Hi guys

As a first time land rover discovery 1 300tdi (1998) owner I made the awfull mistake of putting the battery in the wrong way around in an overenthousiastic moment. What a rookie mistake.

As a result, the generator fuse (100A) was blown and the engine would crank but not fire. It had sit still during winter time when I disassembled the rear axle and fuel tank to do some chassis work. After reassembling everything I was eager to teststart the engine. It would crank but not turn. The main generator 100A fuse was blown as a result.

After replacing this, still no luck. I checked for fuel supply by hand priming the fuel filter. I tried again to no avance. I read up a lot about it. The problem could be the fuel solenoid. I checked it yesterday and indeed, the fuel solenoid works fine when I bypass it straight to the battery but it gives no voltage when key is turned..

I came to this thing called the spider box with all its associated horror stories (The Definitive Alarm Spider Post - Land Rover Technical Archive - LR4x4 - The Land Rover Forum) but discovery's from 1997 would not have this spider box. Instead the engine immobilizer circuit is in the alarm module Z163 behind the dash trim under the glove box. By jumping 2 connectors you should be able to start the truck.

Now my main questions, but feel free to give any advice
- is there any more damage to be expected after misconnecting the battery besides the generator fuse? I checked all the other fuses and they work fine. All the other electronics work fine too.
- Can you, just to move the truck around, direct bypass the solenoid to the battery? or perhaps permanently bypass and make a sort of hidden kill switch?
- generally, what advice after starting the truck after a long time? I will replace all the glow plugs because they're shot, but some say a 300 tdi should fire up fine without these.

Many thanks in advance

Tom