I have a 98 Disco with about 150k which now has turned into my weekend toy...depending on how much it's going to take me to get it back into shape. Looking for some guidance as I would like to keep it if I can make a few repairs so I'll start with a couple.

1. I'm seeing a slight leakage around the head gaskets, not a lot but it's there. Is this a concern or can I keep driving with it?
2. Loud clank on Reverse, lesser noise on putting into drive but I can feel a little play when I'm accelerating and then let off the gas, I can feel the some play in the diff or transmission or transfer? I can hear it right beneath the car, maybe underneath front passenger.

While replacing brakes today, decided to take a deeper look to troubleshoot issue #2 and here's what I can observe.
- There is much more play in the front than the rear when hand turning the wheels back and forth, almost too much. There's almost an 1/8 turn of play (estimation). The back wheels barely have any play.
- while looking at the drive shaft from front diff, I can see the play and then it will engage the drive shaft. Is the the front diff going bad?
- Ujoint look okay and no play that I can see on the front and rear drive shafts.

I plan to take a look some more the next couple days but wanted to get some advice on these two issues.

Thanks

 

Lock the transfer case and redo the rotation tests and depends on where your seeing the leaks and what's leaking.

 

Regarding the leak, believe it's oil but will check again tomorrow, couldn't get to the car again.

I'll also try the checking the wheels again after locking the center diffs.

Will report back.

 

There is some inherent slop within the entire driveline as a whole so that is normal when the tc is unlocked. Locked and loose is another matter.

 

Got a chance to jacked up the car today. I tested the below with both front wheels lifted and one wheel lifted, both observations are the same.

Here's what I observed after locking the diff:
- Rotating one wheel, marking at 12 o'clock, the other wheel and front diff will not catch until I get to about 1 o'clock. I can see the driveline engage but with both wheels off the ground, the other wheel will rotate opposite as expected.
- so with both wheels down and diff still locked I tried to rotate the front driveline and there was just minor play. I chose to ignore this rough sound when it catches right in the center diff. I'm hoping that's not a concern (hoping I'm not wrong).

Does that amount of slop seem normal?


Regarding the leak around the, the idiot that I am, I forgot to double check again the leak around the head gasket before I decided to power wash the engine this morning. Although I am fairly certain it was oil, it was minor so I will have to drive that for a bit and see check it again since the engine is not clean.

 

Did you come to any conclusion ? I am in a similar position.

 

As IHSCOUTS mentioned there is a certain amount of slop in the drivelines of all these trucks. Depending on the age and maintenance of your truck you should be checking the Ujoints too. I like to drop one end of the driveshaft and manipulate each ujoint in all directions by hand. If you don't know the condition/age of the ujoints its not a bad idea to replace them anyway.

 

My REAR u joint issue manifested as clunking/vibration up front. Sounded and felt like it was coming from the front, not saying this is your problem, just throwing in something else to rule out.