So me and my girlfriend have 2001 disco's and I cant for the life of me figure out why mine in drive sitting still barely moves when I let off the break and feels sluggish with the torque converter locked at 45mph, but hers pulls hard sitting still and going down the road with the torque converter locked at around 45mph just pulls hard as the pedal is pressed and mine can barely even tell I push the pedal... almost like driving two different liter motors. Maybe someone on here has run into this before.

 

Have you checked for slack on your throttle cable?

Could also be a number of things from clogged cats/muffler to vacuum leaks...

Does she use top tier premium fuel and you use discount convenience store regular? etc etc.

 

throttle cable is perfect, no cats, and she runs on premium, not sure what it could be, it feels very weak like the transmission slipping but it cant when the converter is locked, and the other disco feels strong as an ox.

 

Mine felt very sluggish but I have a snap on smoke machine which helped me find leaks mine was on the intake manifold. Really helped performance. If you don’t have one I think you can spray carb cleaner around? Look it up thay or starter fluid. Spray around like the intake manifold gasket and whay I have labeled if the rpms jump you gotta leak. There’s videos on YouTube to follow for this it’s not perfect

 

Ok Dumb question how do you know the Torque converter is locked for sure, it is not normally that easy to tell.

 

ok great idea, I will check it and update asap.

 

Download an app and do a 0-60 run, post times here. Or drag race hers 0-40 or 0-60 (don't break any laws, but Disco's wont break laws unless you exceed the speed limit) and see what the difference is. Do 0-60 runs in both and video the instruments while doing it, we can then compare the two. If you have something slipping you will likely have higher rpms at certain points.

The front clutch has been known to go out on early Discos. Recently had a forum member with a bad torque converter - his was slipping and shuddering.

You can check your compression to see if it is low.

 

Post all your mods Including tires, rack, bumpers and I can compare my times

 

Ok so I checked the whole motor running with carb cleaner and starting fluid just to make sure I wasn't missing anything and nothing changed with the RPMs. Could it be a sensor lock the crank or cam or a worn timing chain with slack maybe?. The only reason I'm thinking the torque converter is locked is the RPMs fluctuate with the press of the accelerator until what I'm thinking is locking, then when you push the pedal no RPM changes until it downshifts to a lower gear or it unlocking again.

 

Like I said the carb cleaner trick isn’t a definite I tried it on mine before the smoke machine and with the machine I found 3 different leaks. If you can find one to rent near you or a cheap diy one I seriously would advise it. Super powerful tool to solve a lot of problems