Hey All

2004 Disco with rebuilt engine. Using it as a daily driver commuting to and from work (50 miles per day). Getting ready to take the beast off road for the first time and I have no idea about whether the low range works or not. I plan on finding a place to try it out this weekend. No idea when (if ever) the low range was ever used. Is there anything I need to inspect before I try this out? Any preventative maintenance?

 

A place to try it? Just engage it in a parking lot, driveway, etc. Generally its something one should exercise every so often anyway.

 

Remember if that lever should move to the left to engage the CDL as well as forward and aft from High to Low. If no movement, corrosion has got you on the linkage and you’ll need to get that released with a first try with some penetrating oil.

 

Thanks. Noob question: how do I get to the linkage to lube it up? Can’t seem to find it in the RAVE.

 

If I were you I wouldn't worry about that until there's a confirmed need.

You can check Low Range anywhere; you just can't drive at street or highway speed.

You can check CDL anywhere too, so long as you don't turn unless you are in ice, snow, sand or loose dirt. If on dry pavement you can engage CDL and drive in a straight line; in a big parking lot for example.

 

I'm not normally contrarian but I would get under there and spray some PB Blaster on the clevis' (clevi?) and pivot points just for the sake of it. It won't cause any harm to due so, and could prevent undo strain on they system. An ounce of prevention so to speak. If you get under the truck you'll see the cables and linkages. Some bits are easier to see than others but use your intuition and follow the big thick cables to their end points and you'll see the parts that move. Here's what the top end looks like, a liberal spraying from underneath of the general area, trying to pinpoint the areas where the cables start and stop is what you want to do.

 

Yeah, I suppose it can't hurt, but with the '04 t-case shifter it's much more likely any problem would be inside the t-case.

 

I dunno. I see an awful lot of 2004 people saying that their shift cables need to be used every so often to prevent them from seizing up. For the most part the transfer case seems to be a low-failure component.
The D1 shifter is much more solidly mechanical and doesn't suffer from that type of problem.

 

Well, I can also say that I don't think the PO ever used the CDL in my truck (as in ever, she was a friend of mine and not one prone to trying new things so to speak) and mine was nearly impossible to move in any direction when I got it. Therefore I'm a little overly sensitive here. Having since disassembled that truck (frame rot) the sheet metal tunnel takes quite a beating when excess force is used to move the lever around. I don't think LR envisioned frozen linkage being a problem, some reinforcement there would have been prudent.

 

I stand corrected.