Thread: New member but my 3rd RRC

G'ay Knightmayre

Welcome to AULRO and to the RRC forum, the first thing that I would be looking at is to clean each and every fuse blade in the fuse box, as they are a known fault area (dirty contacts) and if the PO has removed the rotor button incorrectly he may have accidently pulled the bobweight springs off their posts, this will give the bad timing effects that you have xperienced, there is a thead on this forum within the last week dealing with just this problem.if your Rangie is built post Oct 87 it would be plated as an 88 model,March 88 the Vogue SE was announced and Oct 88 was the first of the B/W chain driven transfer box

Vin should read 8th letter "D"=87 and "E"=88


cheers

Actually the first thing I did was check all the fuses & all seemed to have good contacts. I had read about the post you mentioned about the bobweights, but it's double dutch to me :\
I'll try & re-read it again.

My VIN is SALLHAML3EA309321 - I decoded that as follows:
SA Solihull, L LandRover, LH Range Rover, A 100" wb, M 4 dr, L 3.5v8, 3 came out as RHD and auto box (so I was wondering about that) and EA being 1988.

Thanks for the welcome, am sure I'll be asking for more advice soon!

G'day Knightmayre

No worries Dave we are the happy owners of an 85 4door with Lt 77 5 speed,3.5 carbied on gas, it's a base model and not a Hi-Line (UK Vogue) would be happy to answer your questions if able, I have James Taylor's book "Range Rover the first generation" which gives all the model codes and change dates etc.

But, there are people on this forum with vastly more Range Rover knowledge that I as I am basicly a Series man



cheers

Well, I got all the electric windows working (although I need one switch) and cleaned the throttle body out to which she displayed great displeasure when I tried to start her. For some reason I cannot find the distributor hold down bolt- am thinking it's hiding behind some cobbled up alternator brackets that the PO put on her so he could put a cheaper alternator on it. I did take the distributor cap off & the rotor arm isn't moving or anything but am thinking the timing is pretty retarded from the way she's acting.

Had to buy a battery too- that hurt! lol

I spent most of the afternoon trying to find a window washer pump Grrrr
Should have it tomorrow though.

I still have quite a few little niggles to sort out, but I want to get her running smoothly before I tackle them.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave I suggest shifting the alternator tension arm out of the way to get at the dissy hold down bolt. Not too hard then and so long as you don't have much load on the electrics your alternator belt will drive while you are tuning up. Regular tune up includes checking the vac advance (suck on the hose and see if the pick up in the dissy moves, or the timing mark shifts when running) also a drop of oil down the centre of the dissy shaft. Make sure you hold the internal rotating parts of the dissy down with a small screwdriver before you attempt to get the rotor button off. The little plastic clip under the rotor button comes off very easily and costs a bit of time to reassemble the advance mechanism. Set the timing to around 8 degrees advance at idle and it should run much better.

The tacho nay need a new connection from inside the alternator. If it is a Bosch alternator you will need to solder a short wire to one of the junctions of the main field wires inside, where the big power diodes are soldered up. Run the wire outside the alternator and connect the original tacho wire to it as it should be hanging around nearby. Dismantling a Bosch alternator isn't a hard job.

I'll try to do that, but my alternator is held on by a myriad of odd pieces of metal roughly welded together. Looks crap but it works... is on the list of things to be fixed.

Thanks for the info about the tach wire, I had assumed it went to the coil. I think I remember seeing a couple of lonely wires hanging behind the alternator so hopefully one of them is the one I need.

hi mate was it the white one for sale on car sales. looked like a great one!!!

good luck great cars

And so begins another great adventure. There's nothing like a good classic and yours sounds like it doesn't have any major issues which is a plus. Enjoy getting it up to speed [pun intended...lol] - it can be lot of fun in itself [been there and done that myself].

I for one will be following your progress Dave. But what a shame you had to lose your newie to the ex..arrghhh.