Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hi guys, found a beaut condition 78 SWB rover for sale in my next street.. its got me realy interested. reckon i could have some fun with it. i know theres guys on here who know these series trucks back to front so would love to find out pro's and cons about the old girl, strengths and weaknesses.

from what i know its got, sill tanks, rear wheel carrier, bull bar, spoties, 15 inch rims, 31 x10.5 on it, no rust, 6cly engine, tropical hardtop roof. it looks preety much orig, perfect body however seems to look like the guards have been trimmed and rubber flares fitted. in the rear theres a roll cage. selling unregistered and he wants $5700.00 for it.

ive brought a ex- army 1/2 ton trailer before off the same guy and he seems to have heaps of millitary bits and pieces laying round he house. another one of us rover nuts!

what do you reckon fellas? Ithought $5700 is a little steep, but it does look like a good truck.

Drew.

I'd say its a little steep due to the fact that its unregistered. Are you going to be able to register it without changing anything. The gov'ts anal about people having tyres which are to big/small/fat/skinny and all this other kind of stuff. Otherwise it sounds like a nice 4by.

If you check the LROI website I think they have a q&a forum with just about every concievable question about landrovers asked. Be careful but, last time I visited the site my antivirus stuff was giving my warnings and going off, most likely due to hackers.

The feb 2002 4wd monthly has the buynig used for pre 85 landy's. Back when they actually wrote articles rather than stick everything into little boxes

cheers stuee, yep i got that issue of the mag still floating round the house somwhere, ill have to look around for it. i dont think i need to do anything to it to get it registed its in pretty good nick.

Drew

Ive got some photos here but not sure how to post them any more.

Where is the guy with the military bits located?

Sounds like it is in good condition but it is way too expensive for the money. And what engine is fitted? The factory 6 is not a good engine and the holden 6 is completely unsuitable in a Landie (IMO). Up here a SIII SWB in similar condition would sell for about $3500 registered.

The guys situated at nundah in brisbane in the next street from my parents. yeah i thought it was way to expensive to, but i havent had a good look at it only driven past. it might have some unspotable goodies under it. it's probly a holden motor but not sure. whats the go with the original 6's, were they put in the shorties? what wrong with the holdens in the landies, am i right to say that these were 186's ? what would be its wheel base? 80 inch?

drew.

Sorry didn't realise you were in Brisbane, thought you were down south. The factory (2.6l) 6 was (I am pretty sure) only ever fitted to LWB's. It drank like a V8, didn't go much better than a 4cyl, and loved to burn out exhaust valves (overhead inlet side exhaust) if they weren't adjusted regularly.

The holden 6 (usually 186 but I have also seen 161's - 202's fitted) isn't the most suitable engine for a Landie, they absolutely scream on the highway without an overdrive, they have cooling problems if the conversion isn't done properly, and the standard strombergs are about the worst carby for flooding on hills.

As a guide a mate bought a very nice late 70's SIII SWB (all SII, IIA and SIII SWB's have an 88" wheel base) a year ago for $3300, registered and with a roadworthy. It had no rust (few minor dents from offroading though), a reconditioned engine (2.25 petrol 4 cylinder) and gearbox, an overdrive, dual tanks, aftermarket (mod plated) bucket seats, and disco rims. The truck was on the market for quite a while before my mate bought it. Make sure you go for a drive or two in a series truck before you buy one, they are a fair bit different to driving a 110.

way too expensive.

I agree holden isn't the best option, go way to break alxes as well. original 6 is thirsty, but if looked after (tuned regualy) then they are quite nice to drive. but you have to want to look after it to own a original 6.

6's never came in SWB standard. not even military, LR just never did it

Series Landies are fun as, I would love my old IIA back. but I would never pay $5700 for one especially if no rego

sorry for taking over the thread but I am thinking of getting a series three land rover but am curious about what they are like in terms of reliability for such an old car. I drive on the highway everyday to uni so am not sure if these cars are suitable for this kind of driving. Also keen to know whether can you get aftermarket parts for these cars such as suspension, gearing and lockers.

Nick

Hi Nick. I had a 1968 109" (LWB) IIA as a daily driver for 7 years and drove it to and from uni along the highway a lot of that time.

If in good condition and well looked after they will be reliable, and land-rovers have a habit of still going, even when there are major things wrong with them (e.g. once the pin that holds the metal part of the distributor rotor to the plastic fell off (while I was driving along the highway) - and unusually I didn't have any tools with me, all I had was a rubber band. I managed to re-attach the pin with a rubber band, and drove around like that for a week before I had time to get a replacement rotor - distributor worked fine all that time). However, you want t have a reasonable level of mechanical knowledge if you want to own one, there are always lots of little jobs that need doing and you would be paying a mechanic a fortune to get them to do the work.

A late model SIII in good condition should be perfectly reliable for your needs. The LWB's have a strong drivetrain (Salisbury rear axle), and the short wheel bases don't really have any axle problems unless you are doing a lot of really difficult offroading (I built a IIA 88" (SWB) for my dad and we have used it to pull stumps out of the ground without any axle or diff problems. But is you have a stock drivetrain it pays to be a bit sympathetic off-road.

The best/cheapest place to get spares is FWD, in Fairfield, Brisbane, and they are the agents for rocky mountain parabolic springs if you want to fit that suspension (not that I particularly reccommend it, I modified the STD springs). For lockers, either Maxi-Drive on the Gold Coast or Jack Macnamara (Melbourne). Both of these come with stronger (larger) axles. You can also fit ARB's but you will still need to buy stronger axles from MD or JM.

Without an overdrive you wouldn't want to sit on any higher than 100km/h or so in a series, as the engine is doing about 3800rpm. They can be reasonably comfortable and quiet though when soft suspension and a lot of soundproofing is fitted.