Land Rover Discovery manual transmission

[TexasTJ]

I have a buddy that looking at a 94 Disco with a 5 speed on CL for about 2 grand.

He like I is new to Rovers. I seam to remember some problems with the Manuals in Discoveries, is that any thing to that? He wants to build a Buggy off the platform, so the Transmission would need to hold up to at least 35’s.

Thanks

Nate

 

[stu454]

$2k is too much for a Disco 1 that will be turned into a buggy.

It should be very clean for that kind of money.

Folks think 'Rover' equals 'big money' on the sale but it's just not true. Big money on repairs, yes. For a sale price, no.

Re: the R380 manual box. Search discoweb.org for reports of issues. Note: discoweb requires thick skin. Bear that in mind if you're too tender from the coddling here:sombrero:

 

[Scott Brady]

Don't buy a disco for use as a buggy. Any full-bodied vehicle is a poor choice for rock bashing. Just like you wouldn't use a Snap-on ratchet as a hammer - buy the right tool for the job. . .

 

[stu454]

I suspect that the body will be a thing of the past in his buggy project.

Todd of toddco had a D1 on 40's that barely resembled a D1. It was very impressive, as well.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Don't buy a disco for use as a buggy. Any full-bodied vehicle is a poor choice for rock bashing. Just like you wouldn't use a Snap-on ratchet as a hammer - buy the right tool for the job. . .

I agree. To me it's like racing cars that started out life as street legal vehicles. Once you've got a gutted, caged, trailered racing "sedan", what's the point? Just buy a Formula Ford and be done with it. Same deal with trucks? Why even bother starting with any street legal truck, if it's just going to be trailered anyway. Even if it's "wink wink nudge nudge, street "legal" but you're not actually driving it on the street with any regularity...

Just pick a powertrain, build a chassis from scratch, and move on. And then once you have made that decision, why would you start with a Land Rover engine?

It's taking me about the same amount of time to fabricate a few pieces of protection to bolt on to my truck, as it took to weld up my entire big ************* trailer from scratch.

 

[SeaRubi]

That people are doing it doesn't mean that it's right. He should start searching through old threads on Pirate and Outerlimits.

If you want a rover buggy you need to be acquiring the donor vehicle for free or less than $500. The V8 is all aluminum and lightweight, and the transfer case is decent, but you're going to have to make up for gearing in the axles to get any kind of crawl ratio that's competitive. Also, the auto is a much better choice for a crawler. The R380 isn't up for that kind of abuse. The other thing that's going to suck is the radius arm front-end. The suitability for rover's suspension has been beat to death on other forums, it doesn't need to be re-hashed on here.

To sum up - your friend needs to decide what he really wants. If it's a buggy, there are much more effective and cost effective means to that end. If he wants to use a Rover because he's a Rover fanatic, then he'd already know what to be doing and he'd also know not to be starting with a $2k Disco that looks like a good runner. I think it's clear what camp he's falling in


cheers,
-ike