'97 Disco I - Crankshaft Protruding Forward From Housing, Slipped The Drive Belt
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Mudding
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 136
Likes: 4
From: SoCal
Good news! I'll post the writeup after I get some much-needed sleep, but the Disco is fixed and running. Drove it back and forth to work tonight with no issues. 
Last edited by speedos951; Aug 18, 2015 at 07:49 PM. Reason: Edited
Thread Starter
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Mudding
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 136
Likes: 4
From: SoCal
Surgery Time!
Here goes... I rotated the crank to make the affected pins more easily accessible and inspected each one. There were 10 in all that were badly bent, but fortunately none were broken.
I wiped the surrounding area really good to remove any excess oil, and covered the crankcase, bell housing, and cats with aluminum foil to act as a sort of shield from the torch. I tried the torch for about 15-20 seconds but didn't like the way the ring was reacting, and was afraid I might weaken the metal, so...
Using a flathead screwdriver, regular pliers, needlenose pliers, a framing hammer, the flat end of a 3/8" socket extension, a good solid 1 3/4" tile chisel, and about 5 hours under the Disco in 107-degree heat with a deflated air mattress rolled up and used as a pillow, I tapped the ring flat which "righted" the pins enough to get at them with the pliers and gently, painstakingly straightened each one using the good pins as a guide, then stamped the surrounding ring flat, lather, rinse, repeat.
Got them all fairly straight then slowly turned the crank an inch or two at a time, got back underneath and made damn sure each pin cleared the little magnet on the crank position sensor (which I put back in for this very purpose), turned the crank back and further adjusted the pins as necessary, and finally turned the crank a complete revolution to make sure everything cleared... Success!
Before and after photos are attached. Dental school seems like a solid option now.
Prior to that of course, I dropped the pan and immediately determined the major cause of the oil pressure issue: two fat chunks of RTV/cork gasket lodged against the pickup screen. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, except to add that when that long piece of RTV spilled its guts out of the drain hole, the first image that popped in my head was that long creepy arm of the dead Martian with the suction-cup fingers as it crawled out of its tripod door at the end of The War of the Worlds, the 1953 version. I showed that to my brother-in-law and did my best impersonation of Gene Berry: "It's dead."
So I got it all back together using The Right Stuff on the pan this time, 15/40 diesel and nothing else, said a prayer with my left hand on the dashboard, and turned it over... "It's alive! It's alive!"
I let it run for a bit then shut it down within 10 minutes of having to leave for work, changed in a hurry, drove it to work only 4 miles a way, drove it back, and the Land Rover gods were smiling.
After a couple days of driving, the pan leak is down to a few drops after an 8-10 mile trip. I'll just chalk that up to the bad design of the lip where the pan meets the inspection cover and call it a day.
The oil light is flickering at idle after the same 8-10 mile trip, but we're still in a heat wave here and it's not coming on nearly as soon as it was prior to the flywheel drama. So the next step will be a good cleanup of the top end, and I'm betting that will resolve the issue. While I have everything apart, I'll clean up the throttle body as well. I'm pretty sure it could use it.
So I passed the Land Rover Forums initiation! Yay me!
And a BIG hat tip to you guys for your invaluable guidance and moral support. To say I couldn't have done this without you would be a laughable understatement. After I spent a couple of hours calling myself an effing moron, you helped me dust myself off and get done what needed to get done. And I was incredibly lucky to still have a servicable flywheel.
Cheers and thanks again!
I wiped the surrounding area really good to remove any excess oil, and covered the crankcase, bell housing, and cats with aluminum foil to act as a sort of shield from the torch. I tried the torch for about 15-20 seconds but didn't like the way the ring was reacting, and was afraid I might weaken the metal, so...
Using a flathead screwdriver, regular pliers, needlenose pliers, a framing hammer, the flat end of a 3/8" socket extension, a good solid 1 3/4" tile chisel, and about 5 hours under the Disco in 107-degree heat with a deflated air mattress rolled up and used as a pillow, I tapped the ring flat which "righted" the pins enough to get at them with the pliers and gently, painstakingly straightened each one using the good pins as a guide, then stamped the surrounding ring flat, lather, rinse, repeat.
Got them all fairly straight then slowly turned the crank an inch or two at a time, got back underneath and made damn sure each pin cleared the little magnet on the crank position sensor (which I put back in for this very purpose), turned the crank back and further adjusted the pins as necessary, and finally turned the crank a complete revolution to make sure everything cleared... Success!
Before and after photos are attached. Dental school seems like a solid option now.
Prior to that of course, I dropped the pan and immediately determined the major cause of the oil pressure issue: two fat chunks of RTV/cork gasket lodged against the pickup screen. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, except to add that when that long piece of RTV spilled its guts out of the drain hole, the first image that popped in my head was that long creepy arm of the dead Martian with the suction-cup fingers as it crawled out of its tripod door at the end of The War of the Worlds, the 1953 version. I showed that to my brother-in-law and did my best impersonation of Gene Berry: "It's dead."
So I got it all back together using The Right Stuff on the pan this time, 15/40 diesel and nothing else, said a prayer with my left hand on the dashboard, and turned it over... "It's alive! It's alive!"
I let it run for a bit then shut it down within 10 minutes of having to leave for work, changed in a hurry, drove it to work only 4 miles a way, drove it back, and the Land Rover gods were smiling.
After a couple days of driving, the pan leak is down to a few drops after an 8-10 mile trip. I'll just chalk that up to the bad design of the lip where the pan meets the inspection cover and call it a day.
The oil light is flickering at idle after the same 8-10 mile trip, but we're still in a heat wave here and it's not coming on nearly as soon as it was prior to the flywheel drama. So the next step will be a good cleanup of the top end, and I'm betting that will resolve the issue. While I have everything apart, I'll clean up the throttle body as well. I'm pretty sure it could use it.
So I passed the Land Rover Forums initiation! Yay me!
And a BIG hat tip to you guys for your invaluable guidance and moral support. To say I couldn't have done this without you would be a laughable understatement. After I spent a couple of hours calling myself an effing moron, you helped me dust myself off and get done what needed to get done. And I was incredibly lucky to still have a servicable flywheel.
Cheers and thanks again!
Last edited by speedos951; Sep 6, 2015 at 10:20 PM. Reason: Clarification, add to post, spelling
Baja
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 9,298
Likes: 318
From: Boston Strong
that's the problem with RTV people don't read the directions, put parts together wet and the RTV squeezes all over the inside. if they used it on the valve covers the extra RTC could be blocking the returns.
I had it happen in a ford 5.0 after a cruse the oil light would start flashing, because the oil was getting trapped in the top-end and not returning to the sump quick enough.
I had it happen in a ford 5.0 after a cruse the oil light would start flashing, because the oil was getting trapped in the top-end and not returning to the sump quick enough.
