It has been a great day. Finally got my 96 running again. After being down for 6 months. All due to a short off the fuel safety switch on the firewall. Got her all cleaned up aired up on back on the road. So happy..

 

Fixed the window rollers on both driver side windows. fixed my high idle by cleaning the IACV and plugging it in properly where the last owner had it in wrong. Four new tires.

 

Dare i ask ,How do you plug the IACV in wrong?

 

That looked pretty sketchy at about :24

 

Just a little sketchy...

 

Today I checked the front diff to make sure it wasn't totally empty like the rear on a new to me '99 D1 only to have it almost gush out all over me. This is my first Land Rover so I'm not sure if thats normal or not.

Yes I checked what I expected to be the fill plug about 1/2 way up the diff not the drain plug on the bottom.

Did someone magically overfill the diff and put the fill plug in before it all got out or what??

 

Check the swivels someone could have used oil instead of grease and had it bypass seals into the diff

 

Just recently picked up a '94 D1 out in So Cal, to have as an extra vehicle for the wife and daughters (separate thread in Newcomer's). The template that goes around the HVAC controls was lifting up, so I had my daughter help me fix it. Used a single edge razor to gently remove the template, cleaned the mounting surface with some rubbing alcohol, dabbed some black silicone sealant on the surface, then reapplied the template. Viola, looks great, stays nice and flat now, and the youngest daughter got to watch her dad in action, lol! She checked eBay for a replacement template, and all she found was the complete HVAC control unit, so we saved about $40 by doing it ourselves.

Also removed the lower plastic valance under the front bumper, like I did to my '99, to give it a cleaner, more lifted look. She likes it, and since her older sister, who just graduated from college, is on a 3-week school trip to Scotland, Wales, and England, she'll be driving it the most over the next three weeks (wife hates driving it).

On the '99, dropped it off at the transmission shop to get the used trans I bought off eBay installed. Trans has 103K miles, cost $375 including shipping, comes with a 60-day refund / 6-month warranty, and labor estimate is roughly $780 (plus parts like seals, gaskets, filter, and fluid). Shop said the torque converter got there Friday, trans got there today, so they'll start tomorrow. The '94 shifts perfectly, so when I drove the '99 to the trans shop today, it's really not working right, so I'm hoping getting this used trans installed will do the trick.

 

Hope the trans works out, I just sanded, masked and resprayed the yellow again so we'll see how it turns out this time, I will not be spraying it a 3rd time

 

I realize this is probably a really stupid question but since my D1 doesn't have the check level plug how do I check how much gear oil/grease is in these? I'm assuming mine is grease instead of gear oil or possibly both. When I pulled the fill plugs I got what appeared to be grease residue from the ball. What came out of the diff fill plug looks like liquid graphite though.

I also shot down the bottom part of the motor with degreaser since the car leaks just about everything and it's hard to tell where it's coming from with all the caked on grease.

While the new-to-you/high miler service list was great for getting me a parts list is there a compendium of how-to's for some of the stuff on the list? I've turned a few wrenches on cars but 4wd vehicles are new territory for me so I've never seen things like swivel ***** before. If there isn't one would anyone be opposed to me starting one? I'm guessing anything that could be wrong with an older new-to-you D1 is wrong with mine and photos with a walkthough might help someone else find an answer quickly or see what they are getting into before they take it half apart.