Rustyrangie

Found this when I did mine a couple of years ago. While you're checking fuel lines, brake lines etc. have a good prod around the supports at the end of the round chassis crossmember where the fuel & brake lines are clipped. The same spot on the opposite end too.. Lovely rust traps there. If you need to weld them it's much easier if you cut a flap in the floor slope and bend it out of the way. Bob

I got 3 of the screwfix ones when they were around a tenner a couple of years ago. 1 for grinding disc, 1 for cutting disc, 1 for wire brush. When you're lying on your back under your LR (or in my case RRC) it saves loads of time not having to stop and swap discs/ wire brush etc. And as they're only used a third of the time they should last 3 times as long.....I think. (sounds like fatfighters on little britain, "if it's only half the calories you can eat twice as much") Bob

I had to make up similar items for my RRC. I did it in short lengths (500mm ish) as the flat part had to fit round wheelarches etc. The small clark bender will do the job but, as others have said, the second bend tends to undo the first. I made the first bend correct then did as much of the second bend as the bender could manage and finished it off using 2 lengths of angle iron in the vice and a bit of 15mm plate to hammer down the bend. That way at least you get 2 well formed bends with nice edges. A long straight edge (1.5m spirit level) ensured the sections remained in line as they were butt welded together. One important point. As soon as you've finished welding clean up the metal and apply a good anti-rust primer straight away. Newly welded steel tends to rust while you're looking at it! Alternatively, your local motor factor should have 1.2m lengths of various bent "L" sections in all the usual gauges. These vary from 20mm X 20mm (i.e 20mm angle strip) up to 20mm X 200mm (200mm flat with a 20mm lip) plus loads of other permutations. If you avoid the early morning and lunchtime rush the guys are usually very helpful and will show you what's available. Hope this helps, Bob

Probably won't help but here goes. 3.9 hotwire with similar symptoms. I had lumpy running, intermittent low power etc. as you describe. on petrol and LPG everything checked out fine, CTS, TPS, compressions etc. all ignition components are newish LR OE. The fault turned out to be an intermittent (slightly corroded) plug on the throttle pot lead. Checked out resistance and voltage-wise ok when not running but showed up on my laptop connected to the lpg ecu. (LPG is a single point Leonardo closed loop with lambda) it would suddenly lose the tps signal and almost stall then start to hunt. I reckon the vibration from the engine was shaking the plug/socket just enough to break the contact and upset the ECU. cleaned up the plug/socket and slightly squashed the female receptacles on the plug to give a tighter connection. Seems to have done the trick up to now. Bob

Hi Andy, you have a PM.

Roof lining.... Depends on how original/plush you want it. You're unlikely to find a good s/h roof lining unless you're very lucky, especially up North. Replacement glass fibre linings are available round the £150 mark. If you're not bothered about originality etc. it's a simple matter to remove the liining, pull off the cloth and foam backing then paint the fibre liner. I used Plastikote light grey stone effect on mine ( 2 quid a tin off ebay), others have used simple household emulsion in whatever shade turns you on. You could even buy the appropriate cloth and stick that on but use proper coach trimming adhesive as household stuff will let go when it gets warm. Bob

Doesn't sound too bad for that money, if he's welded ALL the problem areas properly. It's always a problem buying sight unseen off ebay. I once won a "best on ebay by far" (his words) RRC with LPG. turned out to be a real shed with more rust than there were places to rust and then more rust. Did I mention it was rusty? He'd patched the rear arches after a fashion but when I was able to pull one of the patches off with my fingers he did a wobbly. It had an ABS fault too and the LPG installation was amateurish and probably dangerous. How much did I bid?....£1600!!! When I saw it I just laughed and walked away. Cost me £50 in petrol to just see it. Still, Fish and chips at Harry Ramsden's on the way home almost made up for it. Bob

This looks very interesting! Thank you! Never come across it before even though I worked in electronics for 40 years. So basically you use a 3 phase motor with some capacitors to make it start up on single phase supply, then when it's running the 3rd phase is generated by the motor. Transformer & contactors to get the switching right plus a few capacitors/resistors to get the phase balance correct and away you go. Cheap 3phase industrial kit instead of cheapo chinese single phase, brilliant! Farm machinery sale up here next weekend so I'll be on the lookout for 3 phase motors and stuff! Bob

I'll go along with this. I had a similar problem with my wife's Merc 230, started to run rough and sometimes stall at idle. The fault was eventually traced to a split O ring on the dipstick! The crankcase needs to be sealed or excess air will be drawn in to the induction system upsetting the mixture. Bob

Sadly I believe it is an MoT issue. My missus had the same problem on her Astra. The Mot guy said the light should come on with the ignition switch, then extinguish after about 30 seconds. Not on at all or always on are MoT fails apparently. On the Astra the fault was a poor connection to a sensor under the seat which caused the self-test function to show a fault. Bob

Another good place to look are your local house-clearance auction rooms. Most have Saturday or evening viewing before the sale and you can leave commission bids (they bid for you, up to your maximum) if you can't get to the actual auction. I've seen huge vices go for less than their scrap value. The more up to date auction rooms even have lists of their sales items on the net. Try a google for auction houses and your town/county. Bob

