[Manuuj]

was my expression when i read about the amazing manner in which the Disco landed in your lap.

As my jaw slowly returned to its intended position it was dislodged once again by the pic of the restored and gleaming example you have so painstakingly turned it into.

Congratulations and full honors to the Engineer brothers for the part they played in it.
Also a salute to the deserving Akbar for his enthusiasm for the "German Four Dekker".

Tonga Green Metallic is the color of my Range Rover also. We imported it in 2008 through Navnit Motors and drove it back up north.
Incidentally the "ehehehehe..RUAAAAARRRR" is spot on!

A few pics of the Rangie when new and some action pics too.

[adg_andy]

Baba Samananda, your bhakts are waiting to hear more. Did the second gear issue get resolved after the restoration? Eager to know..and let us have some prasaad of your words

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by adg_andy

Baba Samananda, your bhakts are waiting to hear more. Did the second gear issue get resolved after the restoration? Eager to know..and let us have some prasaad of your words

LOL@ Baba Samananda (must remember that one)

The second gear issue was resolved last year itself by Allan - the 4X4 expert from Team-BHP. He performed a fairly complex gearbox repair.

[Cj3bDog]

Since the time I have been going through Team-BHP site, I have read about Sam Kapasi's YetiBlogs. What exactly does he write and why do people read and go through his blogs so much.

Now I know the reason WHY?

Waiting for the pics from you of the Landy's interior's.

[ab500]

Hi Sam,

Would love to hear an update about your Discovery with some current pictures. Always a pleasure to read your updates.

[infotech58]

so lucky you are and what a writeup !

the restored LR looks just awesome. please share some more pictures (and interior pictures too).

i drove a '97 Land Rover for almost 1000 miles in US around the yosemites region and it was such a mean machine.

[spawnofsatan]

Your Discovery looks gorgeous, the paint looks great. I have recently restored my 86 Range Rover as well heres the link http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ve...ic-3-5-v8.html

We got a very in depth resto done, getting delivery this saturday, now only lift kit, bigger tyres left.

Do you still have the steel wheels from your Disco with you? I'd be interested in them!!

[Gujarati]

Great story on the Discovery. Any particular reason you changed the wheel and picked those wheels? I did a search locally in my area and these are the original wheels that came on the Discovery I believe. They can be bought for around Rs. 5000 here. I like the original wheels better.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by ab500

Hi Sam,

Would love to hear an update about your Discovery with some current pictures. Always a pleasure to read your updates.

Next post will be a comprehensive update

Originally Posted by spawnofsatan

Do you still have the steel wheels from your Disco with you? I'd be interested in them!!

Sorry, I flogged them. They were not in good condition anyway.

Originally Posted by Gujarati

Great story on the Discovery. Any particular reason you changed the wheel and picked those wheels? I did a search locally in my area and these are the original wheels that came on the Discovery I believe. They can be bought for around Rs. 5000 here. I like the original wheels better.

If I had those wheels, I would not have changed them.

I had the steel wheels. And they were in bad shape. One was bent. The others had issues with corrosion and/or keeping the tyres healthy.

We had to apply some rubber paint compound type thing called Japan black (don't ask, I don't know) to ensure that the tyres remained inflated.

I then decided to look for wheels, as the Rover has an unusual PCD. Around that time, my friend Santhosh (Steeroid) located an old Range Rover with these wheels. The alloy wheels were used but in great shape.

Not only were these present on the Range Rover, but ALSO as an option on the 1993 Land Rover Discovery. Based on those facts, he gifted me the wheels for my birthday and shipped them to Mumbai.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Jaggu]

So how is she running? Did you manage to do any other upgrades What happened to comprehensive update?! And get that cam and post some decent shots.

[Sam Kapasi]

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a BHPian asking me if I'd sold the Land Rover because:

• I hadn't posted any updates
• He saw a green Discovery in Bangalore and suspected it was mine

This also was not the first time I had answered question to that tune. The answer?


No. Not by a long shot. The Land Rover is with me and I intend to love it for a while.


But it really has not been easy. In fact the Land Rover has been a labour of love, often disappointing and sometimes frustrating. Especially since I am not a Jeeper or a machine-crazy enthusiast.
I'm simply the Yeti®, no more.


Here's the story:


Leading upto the restore a lot of things had been changed on the Land Rover. Before the bodywork, here is a small list of things (off the top of my head)

• New Clutch (turns out that wasn't really a problem)
• Gearbox rebuild
• New Alternator
• new Air conditioning system (Sanden compressor, the works)
• Filters (oil/air etc)
• New hoses. All hoses. Radiator, intercooler, etc.
• New waterpump

One good thing was that everything replaced, was replaced because of failure (meaning, the replacement was never preventive). But you must understand my frustration, the Land Rover had failed at least 15 times since I had it.


Plus there was a niggling problem that I had tried to address often. The Landy was overheating. I had tried everything (notice the new rubber hoses, air filters and waterpump changes)
And yet, it wasn't quite there.


During and after the bodywork I had ordered more things from the UK

• All lights (signals, headlamp beams)
• Mud flaps
• Windscreen finishers, beadings all external rubber
• Wheels from Santhosh, as described in the previous post
• Little Land Rover original centrecaps for the wheels. A stunning detail.
• new brake shoes, clamps and more.

After the body had been completely restored, I even went as far as recreating the original 1993 graphics (the Land Rover Logo, Discovery with the mountain, TDI and more)


And yet. I had a beautiful shiny Land Rover. Was everything OK? No.

• Brake leaking and failing (new brake cylinder set)
• SQUEAL. SQUEAL SQUEAL SQUEAL!!

basically after the brake shoes were replaced, the Landy would squeal like a bus/truck everytime I touched the brake.


