Better post a picture of that front shaft. There must be a slip joint otherwise it wouldn't work.

 

Looking back at my post, I realize how dumb that sounded. What I meant is whether it's some type of sealed slip joint/yolk, and whether that's ok. I'm going back under right now to grab some pictures.

 

Hey team, I would really appreciate some help on something. I was driving the Disco today and decided to go through a little snow drift. Truly, it wasn't anything too big (maybe 18 inches high). I went straight at it and over it without any problem.

However, after crossing the drift, I now have the "Transmission Oil Temperature" Light on. According to the manual, this occurs when the gearbox temp gets too high, and tends to happen when pushing the beast or in really hot weather. It's 15 degrees here and I was driving an empty rover. Moreover, it happened immediately after going over/through the snow drift. So I don't think there's actually a temperature issue.

Even further, the manual says wait a few minutes and the light will turn off. It's now been sitting outside in 10 degree weather for 4 hours, and the light turned on instantly with the car. Heat can't be the issue.

My scanner is at home (I'm two hours away from there), so I can't run a scan. It's worth noting that the vehicle drove just fine to get us here.

Lastly, a very brief visual inspection doesn't show any leaking or anything--car is still driving normal.

All of this leads me to think that no actual overheating is occurring. I'm guessing I messed up a sensor or something along those lines. I was wondering if any of you had experience with something like this. I found a lot of posts about people actually having an overheating issue, but nothing like my situation.

Unfortunately, I'm not really in a position to get under the vehicle and see what's going on (snow on the ground+hotel parking lot). I'm prepared to purchase a cheap tarp from Walmart and go under if necessary, but I'd rather avoid it if possible.

Any help would be incredibly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

For those of you waiting with bated breath. I checked back a couple hours later and the sensor was off. Stayed off ever since (including 3 hour drive home).

I think some moisture got up there and grounded a sensor, or something. Will definitely follow up when the polar vortex leaves!

 

Replaced both idler pulleys in the hopes that it would take care of my engine's whine. Also flushed power steering fluid and put in some Lucas additive. Unfortunately, Rex the Rover whines just as much as before.

All the same, I'd never removed a serpentine belt before. And I managed to remove it, change the pulleys, and get it back on without too too much trouble--I consider that a victory.

Determined that the vexing front slip joint didn't have a grease zerk because it's sealed and non serviceable.

Made a minor upgrade inside with the replacement of the Parking brake and High/Low vinyl. The parking brake was particularly worn; so the upgrade is palpable.

On the topic of the high low shifter, I had a question I couldn't find the answer to in the forums. How hard should it be to shift from High to Low? I've done it a couple times, and it definitely shifts. However, it takes a decent bit of muscle to get it up into low. Hard to describe how much muscle, but it's enough that someone who didn't know better might stop for fear of breaking something--a decent bit of muscle. Is that normal? If not, what can I do to make it shift easier? Should this worry me?

On the to do list:

Transmission Flush
Coolant Flush
A good cleaning of the engine and engine bay
Change rear wiper to D1 (already did the fronts)
Replace power steering pump (that's well in the future)
Headliner painting -- definitely a summer job. Decided I'm going to go with a rubberized black to have nice contrast with the tan.

Once completed, I'll be pretty much done with the 90k checklist.

 

You might want to start posting questions in something other than your intro post so more people will look at them.


Your slip joint can be greased, you just have to put in a zerk to grease it. The shaft is so close to the catalytic converter that a fitting would likely get broken off so they install a threaded plug instead. You need to remove the plug with an allen wrench, thread in a zerk, inject grease, pull the zerk and reinstall the plug. You will find it towards the end of the outer shaft.