A useful tip found on a forum recently. I've tried it and it saves a lot of time. fix a couple of wires to a bulb bright enough to see out of the corner of your eye, 21W or so should do. Connect this in place of the fuse. While the fault is present the bulb will light. Then start wobbling wires etc. When the bulb goes out or flickers you're in the right area. Then start looking for chafed wiries etc as previously mentioned. Good luck, Bob

AS Integerspin says, "Jigsaw with a eclipse hacksaw blade, pretty good on sheet. I have cut 1" ali with mine" I'll go along with this one. I used the light blue flexible HSS blades cut into 3" or so lengths and then trimmed to fit my 50p car boot jigsaw. I was cutting 20g sheet, clamped to my B&D workmate with a bit of 2" angle as a guide. Very fast, accurate and CHEAP! Bob

I got a regulator for my missus' Merc's Bosch alternator on eb@y put Bosch regulator into the search box and loads come up. Hope this helps, Bob

oops! Thanks to last photo I see I've put my mudflaps on wrong way round! Bob

Hi, nice job. I made a very similar set up a couple of years ago. My RRC has its LPG tank where the spare wheel should be. I didn't think the previous owner's idea of a Holts tyre re-inflator/sealer would be much use on a Rangie wheel so I got another spare wheel/tyre which then need somewhere to live. I made my storage system wide enough to accommodate a spare wheel lying flat with a drawer alongside. I used 15mm ERW box section welded frame with a 8mm ply top pop-rivetted on. The spare tyre section has a removable front flap of 8mm ply. The drawer was assembled from 8mm ply with 20mm angle strengthening. I simply cut oval holes approx 100mm X 30mm as hand holds for the drawer and spare wheel flap. The fronts were covered in grey carpet cut to go inside the hand holds. The lower tailgate butts hard against the front of the drawer/flap so security wasn't an issue, although I did buy a couple of cabinet locks from screwfix which I've yet to fit. The top also has grey carpet glued on so it looks a bit less agricultural. It wouldn't win any design awards but it was cheap to make (about £40) and it does the job. At the moment it's sitting behind the garden shed wrapped in a tarpaulin as I took it out last year so I could replace the rotten boot floor. Oh the joys of Rangie ownership! Bob

Know what you mean about the noise, I've got 2 of them! I was thinking along similar lines. An MDF or chipboard box (old wardrobes from local saleroom 50p each!) but putting it against the garage wall with a tumble drier type vent to the outside. Possibly 2 vents, one at ground level & one at the top to give some sort of airflow around the hot bits. Maybe I'll even stick a bathroom extractor fan in one of the vents for forced airflow. I could get carried away with this. Bob

Probably too late but was browsing, saw this and remembered your thread. http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/wired-fuse-box-...y-fbw-538-p.asp

Sorry, it was from the realms of fantasy I know. Actually I'd be terrified to let my missus in the garage. She'd start asking how much I'd spent on my toys!

Wives/partners can be used to sweep out your garage while you're fixing their car!

I got one too so now have a duplicate set of the "free" tools. They'll be going on eblag soon. Mine had a serious leak from the little pipe to the pressure switch. It had been overtightened and the alloy pipe had just split inside the union. 5 mins with my brake flaring kit soon sorted it though. Quicker than a 30 mile return trip to Aldi for a replacement. Oh and don't do what I did. After a bottle of Rioja on Friday night I was bored so went to have a play with my new toys. Assembled the compressor as per the instructions then filled the oil up. As I said I'd had a bottle of wine so mistook an air bubble in the oil level glass for a low oil level. Put around a pint of oil in then switched it on. Very spectacular! Nice fountain of oil made a graceful arc across the garage and all over the bench where I just happened to have an old radio in bits!! Note to self....alcohol and machinery don't mix! (nor do Radios and oil for that matter!) Bob

The "cheapo" fittings can usually be found on tool stalls at most street markets etc. I think mine were labelled "blackspur" or "Rolson" Around £3 gets you 4 male fittings and one female. Quality is fair for the price, but they can be a pain to use, either not releasing or popping off under pressure. Bob

Looks a superb job, well done. I did almost exactly the same job on mine last year. I must add that it took me much longer than 4 days, nearer 4 months! My only comment would be that I removed the ECU. Being a retired electronic engineer I was worried about transient spikes from the welder getting into the ECU and twa!!ing, sorry upsetting it. Also grinding dust can, and will, get everywhere so I taped up the ecu plug in a strong poly bag and did the same with the relays etc under the seat. Electrics and iron filings don't mix. If they do the results can be quite spectacular. Bob

I got one of these the last time they were on offer and yes they're around 8cfm. Super bit of kit for the money if a bit noisy. It could do with a bigger receiver but other than that it's great. Might even get another and run them in tandem. Bob

HI, while you've got the floor out it's worth checking the triangular supports on the big round chassis crossmember. There's a nice little rust trap on the RH one where the brake pipe clip is fixed (alongside your fuel filter) If they're rotten you'll need to cut a flap in the sloped floor to get at them for welding. Easy job once you've done that. Then just weld the flap back. It's under the carpet so no-one will ever know. Good luck, Bob