Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Just thought I would quickly introduce myself, as most of my time on this site so far has been spent in the Zook section.

My name is Andrew, and I got into 4WDing with my Grand Vitara soft-top. After a while I was starting to feel that something a little more capable was going to be required if I was to take things any further. Several breakages on the Vit later and the decision was concreted.

I can't say a Rangie was first on the list, but this one sort of landed in my lap, and I couldn't say no. 1974 Rangie, ARB airlockers front and rear, front, rear and side barwork, 2" spring, 2" body, 32" Olympic muddies, bargained down to the princely sum of $2500 (including a service manual - oh, and a spare 3.5, torqueflight auto, power steering, and a Disco rear diff/springs). The previous owner was obviously very meticulous about this beast, and it had been his for the previous 11 years.

It looks like a major POS, with faded and flaking blue paint and a couple of lovingly applied dents, but it was exactly what I was after. But I reckon it just looks so damn cool

Anyway, hello Rover world... Hopefully I won't be asking too many dumb questions. And who knows what this will be the start of? A beautiful friendship, or a nightmare battle with the dark side

get out there and get your own dents
welcome to the dark side
david

You didn't mention what axel's you're running with the Air Lockers! There's a lot of old threads here regarding standard Axel's and lockers you may want to look at!

Welcome to the club

Good to see you got yourself a real 4WD now Good price and plenty of gear on board as well.

Had 10 spline air locker in the rear (now up front, maxi-drive at the rear), broke 2 axles at once and fatiguel a couple more. keep a spare set handy.

Have fun with your Rangie. At least you can bang it abou8t and not worry about scratches!!

Trav

Thanks for the replies guys...

Well, after taking delivery of my old beast and giving her a full service, I decided to take her for a long drive as a sort of "getting to know you" thing. I'm currently out checking a few sites up near Tamworth (I work/live on the Central Coast/Sydney) and have taken the Rangie for the drive, and so far its performed faultlessly. Used maybe a litre or two of oil, but I think that's to be expected for a car of this age, over 600kms of driving (plus the leaks ). Its been pretty funny though. Usually when I do long trips for work I take our company car, which is a nice little Merc. The look on the client's faces when I pulled up in a beaten up blue Rangie with most of the paint missing was priceless!

It amazes me how comfortable this old beast is - dirt road driving with coils and full-time 4WD is great! Better than an 80 series IMHO. Fuel's not too bad for an old V8. I've filled the tank once at 500ks and that cost me about $70. It gets a bit noisy after a while with the V8 running through a 2.5" system - but I love it

By the way, my Rangie's running 24 spline axles on the rear airlocker (hence the spare disco diff), but only 10 spline at front.

In terms of things me and the Rangie have learnt about each other so far:
- the sender on the fuel tank gets stuck below about 1/4 tank, and once you fill up again, the tank needs a bit of a hit to get it working again.
- my highbeam/indicator stalk is a bit old, so when you hit high-beam, you've also got to indicate left, else you'll be left in the dark.
- the oil temp appears to be running high on the guage, but not in reality
- I have to remember to hit the thermo fans when driving slowly

Thanks again for the welcome, and hopefully I can get a chance to meet some of you out on the tracks soon! I still haven't had a chance to get the Rover properly off-road, and I'm itching to big time

Hey Andrew, got sick of watching other blokes go up hills the vitara couldn't hey like beefie and clay (not through lack of trying though, i saw you in action) sorry for not getting those pictures to you I'm pretty slack like that.Well your not the only one who upgraded I've just sold the MQ and bought a 1980 rangie probably not as good as yours but it's an improvement specially with the coils the body is rough and the paint work is faded but it has character, rear maxi drive, 31's, dual batteries, dual alternators, engine driven air comp, 4 speed, dual fuel and powered by a holden 308 (i know sacriledge, but it has some balls) so looks like we will have to do the watagans again and this time we should be able to keep up with the big boys now.
Have fun and catch you later

DIXIE

MQ SWB wrote:Hey Andrew, got sick of watching other blokes go up hills the vitara couldn't hey like beefie and clay (not through lack of trying though, i saw you in action) sorry for not getting those pictures to you I'm pretty slack like that.Well your not the only one who upgraded I've just sold the MQ and bought a 1980 rangie probably not as good as yours but it's an improvement specially with the coils the body is rough and the paint work is faded but it has character, rear maxi drive, 31's, dual batteries, dual alternators, engine driven air comp, 4 speed, dual fuel and powered by a holden 308 (i know sacriledge, but it has some balls) so looks like we will have to do the watagans again and this time we should be able to keep up with the big boys now.
Have fun and catch you later

DIXIE

Hey Dixie!

For sure, we'll have to do another Wattagans expedition. Will have to go check out Dixie rock But this time we'll be following Beefie and Clay up those hills, not watching wishfully from the bottom. It was the IFS diff on the Vit that made me start searching elsewhere - I broke the thing twice, plus did two CVs. I was never going to bother modding the Vit too much, so I bought something that was a better starting point.

It's funny that we both ended up buying old Rangies . The great thing about sites like this is that you can search and find all the pitfalls about a car you hardly know before you go out buying. When I was searching I wouldn't touch a Rangie that had standard axles, so it took me a while to find something set up for what I wanted.

Good call on getting a Rangie, BTW, especially with a maxi Getting back in the Vit's a bit of a chore now when the roads are bumpy - The coils are great!

Andrew.

PS. Don't worry about the photos, I got them off the site anyway

Regarding your high beam problem:

These rovers don't have headlight relays and the current through the switch (particularly if using high watt globes) can soften/melt the plastic that contain the contacts. The contacts become missaligned or fail to contact and you can loose lights altogether. New switches are spendy.

I highly recommend fitting headlight relays. Improves the light output and saves buying new switches.

Bush65 wrote:Regarding your high beam problem:

These rovers don't have headlight relays and the current through the switch (particularly if using high watt globes) can soften/melt the plastic that contain the contacts. The contacts become missaligned or fail to contact and you can loose lights altogether. New switches are spendy.

I highly recommend fitting headlight relays. Improves the light output and saves buying new switches.

Hi John,

Thank you for the information. I took a look at the circuit this afternoon, and the previous owner must have already put relays in the headlight wiring (actually, I can see several relays in there now, as you mentioned mainly on things with a high current draw). I pulled the lights/indicator wand apart and gave what terminals I could get to a bit of a clean, and the problem that I was experiencing with the high beam has now been fixed. Unfortunately because of the design of the switch I couldn't get to the horn terminal to clean it, so have rigged up a button on the dash for the horn instead (now my passenger can hit the horn too ).

Thank you again for the information. Have any other Rover owners done anything about the poxy looking 3-fuse system? It looks just a little underdone to me... I'd feel safer having something a little more substantial protecting the electrics in there...

Andrew.

As Modman said - welcome to the dark side (the pun was intended). They don't call lucas the prince of darkness for nothing.