land rover defender.

angryaine

hi,
i have a 1987 land rover defender diesel 2.5. smashin jeep, b. Ihad left it in a shed for a few months, and recently i went to take it out. when i got in i pressed in the clutch pedal to make sure it was out of gear. but the pedal didnt come back up! dammit!
so i started it in neutral, then turned it off again, put it in gear. After a jumpy start (in gear) i drove it around for a few mins hoping the clutch pedal would pop out - no such luck!
i tried swearing at it but that didnt make much difference.
i think the clutch may be stuck/wedged on the spline that goes to the flywheel, as theres no pressure pushing the pedal back into its undepressed position. to fix this i think i may have to drop out the gearbox, which i dont want to tackle!


at the weekend in going to let up the clutch, open the bleed screw on the slave cylinder, and depress it, and see if fluid comes out? if it does that will rule out the chamber seals where the fliud is held.


thats my thinking of whats wrong, has anyone got any ideas what else it could be?

cormac_byrne

Have you checked there is fluid in the reserevoir?

MercMad

at the weekend in going to let up the clutch, open the bleed screw on the slave cylinder, and depress it, and see if fluid comes out? if it does that will rule out the chamber seals where the fliud is held.

.............yeah that should give you a clue. Also a good way to bleed these is to connect the clutch cylinder to one of your brake caliper bleed nipples, open its and pump.

If you start the car in gear, yeah I know it'll be rough so leave plenty of room, and it drives forward in first gear with no clutch slip then you have ruled out any mechanical issues with the throwout bearing !

101sean

It's unusual for the clutch pedal to stick down unless the the release fork has broken which is a weak point on pre TD5 vehicles (yours strictly speaking isn't a Defender, wern't named that until '94)

If the driven plate was stuck to the flywheel, the pedal would still come up. If it is stuck, jack up a wheel, start in gear and stamp on brake, usually shocks it off.

Can you actually pull the pedal up by hand? Is there any sign of fluid dripping on the clutch pedal or dripping out the bellhousing drain?

Might pay you to ask on one of the Land Rover forums (no disrespect to experts on here ), best is probably http://www.landrovernet.com/forum/ but there are others, I lurk on most of them :rolleyes:
For gods sake don't call it a jeep on there though, you'll get heaps of abuse chucked at you!

JohnBoy

dont rule out the possibility of the release bearing being stuck , happened me in a rangie (same box), but probably more likely is that the release fork is broken or worn through.

if its a straight (ie non turbo) diesel then the easiest route to the clutch is to pull the engine.

coulpe of hoses, and a few wires, undo the engine mounts and the bellhousing bolts and lift her out.

the landy gearbox is very very lobsided and a bitch to maneuver under the vehicle. if you're gonna take out the box then you're best to remove the handbrake and then split the box and transfer case and then remove the main box, but seriously, its ten times easier to remove the engine.

and just to be really pedantic sean the defender moniker was introduced in 90/91 with the 200tdi engine

angryaine

lots of good info, thanks guys. i;ll be busy for saturday!!
but i have to sell it shortly, I dont have enough room for it. so i want it to have a doe cert with it which will make it easier to sell.

there is fluid in the cylinder, it was the first thing i checked.
will try jacking the wheel and doing that trick.
Dont particularly want to pull the engine and box apart, intresting point about taking out the engine and not the box tho, could save me a day and a halfs work by the sound of it, have better ways to fill in a weekend, so thanks again!

i attached a pic of it, not looking the mae west in it mind!

JohnBoy

how much do you want for it?

angryaine

not too sure, what are they worth?
dont see too many for sale though.

JohnBoy

as is, hard to say without seeing it to be honest.

they're not particularly rare or special but a really clean, and i mean really clean would be only worth two and a half.

but as a non runner thats out of test i personally wouldnt give more than a grand.

if you can get it running and tested you should easily be able to double that. but how much that will cost will depend on whether you can do the work yourself or not.

parts can be got cheap from www.paddockspares.com shipping is 10 sterling to ireland per 30kg box.