Land Rover Repair: 1994 Discovery overheating & loss of power, vacuum unit, vacuum advance

Question
My son's 1994 LR Discovery overheated and was blowing steam out the side of the expansion tank at which time he shut the engine off.  The next day we added coolant and drove the vehicle home (about 3 miles).  The engine ran good and had no signs of power loss.   I found the radiator caked with mud and washed it off and replaced the thermostat and checked the oil to make sure there was no water in it.  My son drove it down the street to his friends house (about 1/4 mile) with no power loss or any signs of engine problems.  He shut the engine off and checked under the hood to see if there was any leaks. He noticed the vacuum advance assembly had come out of the distributor at which time he removed the distributor cap and some plug wires to reinstall the vacuum assembly. The engine was hard to start and when the engine finally started it would not idle very well like the timing was out and would not run over 20 mph back to the house.  I pulled the vacuum assembly off of the distributor and noticed a hole on the end of the assembly push rod. I would like to know if the vacuum assembly push rod attaches to anything inside the distributor and if you would have any suggestions on why the sudden power loss.  Engine timing was at 12 btdc though I was not sure what the RPM was at when I checked the timing.  Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You

Answer
The hole you refer to drops over a pin that sticks up from the plate that holds the trigger.  That's what you see when you take off the cap and rotor an dlook down into the distributor.

That plate has a spring loaded mechanical advance and the vacuum unit pulls the plate for vacuum advance.

With respect to your overheating, I published an article on diagnosis of overheatins in the Rover News that is reprinted on our web site.  Go to www.robisonservice.com > service > land rover > robison on rovers articles


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good luck,
John