Well, there have been a few issues since the Tdi running-in started. With about 150 miles under its belt, the gearbox has started occasionally jumping out of fourth gear on the over-run.
I have removed the top cover of the gearbox again, suspecting that this problem is down to me disturbing the positions of the selector forks on their shafts when I replaced their seals. This has been addressed, with some mal-adjustment found on the 3rd/4th fork.
I also found some excessive end float on the main shaft. This was solved simply by removing the overdrive and tightening the big nut on the drive member as much as possible (about 120’lbs).
I also got fed up with the difficulty of checking the engine oil level. I had fitted a Defender 200 dipstick with the old 19J’s tube as the Discovery dipstick’s curvature would prevent it fitting with the Defender manifolds. However, the position of the Defender’s dipsick handle is very low (as on earlier 4-cylinder engines), putting it below the turbo charger. With the air hose from the snorkel to the air filter just outboard of the turbo, it was very difficult to reach the dipstick, and even more difficult to re-insert it into its tube. I straightened out the Discovery tube and removed the mounting bracket that normally secures it to the Discovery’s top intake manifold (to prevent it damaging the turbo hoses). The dipstick is now easily used and read, and its position is secured by the surrounding turbo outlet hose, oil pipes and intake hose.
The engine idle is slightly less smooth than the first 100 miles. It has been suggested that this is due to the compression of the cylinders improving as the rings bed in. It’s by no means rough, and the 200Tdi is not renowned for smoothness, so this seems a reasonable cause. The warm oil pressure is also lower than at the beginning of the running-in period, but I believe this to be a combination of the thin oil, the crank shaft bearings bedding in and the assemblly grease having been flushed out of the bearings.
I have still to finish re-assembling the cab floor after the gearbox work, but once this is done, I’ll be able to update you all on whether the seector adjustments were successful. I’ll also have a new rear prop shaft to fit next weekend, so that should sort out that high speed vibration.
Congratulations – reads well from Australia!! Keep it up.
Nick,
My IIa’s just started doing this – did you ever find out what it was?
Hi Melt,
Which problem are you getting? If it’s the 4th gear jumping out in over-run, then I’m unsure what the problem is; after fiddling about with the selectors, it was good for a couple of days, but the fault has returned. I’m going to try a slightly different position with the synchro hub, carrier end float and selector rod all set at dead centre for neutral to set the fork position.
I enquired with some specialists whether the negative torque through the lay shaft could be moving the input shaft inward, knocking the synchro hub out of the detents. It has been suggested to me that a worn spigot bush in the end of the crank shaft could allow the input shaft to oscillate enough to throw the gear out, but it seemed fine when I checked it on the engine build up.