Land Rover forums taught me that it was a case of resonance frequencies between the discs and shoes and a particular resonant audible frequency.
Damping might help, changing shoes to original LR parts might help. (I had been opting for cheaper alternative parts from the UK, Britpart and Allmakes etc)


After some time, we sorted the SQUEAL - damping and replacement of rear shoes. Things were looking better.


Then the clutch would fail every now and then.


Basically the clutch would work fine. But on a long drive the oil would drop in level and the clutch would tend to get less effective. I had started carrying oils in the back and had now become a half-baked land rover recovery expert.

Put Dot3 oil in clutch reservoir.
PUMP PUMP PUMP. Ah, the "feeling" has returned to clutch.
Explain to people why left thigh was more muscular than right.


This was not part of the plan! The plan was to enjoy the romance of a Land Rover. This was turning into a liability.


SELL IT my family would urge me. You don't even have the time to do this anymore. besides, the Land Rover never works when you want it to.


Add to that my greatest woe. The constant overheating.

But I had gotten this far. This car was almost restored. Come on, Akbar and I were almost there.

Weren't we?

-------------------------------------------


Note: Please don't offer me advice on the problems. Please wait for the next update. Trust me, I've found my way around inside the engine compartment of a Land Rover.

[Sam Kapasi]

It happened a couple of months ago.

I had already driven the Land Rover a couple of times to Pune, to our weekend home. But of course, never in the summer.

I had always driven in the monsoon or winter. The last monsoon I drove the LR, water leaked in from the windshield (fixed after the body work, new rubber beading and windscreen finisher strips)

And then in winter? (Outside temperature between 15 and 20)

Basically if I went over 2500 RPM for over 10 minutes, the temp gauge would rise quickly to over half. Once the temp gauge was over half, the car would misbehave in general.
If I tried to bhagao, the temp gauge would hit full H and then warning lights would start blinking in the dash.

I'd have to slow down and drive below 2000 rpm for a while, till the warning lights went off. Of course I'd the put the AC off, but the AC wasn't doing much of a job anyway.
Radiator water/coolant would be over almost everyday.

To be honest I was really miserable.

Then in May I drove in the LR to Pune. My wife and I. By day.

May was hot. before I reached New Bombay, the car had gone into overheat mode. I had to put the AC off and drive slowly.
It was hot (almost 39 or 40 degrees that day) and we were sweating and miserable.
Even if I treid the AC, it would spew out warm air. Even though I had had the gas and everything checked.

Somehow made it to the outskirts of Pune, when the clutch failed entirely, while I was in traffic. In that sticky, sweltering heat, opened the hood of an overheating Land Rover, trying to open the clutch reservoir, too hot to handle.

Pumping the clutch got some feel back.

The glass was dirty. The wipers were stuck, I sprayed water and pushed the wiper. But the water that came out of the jets was HOT, burnt my hands.

Oh this was all terrible!!

And then, the morning when we were to drive back to Bombay, the clutch failed. Like dead. No amount of pumping and oil helped.

SELL THE DAMN THING screamed my wife before she stormed back into the house.

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I was going to get this back to normal, or sell it. Enough was enough.

[Sam Kapasi]

It isn't easy, owning an old Land Rover.

Sir, gaadi kabhi fail nahi hui hai says Akbar, after he has has somehow brought the LR back home the next day. (A local ingenious garage provided a quickfix to the clutch)

Arrey kya fail nahi hui, say I. Madam toh mereko gaali deti hai maloom?? Gaadi barabar madam ke saamne hi fail hoti hai hamesha.

Lekin har baar naya problem hai. Clutch cylinder fail hai. Pehele kabhi fail nahi hua!!

Akbar's reasoning is: If a problem is solved and it remains solved, that's cool. See if everything fails once and the part is replaced, repaired, then the car is on its way to getting better. A car is a problem when it has the SAME failure repeatedly. new failures are always welcome.

Phir kabhi aisa gaadi nahi milega Sir, socho!!

I know he's right.

I've had enough, I explain to him. I cannot take it anymore. We had changed the clutch cylinder earlier.
That was the MASTER cylinder, he explains (not in those words) this is the slave cylinder that has failed. AND NOW we KNOW where to find parts.

---------------------------------------------------------

During his free time, Akbar likes to walk around the auto parts market, since my office is in the area. In one of those walks he has found a store that stocks every single part for old land rovers, just slightly more expensive than the UK or Dubai.

He has walked up to the owner of the store (Akbar is never afraid to challenge people) and asked him if he has parts for a Discovery 200TDi 1993. The owner has smiled and showed him his OWN car. Also a 1993 200Tdi.

Akbar has had a seizure in his excitement.

SAME TO SAME GAADI!! SAME TO SAME!! Mackwheel nai tha baaki SAME TO SAME!
Phone karo unko. Yeh loh card baat karo!!

I speak to a decent gentleman and ask him about some parts, including the clutch slave cylinder.
He has the parts. Ready. In fact he has every part mentioned in my handbook.

Don't worry Sir. I will always ensure that your Land Rover is always roadworthy I quote him word for word.

We've finally found a supplier for parts.

------------------------------------------------

Sir ek last chance. Aap MEREKO karne do jo karna hai. Mere upar chod do. Leave it to me, let me fix the Land Rover once and for all.

Give me one last chance. If I don't get it right, we can sell the car.

[CARDEEP]

Sam... must admit, Akbar is as much petrol head as any other guy in the forum. Wish all drivers were like yours .

[BANDHAV]

And then?

Sam don't make us wait so much, bring it on.