......In spite of the littany of repair posts I have read in a few LR forums , I pulled the trigger on a 94 Disco yesterday. 98K miles, engine purrs like a kitten , body is in nice shape, no rust and no dashlights on . The thing is definately a tank and I beleive its a perfect car for my 2 teenage sons. Heres the cons ( wouldnt be a LR without some , right ! ) small tranny fluid leak ( bout the size of a half dollar daily) , power steering is gone ( new pump came with the truck in a box , how much of a bitch will this be to swap out ?? ), assorted broken blinker plastics and three of the windows dont work . I pulled the assemblys out of both back doors yesterday and manually readjusted the gearing on the frozen motors. now at least they are all the way up and look to be staying that way until I jump on these other issues. Drivers side window is next, i located a motor in a boneyard for $125 and gonna swap that on tuesday.
Anyway, apologies for the long post but heres the deal . I actually like this car. its goofy looking enough and has the idiosyncracies I find myself attracted to in cars, motorcycles and women. When looking at the 100K service recommendations I see about 4 types of recommended fluid change, not knowing when these were last done what should i hit first and can a backyard mechanic complete these tasks :

Gearbox oil
Transfer box oil
F/R axle oil
Swivel pin housing oil

As a note, Ive put 700K+ on Infinitis and Toyotas over the last 20 years and aside from fluid upkeep I had to replace 1 starter in all of that time. i do need a project however , so im looking forward to busting out the old jeans and pulling some wrenches. i just dont want this to be a part time job !

Thanks in advance for comments / suggestions.

BK1

 

Congrats on being a wacko just like the rest of us.
As for the power windows, the most common problem is broken solder joints at the window lift ecu, common, 15 min DIY with a solder iron.

As for the tranny leak, the cooler lines tend to rust and leak.

As for the power steering, it takes ATF not power steering fluid, its not that hard to replace the pump.

Use 85w-140 for the gear lube in both diffs and the t-case.
Shell Rotella 15w-40 for the motor oil.
These things require premium gas, make sure your boys know that.
3 gal of coolant, t-stat is 192*F, I use a 195.

 

Doing a cursory fluid check and the tranny fluid is WAY overfilled. Still getting familiar with " what is where", is thier a way to drain some of this out , sans a turkey baster ?

 

As new to u unit could drain the tranny fluid and replenish, will have to do several times over a few days as torque converter does not drain. Bought mine for my teenager as well, here's one reason for that - they weigh 4500 pounds. Since the boys are smaller, they can easily slide under the truck to attend to these details while you coach....

 

Your gear box takes ATF Dexron

You swivel pin housings take something called "00" grease. Check your local lawn mower place.

 

There is a drain plug on the bottom of the transmission, drain out the fluid, refill to proper amount, takes about 4 qts.

 

And BTW, the fluid test is when cold, at idle. Here's a page from the RAVE set of shop and owner manuals, free download link below in my signature. Get this on the home PC, and you may get the boys interested in "brit lit"...

 

Ha ! Sorry Boys, missed all the comments as I was in the garage all day . Now worries on the fluid . Wifes a personal chef, robbed one of her turkey basters and got 40" of tube at the auto parts store. An hour later and about 1 1/2 + quarts drained, we were back to the stick mark. Shifts are much less bogged down under speed. All seems well. Changed oil and flushed coolant. Bought this from one of my sons dippy friends ( he was rolling around at 20 PSI in the tires ! ) , so I know it hasnt been blown out recently. Took her for a few hour drive on highway , backroads and some twisties and she performed very well. Temp is nice, tranny shifts smooth , so all is good so far (need some wood to knock ) .

Still didnt dive into the diff and trans case yet. Waiting for some dry weather. This rain makes me wanna drink beer. Weird.

 

Say What?

 

Dang, is the gear box not the transmission? 0.0

(That slow yet growing embarrassing feeling when you just found out you might have made a huge blunder of a mistake..)