Finally picked myself up my future off-road toy. 2000 Land Rover Discovery II. V8 (Bosch - this was made when BMW owned LR). (13/17 mpg LOL). 101K miles but in great condition. It had oil and also had a leak. Valve covers were leaking so I had a local shop do those as well as replace the blower motor relay for the A/C. I checked underneath and the front driveshaft has been rebuilt (u-foints all have zerks) so that's good. It was a weak link and could come apart and DESTROY your transmission ($4K) if not addressed since LR for some retarded reason decided that zerk fittings on the u-joints were a bad idea. So when the grease was gone, you had a 3500 RPM time-bomb under your ass. This one has zerks (so you can grease them) on all the u-joints and has no free-play at all. I'm going to keep it as-is for a few thousand miles before I do anything to it. A proper 4'-5" lift will come when I decide it's time but will be done at the same time as the gears, lockers, axles (stronger), brake lines, bumpers, rock-sliders, cage ,etc. My buddy will do all the fab work for links and armor. I'll do the lift myself. Only body damage is the front bumper on the right side (surprise-surprise... common issue since they get brittle like glass after many years of sun) but I'll be replacing that anyway with an metal plate winch-bumper. I can deal with it for now. The headliner is sagging but I'll just rip that out and paint it instead of re-upholstering it (no sun-roofs so it should be easy). The fender plastic will also be repainted with plastikote and primer after a good sanding then coated with a good UV clear like the stuff from Line-X. Everything works all the way down to the heated seats. I feel really good after looking over it myself and having just got it back from my mechanic and having him look over it as well. Looks like the PO (i'm the 2nd owner) took very good care of it and did a great job keeping it up in good running condition. Tires are about 75% on the rolling stock and 100% on the spare. I have both key-fobs (both need replacement though) as well as the valet key. Well here are some pics. Paid $4500 for her. Paint is awesome (looks like it spent it's life indoors). Interior is pretty good. The suede on the door panels have some wear as does the steering wheel but that's expected after 101K. It doesn't look like much now but I hope to get it similar to this one within the year. I will also do update the front clip so it will look the same.
I actually looked at Jeeps (TJ) but everybody seems to think they are worth 3X what they are really worth down here in SoCal. It's retarded. $13K for a stock TJ with 120K? No fuckin way. This has a stock 4-link, bulletproof trans and transfer case, center diff lock and stronger axles for 1/3 of the price. Land Rovers are a fussy beast of a vehicle and I would not recommend one to just anyone but if you turn wrenches and don't mind the little annoyances now and then, it's a great truck (yep truck. as in fully boxed frame and body on top with dual solid drive axles ). Besides, I think it's sexy.
My 05 LJ "Rubicon Sahara" ...yes rubicon and sahara together as one! I only use it for hunting. Got her with less than 50k on the clock and under $15k. Crappy cell pics
Yeah, I remember your Jeep. I like it. The LWB not so much but it's all dependent on what you want to use it for. What's laying on top of your windshield?
man thats a huge engine.. the jeep hype is still going on? i remember they were like $4.5k.. then $5.2k,, then suddenly shot up to $7.6k to about $9k in like a period of 2 years!! man im deciding whether i should fix my pos project, get it running and sell it, and pick up a better project in better condition, or just drive this one to the ground..
Fix it up as best you can and sell it. If nobody wants it, part it out. You'll probably make more than your money back parting it out (over time). Post a listing on CL. Describe the vehicle and all the fearures/options. Then list what you know is not working. Update the ad as you sell stuff off. We all told you not to buy it but you didn't listen!
Cool project 4X4. It'll be a great recreational ride. I agree that jeeps are so overpriced for what they are. I'm looking at getting a utility tough 4X4 for getting around in the boonies. Thinking maybe a 65-78 scout, SWB P/U or land cruiser type of vehicle. Strait carb, no EI or smog. I want something I'm not afraid to get scratched up or dented with good ground clearance. I really don't even care what it looks like, so long as it's rock solid and tough. I like the 78 land cruiser w/ the stock I6 and PTO transfer case. They are not easy to find.
Very cool. I heard the engines in those things are very finicky hope you dont have any problems with it. What about a hardcore crawler project?
There are a few companies out there. Old Man Emu is probably the most heard of. Yeah. All aluminum V8. They don't take kindly to overheating. I plan on throwing a really nice coolant temp gauge in there very soon as well as a proper oil pressure gauge. The crawler will come in time. That will still most likely be a Toyota pickup.
