Hi rover people!

[gcalmer]

A friend and I have recently bought a 1976 range rover, it's a 2door manual 3.5 carby.
the plans for the car are to get it running (as reliably as possible)
and simply go and have some fun, the car will live at a rural/coastal property and be used as a 4x4 only, no real onroad driving.

in it's current state it is as far as we can tell a standard car aside from a set of extracors and a mild exhaust system.

It certainly isn't any work of beauty as it has been stored outside for many years, we plan to increase the guard clearance and attach some flares.

we would also like to increase the ride height and the rolling stock,

would a 50mm body lift and a set of 3inch springs match nicely with a set of 35 inch M/T's?


also, any pointers in getting an old rig like this reliable woudl be great as we a re both very new to Range Rovers, having only had experience with a v8 cj7 wrangler and an mq l28 shorty...

the extremely cheap purchase price and the fact that it's v8 with coils is what grabbed our attention first, now we're both super keen to get the thing moving and go out and hit the dirty stuff!

[ISUZUROVER]

The 2 biggest problems with old rangies IME are wiring and cooling. So make sure both of those are in good nick and everything should be OK.

Also, make sure the fuel system and the carbs are up to scratch, as they can also be a bit temperamental if not tuned properly.

The engine, gearbox and T-case are strong and shouldn't be any trouble. The axles on the other hand, will be very likely to break things on 35's. There are plenty of upgrade options though, have a search on here for Maxi Drive, Jacmac, Toy conversion, Nissan Conversion...

[HSV Rangie]

the above covers most.

Michael.

[bigbad]

even a good set of 31s or 33s will give you a lot of fun, 33s should work well with the stock gearing, 35s might be a bit much, needing lower diffs.

[DL]

If you go to 33's I have a set of brand new flares to suit 2 door that I don't need now. $200. PM if interested.

DL

[kitacooch]

the 3" spring lift and 50mm body lift will be suffice, assuming you are planning to do a guard cut that is. My first outing with 35's on my disco resulted in broken long rear axle, i have had few trips since and haven't managed to break another but am superconscious of it, taking some of the fun out of it, am planning on some axle upgrades as i suggest you should. Power steering pump may be a problem down the track with the 35's as my pump is on it's way out now and was making some noises soon after fitting the 35"s, however as mine is later model the pump on mine is supposed to be weaker than the earlier ones. You will need extended bump stops and will need to modify the stopper on your steers to prevent scrubbing you new 35"s on the steer protector bar.
Just a few little things to bear in mind, i am new to this and didn't see some of it coming, oh and hope you like spending time under your rover as well as in it as you will find yourself under it quite a bit, not necesarily a rover thing, its just when you start modifying things it tends to lead to other things, then you begin to tweak thing that affects onther thing and so it goes on and on.
you wont regret it though, heaps of fun , especially when your not scared to dent or scratch it because you payed so little for it.

[RaginRover]

replace the points ignition with an electronic one like a crane fireball or something similar,

destroying points and ignition stuff ups were the biggest problem with my 76 2 Door

Tom

[Utemad]

So is this going to be a paddock basher or do you plan to register it?

If no rego then don't bother with body lift and flares etc. Just cut the guards to fit whatever tyres you want.

[gcalmer]

So is this going to be a paddock basher or do you plan to register it?

If no rego then don't bother with body lift and flares etc. Just cut the guards to fit whatever tyres you want.

we haven't decided yet, we picked it up last night...
the first thing we are going to do is give it a brief interior tidy up,
and probably remove the old lpg setup.
we'll take it from there...
thanks for the feedback, it's all very usefull stuff.

[zook4fun]

just read this, i'm about to pick up a 2 door rangey as well. on gas for $300. can't go wrong with that

can i get away with running 33's with just a 2-3 inch spring lift, bump stop extension? what is the best offset rims for this i'll be going a 12.5 wide tyre. the guy that has it has some -25 offset rims from a disco on it. the front diff is from a disco as well, are the center ratio's going to be out?