Stage 1 V8

Hi everyone, thought I'd better introduce myself before bombarding you with questions about my latest acquisition - a 1981 Stage 1 V8 Regular (3 door).

I recently bought a 1981 2.25P 109 which I was going to fit a Disco 3.9 V8 into along with a new galvy chassis, but this started degenerating into a long list of modifications as I was going to fit an auto box or an LT77 mated to the original transfer box - making for an exceptionally long combo! I decided that the amount of mods required were getting a bit silly, and about that time I noticed a Stage 1 for sale on eBay - which I subsequently won

I haven't collected it yet, but this is one of the seller's pics -



Its a 3 owner vehicle with 110k miles up... and it already has a galvy chassis. It wasn't cheap, but as it was exactly the type I was after (ie an unmolested 3 door), I decided to risk it. Even the colour is what we were after - Limestone. My fiancée wanted to use our 109 as our wedding car and was happy to wait the 3 years I anticipated it would take to complete, but if this Stage 1 is as good as it seems, we may be able to bring the date forward

So we're both quite excited about it - I'm just hoping that all the expensive bits are in good order! I'll be fitting an LPG kit in due course, just want to get the basics right first, plus possibly look at fitting parabolics. I'll start a proper thread once I have the old girl home. Its going to be a nerve racking but thrilling 250 mile drive !!!

Cheers, Sam

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Hello and welcome.
You'll find lots of friendly help here for your latest acquisition. Looks nice, and you must have deep pockets, new landy AND a wedding!!

Welcome aboard. Looks really straight.

Thanks for the warm welcome

I was a bit surprised, and a bit worried, that I was the only bidder - what had I missed that everyone else had seen??? Anyway I've since spent a lot of time scrutinising the seller's pics and I'm still chuffed with it. The door bottoms look rotten as usual and it looks like it needs a thorough service, but apart from that it could be a bit of a gem. Three owners in 35 years must be a bit of a rarity! I'm delighted anyway, and the missus is happy too - and if she's happy, I'm happy !

The plan is to use her as a camper, so I'll be fitting internal storage, beds, cooking facilities etc and will be uprating some mechanical bits too such as the cooling system (bigger with twin electric fans), possibly the heater (bilge pump mod), fitting heated screens, twin batteries etc etc She'll be used to tour Scotland, Ireland and North Wales next spring, and then SE England in the autumn, and if everything goes to plan we'll be having a run out to the Alps or possibly Morocco the year after.

One mod that will be contentious is that I'll be fitting early '90' type front doors - the type with the lift up handles but wind up windows. The lift up handles will retain the Series look, but the opening windows will give us better ventilation and ability to pay road tolls in Europe.

The first job will be to fit the 'new' wheels and tyres that I bought at Billing - Michelin Lattitude Cross 7.50s on 110 steel wheels that were 'take offs' with under 1000 miles on them. A bargain at £350 for the set of four! Then it'll be that full service - engine, transmission, brakes, steering, electrics... it might be an expensive introduction to Stage 1 life

Thanks for the tip re the gearbox options BTW - I was wondering about fitting an overdrive or LT85 five speed. I'll need to check my piggy bank next year to see what I can afford - I've already got to budget for an LPG kit which probably means an all new ignition system!

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Hi and welcome to the forum. Nice looking truck you have there.
Exactly the same as mine but l have now replaced the roof with a full length canvas.
My wife actually suggested we used the Landry as the wedding car then changed her mind when she saw the rolls.

Set of parrs is a good mod. I did take the lpg out of mine as I wasn't planning the same long journeys you are!
Keep dropping hints for Morocco trip though.
Enjoy,

A quick update on the Landy... The drive back was... memorable!

HUGE free play in the steering, the brakes need adjustment, the gearbox is quite possibly knackered and was screaming all the way and apparently trying to jump into low every now and then (!), and the fuel tank is leaking. Oh and I don't think its been serviced in a few years - the air filters are black and its running very very rich. It was a long long 6.5 hour drive back home - I dare not go any faster than 45mph due to the slack in the steering. And the gearbox noise, well I still have ringing in my ears, some 6 days later! I haven't had ringing last this long since I went to a rock concert when I was in my 20s Even so, the change quality was quite acceptable - not having driven a Stage 1 before I was expecting it to be much more clunky and agricultural. I found it quite nice actually, it felt like a long change movement for sure, but hardly unwieldy. Ditto the steering, I was expecting it to be absolutely knackering, but once on the move it was reasonably light - certainly not heavy enough to warrant an immediate power steering conversion, which is what I'd half expected! And the standard fit 'delux' seats were surprisingly supportive. Again I expected to be walking like a robot after that 250 mile journey but I was actually more comfortable after that run than after a similar journey in my Volvo, which supposedly has one of the best seats about.

