Firstly, 1996 Disco 1 SD 4.0L M/T LHD

Hello so I have been having some issues with my disco staying running/wanting to start off and on for the last couple months. It had been sitting for a little while so thought perhaps the issues were due to water in gas, or fuel filter, so after using some iso heat and a new filter it ran fine for a bit, but suddenly in town it just died while driving down the road. I pulled over and started seeing if I could find what was going on, and eventually discovered that the fuel pump was not kicking on when the key was turned on. So I checked the fuse under the hood, and it was good, checked the connection to the harness in the rear drivers side wheel well, and no dirt/etc in the connection, and the connection was tight. So I pulled up the carpet/sound deadening foam and checked the connection at the pump, and that was when I discovered the plug had a odd slightly heated looking spot on it (image 1). I did the age old contortionist so I could look and see the connections on the pump and noticed that it looked like it had some melted plastic that was keeping the plug from sitting properly. So I carefully took one of the picks I leave in the car and popped the gob of plastic out and plugged the harness back into the pump, but no joy there, but I did notice that if I lifted slightly on the connection the pump would kick on. As I was about 15 miles from home, I took and used a little piece of foam that was in the car from fixing the drivers seat foam, and put it under the plug enough where the pump would engage normally. After this I drove it straight home, with everything uncovered as a just in case type of situation, but it got home fine. After lunch, and a wee nap I went up and pulled the pump out, and put back in the original one..well the one that was in when I bought the rig(long story for why the pump was needlessly changed :P) After replacing the pump I looked at the one I pulled out and sure enough the lower rear of the 4 pins was way loose, probably from whatever caused the short and it to slightly cook some of the plastic. I made sure to check for any grounding out issues, and could not find any so I decided to try it and it started right up and ran fine.

Fast forward about a week, and I was in town doing some errands, and after getting back in the rig after the last store went to start it and nada, again no pump engaging. I checked the fuse, and the connections all around again, and nothing. So I changed the fuse back to a 15a(forgot to mention I had previously been running the 5a as a test, and the 5a was not blown so I dunno), and checked to see if the pump would kick on, it didn't sound like it so I sat there for about 5 min or so and tried to start it up again. It would sort of start run like it was out of gas(has 3/4 tank of 92), and then die. Since the location was at the top of a hill I rolled er down and did a 2nd gear bump start, and it started up, seemed to be running fine for about 4 seconds, then died. Rolled it to a parking spot, and called my uncle, who then called my cousin(works for a towing company), and had it towed home. After calming down a bit, I went and checked to see if any of the wires to the pump were getting power with my light tester, and the gauge wire was, but that was it. I tried changing out the MFR(same long story as pump :P), and still nothing changed. So I unplugged the smaller of the plugs to the MFR and tested there for power and nothing. Checked fuses again, and the pump fuse under hood didn't look blown, but it looked weird. It is one of those z looking filaments, but it looked more like a 7, so I replaced it with a different 15a, and then went to test power again, and both the wires to the pump and the wires to the MFR had correct power. I should mention I had popped the outgoing fuel hose loose from the pump to see if it was spraying any fuel out, as one of the tests I did in town was to press on the check valve on the fuel rail, and had nothing but air come out. Back to current, after making sure the power was there I turned the key on and heard the pump kick on, and about 2 second into that killed it quickly, and uttered a stream of obscenities that would make a sailor blush. I hadn't reconnected the outgoing fuel line, so the pump kicked on and sprayed fuel all over the rear carpet/etc. After cleaning all that up and letting the car air out I went and tried it again, and all seemed to be fine. Took it for a short test drive with no issues.

