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So, I may have acquired another project..... engine woes - TBC


groovylee

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Hi all,
It seems I may have laid my hands on another ranger. This time a green one :-)

There is one problem though, it needs to be trailered home from Oxford to hitchin.

I can get a trailer from GT hire in welwyn for £70, but rather than line their pockets, I thought I would ask if any shiters local to me fancy hiring theirs to me? I would pay the same rate, I would just rather pay one of you guys!

The car itself is only about 750kg, so it won't need to be the most amazingly heavy duty thing.

Anyone local to Hitchin/Stevenage/shefford, that fancies it?

Either way, I'll do a collection thread when I get it :-)

Lee

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  • 2 weeks later...

so, after much faffing about, and emails to and fro, yesterday I went to the trailer hire place, and hired me a trailer!

 

I then promptly drove to deepest, darkest Oxfordshire.  it started raining. all's well then lol

 

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and here is the thing I went to collect:

 

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it went on really easily with the help of a couple of local guys (friends of friends) one of them has an E type in the garage that he bought back in 1970 something! and a series landrover on the drive - definitely one of us lol

 

and of course, we must have a pez station shot:

 

 

image_zpsf4lpgoyp.jpg

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details wise - Rickman Ranger 1600 xflow with 5 speed box. engine tuned by Osselli engineering.  complete with massive history file, and spares including:

 

spare type 9 gearbox

full set of great condition metro seats

two 1600 xflow heads

spare recon weber twin choke carbs

4 boxes of various lamps, mirrors, switches, etc etc.

several rocker covers, some steel, some ally

some of the biggest spiders I have ever seen!

 

not bad for £200 :mrgreen:

 

will get some pictures after I have given her a wash later.

 

Lee

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cheers guys!

 

so I spent some time on it today, going was slow due to having a knackered ankle, but I soldiered on.....

 

the gelcoat is very faded, andit was filthy:

 

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so I gave it a bath and had a quick go on the bonnet with my leccy polisher thingy:

 

after a clean:

 

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before polisher thing:

 

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and after polishing briefly:

 

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not bad, but needs more work.

 

some more random pics:

 

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as for the questions, i'll try to remember them all.....

 

driving a ranger - it's a bit like driving a mk2 escort, but less planted, more noisy, more wallowy, and with the aerodynamic properties of a brick :-D

 

plans for this one - get it running, get it MOT'd, get it on the road, do all the necessary trials mods, go trialling in it! - this will mean the white convertible one will be reverting to civilian spec and becoming a toy for my dad lol

 

is it a runner?  HELL YEAH!  swapped the battery for a Jaaaaag one I had laying around, poured some petrol down the carbs, and boom! she fired up, and runs pretty well.  the electric fan works, the wipers work, the horn works.  the lights and indicators?  well, they're just having a funky little party at the moment lol. they'll get sorted soon.

 

the wiring is eclectic to say the least, but hey, its no fun if its not a challenge!

more soon when I finish my week of nights at work :?

 

cheers for reading,

 

Lee

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driving a ranger - it's a bit like driving a mk2 escort, but less planted, more noisy, more wallowy, and with the aerodynamic properties of a brick :-D

 

Lee

So exactly the same then,

old smoky actually drove quite well and even though it smoked like a chimney the Vauxhall engine was quick enough to try and undress it.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Everyone.  apologies for the lack of updates, ive been building an extension, so all of my time has gone into that lately.  that finished just before xmas, so I had time to take the green ranger for its MOT.

 

great start to the day:

 

IMG_10421_zpstrs6yxri.jpg

 

 

on arrival at the MOT station in the early hours, it was still shut, so i sat with the heater on and the engine running.  this was probably the longest the car has run for, and it threw up an interesting quirk......  when i tried to turn off the engine, it just kept running. with the key out. :shock:   not good.

 

some investigation led me to the fuse box, and an incorrectly connected electric fan.  the fan/thermostat had been connected in such a way that when the thermostat switch was on, it was back feeding the ignition through the fuse box!

I disconnected the fan, and all was well.

 

anyway, the important bit - MOT passed with no advisories!!!!!!

 

 

once the MOT was sorted, all that remained was to enter the 2016 MCC Exter trial on the 9th of January (there is a video on one of the hills elsewhere on the forum)

 

we did OK......  ish.  my ranger suffered a punctured diff casing on the back axle, and a dented rear wheel which also deftly removed all of the balancing weights.  the new sump guard i fitted got ripped off on the 3rd hill (oops) and i managed to flood the engine compartment with lovely red muddy water.....

 

My friend Matts ranger suffered bogging down on the hills (we think its fuel related as he is running an SU carb on a home made manifold adaptor, and it isn't quite right), and a few issues with handbrake adjustment due to the slightly lashed up arrangement on the rear brakes (previous owners fault).

 

here we are at the breakfast stop at Crealy park carrying out some running adjustments :-)

 

IMG_12171_zpsibtr8qcp.jpg

 

as this was both cars first outing on the main trial in class seven, we didn't fare too well, only 7 sections cleared for me and 6 for Matt, but i'm sure we will do better next time.

 

next steps are to change the back axle, fit a new sump guard and diff guard, and then I am taking part in the cotswold clouds tril on the 7th feb.  wish me luck!

 

thanks for reading,

 

Lee

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