgery #2 last July I can finally drive it without worry of the clutch. Even more so once constant rain ends and I can put the double clutch spring I ordered a year and a half ago in :P