Discovery tail gate lock

Andrew Renshaw posted ...

Best investment I always make on vehicles I intend to keep is a gradual replacement of all easily replaceable nuts, screws, bolts and washers for stainless, and preferably hex or tors socket head replacements too.

Many stainless parts are not High-Tensile enough for some bits, but for things like door fixings and ancillary fittings etc are usually good enough .. When I need HT bolts, I use Holo krome or Unbrako Hex Socket bolts ...

It generally takes a while to replace them, but what the hell, it's an on-going thing, right .. ;)

I seem to remember someone posting on here some time ago that stainless and aluminium don't always mix to well so it's not always a great idea.

Some bits of the disco are aluminium aren't they?

Here we go, this is a link to google with some info on it.

On or around 21 May 2004 13:25:12 GMT, Simon Barr enlightened us thusly:

ISTR looking into this and deciding that A2-70 was a reasonable substitute for 8.8, although technically not quite so strong. A2-80 is better but less easily sourced.

Ordinary steel and aluminium don't mix well either, mind... you really need insulation in either case.

I had a few problems over the years with my 96 DISCO SE7, Pass. door, Tail Gate, Driver Door. It seems that there is a little weak spring that fails and then when you unlock the door with the central locking system the mechanism does not engage fully and you can not open the door without 1st to physically pull up on the lock on the door that does not work.

So after taking the whole door apart and calling a few dealers for the part. Which runs 100-250 dollars for the whole latch system. I looked into the latch itself, There is a small steel spring that applys tension to the arm the moves into position to allow you the catch the rest of the mechanism in the door so you can open it. On all 3 of my doors this was the defective part. After hunting around I found out the a "Turn Signal Return Spring (Left or Right)" can be modified and used to replace the broken one. The cost about 2 dollars and greasy finger tips...

If you do it get the old spring out reassemble the broken spring outside of the latch and then use a couple a needle nose pilers and bend the ends of the new spring to match what the old one looks like. When you put the new one in the latch you might need to muscle it in a little. But once in and you try out the latch you will see how this little thing just puts enough tension on the latch to enagage the rest of the mechanism in the door.

Anyways give it a try if you want to save a few bucks.

The "Turn Signal Return Spring" is made for "GM" cars.....

You can find them anywhere. eg.. Pepboys, Autobarn, AID Auto, Strauss Auto, Auto Zone.

I know this only to well as some of my bodywork has disappeared into the white powder. If the info on that link is right then stainless is much worse than ordinary steel.