Hi all just a little follow up, Gareth thanks for the concern i've owned a number of land rover discoverys over the years so was happy to take this on and thought id give an update incase anyone else is thinking of giving it a go.
started my research and found the video below although its for a Polo the principle is the same except for a few differences ive listed these below.
to start with had a bit of difficulty getting the axle stand in due to the supplied jack not giving enough height and my trolly jack was to high so used a piece of wood to lift the jack
you can get access to the top nut just by lifting the plastic sheet no need to remove the windscreen wipers at least for the left side
spring had broken so no compression on it
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the hardest part was getting the pinch bolt out the largest spline bit i had was a 12 which was to small so knocked in a 60 torx bit just to get it removed to answer my own question above yes you do have to replace the pinch bolt
i used a small chisel in the gap at the back of the knuckle and then plenty of hammering on the top of the knuckle it dropped down and was fee the only other nut i had to remove was the one on the drop link (little bottle jack under the brake disc made it easy to remove the link, impact driver to the top nut and it came away easy
couple of things I learnt you need a deep socket to get the second nut off, chances are the rod will spin and screw up the rubber boot, i just pushed the boot down to expose the rod held it by hand (NO TOOLS) and it loosened
i had ordered a new bolt set of ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-VW-Audi-Front-Strut-Pinch-Bolt-Nut-Kit-Top-Mount-Suspension-M8x32/174062917004?hash=item2886f5558c:g:TMUAAOSwqOldobxa bit of careful wire brushing followed by stone chip paint and a final spray of smooth hammerite to the bits that could be seen and im now just waiting for my spring to be delivered
will give a follow up when i have reasembled it hope this helps someone thinking of giving it a go
