Panic at the Disco

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Mtns2Skies

Final Approach
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Jul 12, 2008
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Mtns2Skies
So the Saga of the Disco began with @Ted here:
https://pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/thinking-about-an-atv-tow-behind-for-the-rv.127870/
https://pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/thinking-about-ls-swapping-the-discovery.129858/
https://pilotsofamerica.com/communi...thinking-about-cat-swapping-the-disco.130298/

So now it's mine. As chronicled here:
https://pilotsofamerica.com/communi...-behind-for-the-rv.127870/page-3#post-3514934

I guess the thread title could have been "More than thinking about Ecoboost Swapping the Disco"... but panic is far more appropriate.

But alas I've made progress in the week I've had it home. Progress in emptying my wallet, and emptying out the Rover.

I've gotten extraneous wiring out, charcoal canister deleted, I cut out the sway bars, removed the vacuum lines, transmission cooler & lines gone and about as disassembled as I'm going to go at this point.

On order I have:
  • Full Ashcroft HD axle shafts front/rear with Ashcroft air lockers, new wheel bearings and seals, and Heavy duty 4.12 Ring/pinion front/rear
  • Brake pads & Rotors, 50mm brake line extension
  • ARB 40mm heavy load lift coil springs front/rear + 1" spring spacer front/rear
  • Terrafirma shock tower
  • Fox Shocks 2.0 remote reservoir long-travel shocks front/rear
  • Terrafirma heavy duty steering arms/track bar
  • Terrafirma steering damper relocation kit + new damper
  • Fender flares + Snorkel
  • Terrafirma cranked radius arms front/rear + all new bushings
Once my 10R80 to LT230 adapter arrives, I'll purchase the transmission + engine... but I've got plenty of work ahead as boxes upon boxes get delivered.

Just due to what's arrived already I pulled the steering arm, steering damper, and track bar. In its place is going the heavy duty replacements, and relocating the steering damper into a far less vulnerable spot.

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If the rest of my axle components don't arrive soon then I'll get started on the new fenders which is going to involve quite a bit of tedious fender trimming and drilling, then it'll be onto patching a few small rust spots in the front wheel wells.

I don't have a fancy youtube channel, but I can chronicle my build here :). I'm doing my best to make it a habit of working on it at least an hour a night, and I'm having an absolute blast so far. It's nice to be able to work on a vehicle without the stress of it being your daily driver and needing it back in one piece the next day. It's a long road and a lot of work before I even get to the engine swap, but it's going to be one hell of a stout build!

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Im sure this will be a New Perspective on rover modifications that you have High Hopes for. Hopefully it goes smoothly and doesnt turn into an Impossible Year long project. If it does you can always Trade Mistakes for something else. Im Old Fashioned and like stock vehicles normally But its Better if You Do some mods since rovers aren't exactly known for reliability. I always think its a bit crazy to take on projects like this but maybe Crazy=Genius. Good luck on your journey Into the Unknown hopefully you'll have some good Memories from this project and it wont make you wanna shove it off The Overpass.
 
Latest update, I've bought a welder and am working to address several of the rust spots. The driver side fender/body is by far the worst of it. I've also got some body rust penetrations on the passenger side fender well up near where the washer fluid canister was. There is some sort of undercoating on the body, and I'm not sure if it was factory or not, but as I grind through it I end up finding more and more rust hidden underneath. So I get to do more and more welding. Luckily so far I've found clean metal around just about everything.

But in the good-news department, my transmission/Tcase adapter shipped, and my MT88 Bronco Transmission arrived. The transmission was on a Bronco that was in a rollover accident with only 240 miles on it - so it's essentially a brand new transmission. I ordered the shifter assembly and clutch pedal from Ford so that should be arriving shortly as well.

Once I finally get a handle on the body rust, I'll rebuild the axles and suspension with all new Ashcroft/Terrafirma parts which should be a fairly quick process.
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I met my one-year goal—just a couple of weeks shy of the anniversary of bringing the Rover home. The entire drivetrain is complete. The full axle, suspension, and steering rebuild is done, with Fox 2.0 reservoir shocks, air lockers, chromoly axle shafts, and a lift. The Ford engine, Ford transmission, and Land Rover transfer case are all bolted together in the vehicle. And piles of rust and other delinquent parts have been replaced while also custom building the beadlock wheel/tire set-up.

It’s been a huge push, but now it’s time to take a breather, do some flight instructing, and I plan to get back to hooking up the engine this fall. I’ll probably still do a few small things over the summer—like getting the steering and alternator installed, and maybe adding more of the armor.

Year 2’s goal: get the thing running and moving under its own power.
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Whoops I kept posting my updates in other forums but forgot y'all.

I've been still plugging along. Two BIG obstacles had to be overcome. The gearbox did interfere with the alternator. I ended up doing the blackbird P38 steering box conversion - that kit was awful. I would have been far better off doing it myself. The kit came with a steering bar that was basically a toothpick, and the clearances were much more wrong than advertised. I spent a couple/few months working through all the fabrication and clearancing. In the end I should have just made my own custom solution with the steering box - that kit was expensive and poorly engineered... at least for a disco 1. Once that was done I got the alternator on its factory location for the engine.

Then the other big obstacle was that the shift cables for the transmission going into the shifter couldn't bend around the transfer case shifter adequately. I spent way too long trying to figure that out, and I ended up pulling the transfer case and deleting the shifter. I took a few rounds to do so but fabricated a mount for air cylinders to change the transfer case to a pneumatic shift solution - it's been tested and works great! This lets me put the transmission shift cables straight into the shifter with no obstacles.

While the transfer case was out I also installed the X-eng parking brake disc brake conversion. Also kind of a crappy kit - but I made it work with some custom modifications.

I'll convert the transfer case shifter area into a spot for pneumatic switches, one for 4wd/2wd, one for high/low range, then a couple switches for my air lockers front/rear.

I took care of the cooling package, I removed the A/C fans to be able to fit the intercooler. Also installed a brand new radiator, and A/C condenser. I got the transmission clutch all hooked up, just need to bleed the system. I also got the clutch depressed switch installed. I got the brake booster vacuum line hooked up to the new engine. Also installed both driveshafts.

Next steps are put the rest of the armor on - rock sliders, diff guard, fuel tank skid plate, rear bumper, ladder. Then keep chugging along on engine connections - Air, PCV, Coolant, Exhaust, Fuel, A/C, Power Steering, electrical... then start the thing!

Kids sure slow this process down - but still chugging along slowly.

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