What is that I hear???

[muddyjames]

Is it the sound of a diesel engine coming into life? 

Or was it me swearing and cursing for quiet a few hours? 

I think it is both. YIPPEEE 

After my mate coming up and helping fit the last few bits we conected the battery on the disco and the ignition came on. No keys anywhere near it! I put 2 earth wires onto the fuse box. Haynes book of lies again!

Removed those and then tried again. Nothing. Tiddly squat. The wire we didnt know where it went, went on the starter motor for the link from the ignition.

So again we tried. Er, er, er, er ,er, er, er, went the engine. So we jump started it. er, er, er, er, er, er,. For 2 hours it went on like this. I knew fro the first second I tried the glow plugs werent kicking in as I couldnt hear the relay.

I suggested a wire from + terminal on battery to stop solonoid. My mate didnt like the idea of that.

So I phoned a friend. He reckoned it was the immobiliser has kicked in and wont release after being disconected from the battery for so long. So it needs to be reset. He suggested a wire from + terminal to stop solonoid! My mate said but how do we stop it? I said pull the wire off the battery!!!   We gave it a go and with no spluttering or anything it fired straight up with no glow plugs either. But uh oh. what is all that wet spray from. Doh, we forgot to do the injector back up after we tested to see if fuel was going through them!!! It sounded sweet on 3 cylinders though.

Injectore back in, fired it up again and wow.   IT sounds SO much better than my old engine ever did. It just purs.

So far I have flushed the water system through a few times to get veg oil out. Still needs doing a couple more times, new fan belt is needed, oil change needs doing just to be on the safe side, and some gentle test driving to be done too. The imobiliser problem has been over come by a wire from battery through a inline fuse, to the switch I used for veg oil change over tank then to stop solonoid. So now to start and stop disco I need to put ignition on, flick switch, then turn key the full way. To stop I do the same otherwise I have the key in my hand and engine still runs.   clever trick if you need to nip in the house for something you forogot!!! 

I have done a 200yard test drive so far and wow it is good. Power steering is a bit lumpy but that may just be where it hasnt been running in ages or got an air leek in the system. I have no kick down system for the auto box as that is a huge job which even my ate says he doesnt want to attempt. But I think no kick down will be better when towing anyway. I sometimes want that little extra power but in same gear. I can manually select a lower gear anyway and the disco will drop a gear eventually. Cant see anything wrong to me.

So all is good.   Just have to do all tha bove jobs by friday when I go off on hols (not towing anything though)

It is like I have bought a new car!

[landroverkeith]

congrats and well done james  :D

[muddyjames]

tried to change the fan belt today. Please note, tried! The new one is about 3mm too short to hook over the last pulley etc. I t drove me mad so I gave up and put the old one back on and went for a test drive.

Power steering problems could be due to the front tyres quiet low on air. Would that make jolty steering? I havent touched the gearbox except no kick done fitted yet but the gears change so smoothly I didnt even notice them change except for the rev counter dropping. This new engine is awesome. So much quieter and lovely. I am amazed. If this is what a 300tdi should sound like then my old engine was on it's last legs from the day I bought it!

[muddysteve]

So I phoned a friend. He reckoned it was the immobiliser has kicked in and wont release after being disconected from the battery for so long. So it needs to be reset. He suggested a wire from + terminal to stop solonoid!

 

you might want to get alarm sorted in the not to distant future though mate

[muddyjames]

Yes, thank you steve for that advise. 

I am going to get disco running and test drive it loads before I sort alarm out as I am going to guess it is going to be more mega money to sort out.  :'(

[Dr.Ed]

could be the "spider" unit causing trouble, fix here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stage1v8/TechnicalSpider.htm

on the fan belt front, can you just "hook" it over the last pulley? if so you can pull it onto the pulley completely by turning the engine over by hand - may have to use a long ratchet bar on the crank as you've got an auto!

[muddyjames]

Tried to do the hook the belt over trick but just cant quiet get it on. With holding the belt tensioner up, which I eneded up doing with dog leads on a breaker bar down to the wheel to hold it in place and also asking my lodger in his work clothes to hold the bar I couldn't do it. I tried every pulley except the engine one as there was veg oily waterl on the floor from where I took some water pipes off to get better access.

Is a new belt always a tight fit or have I been given the wrong belt? should there be play when it first goes on or is a new belt always very tight and stretches a little to be the correct length?

[bilge rat]

hi james glad you getting things sorted , there is two belts listed on the 300 engine . so i guess thats your prob . the spider is a pain or can be . i re soldered mine but you can by pass it iff you want . rover even do a bypass plug i have the no somewhwere iff you need it but you have to strip the ctr of the dash out to fit it . there is another way involves re wiring  a couple of relays dont think its difficult . good luck ..will i see ya at billing then ?. alan....

[muddyjames]

I looked at Dr Eds link and it shows all the dash appart. What a nightmare. Will stick to my way for now I think!

Cant make billing this year as I go on hols on saturday and busy on friday with dog to vets for stitches out. Gutted.

[Disco Matt]

The alarm spider fix doesn't take that long - the main finger-hurting bits in my experience are removing the coin tray and clock. Apart from that if you work slowly and methodically it will be fine.

Can sympathise on the belt, I spent about fifteen minutes this morning wrestling with the self-tensioning thing on mine so I could get the aircon drive belt off. The idler bearing on the compressor is still making horrible noises and as I won't be able to get it to the main dealer for a month or so I've pulled the belt off for now.