Nice truck. I will get it out of the way now and say that I've never been a fan of Land Rovers, but yours looks like it was taken care of. When I saw the first picture it reminded me of one I saw when I worked at the oil change shop in high school, that same green color. The thing had just over 100k and was leaking oil from every possible gasket and had a quiet but distinctive rod knock. I was just like when I looked at how many miles it had and all of the issues that came with it. But personally, I would have a hard time spending over $1000 on something I knew I was going to take off road and scratch/smash up. :] I'm curious as to how the u-joints taking a shit would destroy the transmission. I've never seen that happen before, I suppose I could see the rotational mass MAYBE destroying the output shaft or shearing the splines off of it (or the t-case), is this a Land Rover thing? Every "worst case scenario" broken u-joint issue I've seen is it will just break the driveshaft, if it blows when the vehicle is in motion. Also, if that $4k for the transmission is just for the price of a used transmission with no labor or anything... SHEEEEEESH. That's wild expensive. And the blower motor relay- that also seems like an uncommon part to go. Usually it's the blower motor itself, the climate control switch, or the blower motor resistor that goes... when the resistor goes, usually it'll only work on one or two of the speeds instead of all. Which reminds me, from the few (broken) Land Rovers I've seen or diagnosed, they sure seem like a bucket full of electrical problems waiting to happen. Not trying to hate on your truck because it's definitely a nice score... I guess I'll shut up now. I hope you will start a build thread and we will get to see this project start to take shape. Better sooner than later. :] I <3 doing suspension work... but I'm usually lowering vehicles instead of lifting them (I've never owned a truck for longer than a few days)
As I understand it, when the u-joint give out the driveshaft hits the trans case and puts a nice sized hole in it. The transmission price is actually less than half of that. About $1500. Somebody told me it was $4K but I think he is full of shit. http://www.roverlandparts.com/discovery-transmissions-complete.aspx As far as a build thread goes, of course! I'll start on little projects like the headliner soon. The lift won't be for a several months. I want to make sure everything is squared away before I do anything major.
Hmm. By "trans case" do you mean transfer case? Or transmission case? If the u-joint at the output shaft gave out, it would still be connected at the rear end (talking about rear driveshaft) and it would just finish it's rotating, but wouldn't be long enough to smack the transmission/output shaft. If it gave out at the rear end and it was still connected to the transmission, it would be a spinning, flying mess and maybe hit your gas tank or anything else in the way... but I'm not seeing how it would be able to smack into the transmission case. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm trying to give you a hard time (no homo), that's not my intention, I'm just not seeing how it would happen. And the $1500 is much better than $4000. Those trucks are kind of rare (around here at least) and I don't recall seeing any in the junkyard. Might turn out to be a pain the ass to get parts for.
It's actually the front driveshaft that causes the damage. The double-cardan joint breaks at the transfer-case and the shaft slams into the side of the transmission case. http://www.okierover.com/discodriveshaft.htm Parts are everywhere out here. There's always one on CL being parted out. Have not tried the junk-yards yet but I'm sure there would be some in the Fontana yard (biggest yard in So Cal).
Ahhh okay, I guess I missed the part about the front. I'd like to do some junkyarding out in California. When I was in Salt Lake almost 3 years ago, I was in awe about a yard there called "European Only". All kinds of VWs/Audis, Porsches, Land Rovers, Mercedes... hell, I'd almost make the 24 hour drive back out there just to check out that yard again. I'm sure they'd have a couple of Discoveries there, but that's also like a 10 hour haul for you. Pointless when you can find it in SoCal.
Fixed one end of a small radiator-to-overflow tank hose the other day. It was clamped with fuel-injection clamps and they were old and tired so I had a small coolant leak. Fixed that and the annoying coolant smell it had went away. Took the dogs to the car-wash with me today and the other end of the line (to the radiator) blew out. I should have done them both but... oh well. I replaced the clamp on the other sided but discovered the reason it blew out (besides a probable worn FI clamp) was that half the plastic nipple the hose was supposed to slide over was missing. Anyway, I got that fixed with another screw-clamp. My driver-side headlamp had moisture in it so I pulled the lamp and cleaned it out. The seal/gasket was not doing it's job anymore so I was going to reseal it with silicone but it got too late (working outside) so I'll finish that up tomorrow and that should solve my truck's "pink-eye" issue. Replaced the valve cover gaskets last week. I want to do a cooling system pressure test as well as compression tests on each cylinder sometime this month. The I'll do a write-up on the headliner job when I actually get a full weekend off again.
Nigga if California wasn't a 32 hour drive for me, I would. European Only was around Salt Lake. I want to say Lehi, Utah. Nevermind. Looked it up. It's in Orem, Utah. My friends dad lives in Provo so last time I was out there we checked it out. Benzs, Porsches, VW/Audis, BMWs galore. It took me 24 hours to get to Utah from here. Not to mention I drove for 20 of those hours, by the end I was fuckin' hallucinating I was so tired.