A couple days later went to go get the mail and was back to the pump not kicking on. So I tested for power and it seemed to be getting power, though the light tester showed it as not very bright at first, but eventually it ended up as bright as normal. Got to thinking perhaps with the slightly scorched spot(image 1) on the harness that the wire might have been damaged. So I went up to the spare Disco we have to try the harness off it, since it is waiting for dryer weather so I can get it working correctly :P. Sadly after getting the harness off and down to mine I realized that the plugs for under the wheel well are different. So I began research after putting the harness back on the spare, and discovered oh.. 95 had a different setup. So I went into looking for a new harness and ran into a problem, hence the reason for the post, and long explanation. The problem is that every wiring harness that I could find via searching online looks nothing like the one that came on the Disco when I got it. The plug where it connects under the rear wheel well looks the same, but every harness I could find either has a round plug to connect to the pump, or two plugs to the pump and mine only has one square plug that connects to the pump(picture 2)

So now to the please help/any suggestions part. Firstly can anyone think of what might be causing the issue with the pump deciding not to work, and other times it does. I have tried direct wiring the pump to power and it kicks on every time(forgot to mention that). I haven't tested the wires on the harness as of yet with multimeter or whatever they are called, and I have tonight when looking at Land Rover Palm Beach's website for parts discovered they say there are a couple different fuel pump relays on the inside of the rig. I always thought that if it had the MFR there wouldn't be a different relay so not sure there. Also is it possible that someone did some mucking about and changed things with the pump harness/pump, I ask this as I have had to correct a lot of someone mucked about and screwed up wiring on other parts of the rig. Last picture will be the pump that came in the rig when we got it, and it has always confused me a bit, as it has that spot that looks like a vent hose should go, but could never find anywhere that the hose could have gone/been run.

Thank you for reading, and hopefully there is enough info, but if not just let me know. Any assistance, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Hope you all have a wonderful day/evening


Plug at pump side with scorched spot.

Pump that came in the rig when I got it

Figured would show the wires going to the pump in case that helps any.

Other side of plug from previous picture.

Plug under the rear wheel well.

Harness from Rovers North with round plug

Harness that keeps showing up in searches, taken from BPUtah's ebay listing.

 

From the image that dark spot looks to be from a bad wire on the harness.

Have a look at a thread I started back in 2016
https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...hortage-78800/

 

Thank you very much for pointing me to your thread, the picture on yours looks almost like mine, but with more sand :P. After reading thread I don't know why I never suspected a bad connection, especially with all the other bad connections/wires I have had to replace since I really started to tear into getting everything on this thing fixed. Will go out tomorrow and give it a bit of testing, and see about pulling the offending wire out of the housing to see what is going on, hopefully can easily fix/find a spare harness. Though worst case can always try to fix the housing/replace it and the terminals and build a new harness.

 

So slight update for today as I wasn't able to get much done past removing the harness and bringing it inside to give it a better look. I noticed that the white with purple striped wire that is visible in picture #4 has the insulation pulled back a bit from where it should be. Right now it is pulled back just behind where the wire goes into the rubber protection boot for the housing, and I found that a bit odd as the wire itself is still in the same place in the crimp and has not been pulled back any. I also noticed that the blue tape that goes around where LR took the ground and attached another wire to make it two grounds going to the pump was rather loose, but still in place around the crimp they used. Though it was very dirty am not totally sure that it would have caused any issues, as the tape was still around the spot, and none of the wires have any breaks or cracks in the insulation exposing the wires. Tomorrow am going to pop the splice crimp off clean the area and solder it back together after putting some shrink tubing on it to better protect the area, and I plan on cleaning all the other crimps and see if I can get the crimp on the white with purple striped wire open enough to where I can get the insulation back to where it should be. As always thank you for reading, and any suggestions are always greatly appreciated.

 

Its been awhile but I recall buying the wrong harness. I really needed the truck to work and be functional for walk! What I did because I was in a jam was a cut the connector head from the new harness with a few inches of wires remaining and attached it to the old harness using some posilocks. Its will that way to this very day and it has been fine.

 

Nice, I may end up doing that and just ordering the one with the round end, and doing ye ol cut, solder and go that I have had to do on quite a few wiring issues the Disco has had. Yesterday I made sure the wires were good on a resistance test, then just put some shrink over the exposed area of the white with purple wire, put back together, taped up so the plastic conduit stuff doesn't let dirt in, and put er back on for now. Test yesterday was fine, well mostly, the gauge was being stubborn and sometimes would go up sometimes would say empty, but it decided to behave after a lil bit. Today am gonna get a bit brave and if it behaves when I go to start it gonna go into town(bout 10 miles one way), and pick up some stuff. Here is to hoping it behaves :P. Also thanks very much for all the advice/assistance so far

 

Glad I help you with keeping your truck on the road. This forum is a solid!