So overall, I'm delighted with the old girl. She is a BEAST, love that growly lumpy exhaust tone. She seems totally original too which is nice, only the usual holes for radio/CB aerials. The chassis is indeed galvy and my initial inspection didn't highlight any holes and other weaknesses. The engine is an ex-Range Rover Classic unit, which is brilliant news as its a 9.35:1 CR unit, which is perfect for my LPG plans. Furthermore, it's been rebuilt by RPI - to standard spec according to them, and has a Mallory distributor fitted. Which explains why it runs so extremely smoothly. The seller also kindly included a Brownchurch roofrack in the sale, so that saves me looking for one.

So my plans are to give it a thorough service, and see if an oil change will cure the gearbox issues - if not I'll be looking at a rebuild I have a new petrol tank on order so will get that swapped out asap and then I'll be able to start using it, pending the gearbox decision...

New-car-home trips. Always an adventure.

Before you go ripping that gearbox apart. LT95s are noisy but there's noisy and then there's problem noises. If it's jumping out hi range, then there may be some wear but that shouldn't produce noise. It may be that you are low on oil, but do a complete fluids replacement anyway (that means everything including brakes).

Adjusting free play on the steering box is easy and is one those things on the Series III that needs doing from time to time.

Don't replace the fuel tank. It's a whole lot cheaper to get the present one repaired unless it is completely knackered (which means pour in, pour out). They are not hard to diagnose where the problems might be and to repair. The Stage 1 side tank is not the same as other series tanks but I guess you'd have the rear tank.

Something else you should do is get the engine cooling system flushed and have the radiator rodded. They do build up muck over time and if it has been sitting, that is most certainly going to be the case.

Thanks for that Alan. Yes one of the first things I do to a new acquisition is renew all the fluids and filters. I understand the gearbox takes engine oil - would 10W40 be ok in the gearbox? I've seen various mentions of 20W50 but that seems a bit thick? Or is that the preferred weight for the gearbox and transferbox?

The fuel tank is already on order, and to be honest I'd rather have a new one that I can trust. I'll put seam sealer on the outside and paint it and might even swill the inside with some fuel tank sealant. That should preserve it for a good few years. Hopefully...

I've also just bought a new heater matrix. A replacement one on eBay had a very good review on another forum so I've bought one the same - its supposed to be a high quality unit with a greater heat output and airflow than the std unit. It makes sense to do the swap while I'm flushing out the cooling system. With a possible gearbox rebuild in the pipeline I can't afford to get a new custom radiator just yet, so that'll have to wait a few months. The one currently fitted looks to be in decent nick so it should be ok for a while yet. In fact its about the only fluid holding component that isn't leaking at the moment!

Engine oil in the gearbox.

Don't use heavier oil or it will bugger up the oil circulation pump.

I said rod the radiator not replace it. It may look good on the outside but the core and bottom tank are likely full of muck.

Owner's and Repair Manuals say anything between 10W/40 and 20W/50 in the UK for the gearbox. I've been using 20W/50 for 18 years with no problems.

Thanks for that. I've got plenty of 10W40 in the garage so I'll use that for now - if the gearbox leaks as badly as I'm suspecting, it'll be getting fresh oil weekly

Collecting the new fuel tank and service parts tomorrow. Got a genuine 1982 LR workshop manual for a Range Rover, so I now have repair/rebuilding info for the engine & gearbox. Also got a pair of new wipac headlamp bowls and H4 headlamps to replace the sealed beam units as one popped when I flashed someone on the drive back - they were doing 70+ up the M1 without lights on

The downside is that the weather forecast is pretty dire this weekend - wet n windy. Typical...

I did a bit of work to the landy yesterday after receiving a few goodies -





All around the old girl stinks of petrol and looking at the tank its evident that the lower edge seams have blown and the whole bottom of the tank is wet with petrol. So I got one of those ordered asap along with all the seals, washers, rubbers etc and a few service items for good measure. I also bought some new headlamps as the original ones were sealed beam units and one blew on the way home when I flashed someone driving without lights. Karma I guess lol. Anyway, I bought a set which included new bowls. I wasn't sure what condition the originals would be in so I got a set of Wipac bowls just to be prepared.

The supplier has a great video showing how to replace the original units, but that suggests drilling a 32mm hole in the bowls to push the connector through ??? Not that doesn't seem right to me, as its obviously going to let water in, even if you cover the hole afterwards in gaffer tape. So I took a pic of the wiring to the lamps...



... and pushed the wires out of the plastic connector using a small electricians screwdriver to release the retaining tabs.



That allowed me to feed the wires through the hole in the new bowls. I had to cut the rubber sleeve along its length as the blade fittings wouldn't slide through, but a bit of tape around that and it should be fine. The sleeve protects the wires from abrasion against the bowl, so it was important to retain it. I then put the blades back into the plastic connector...



and reassembled the rest of the headlamp.



I now have a pair of H4 bulbs which are far more readily available then the sealed beam units, and are far brighter too. It was interesting to see that the wings have traces of Russet Brown - I wonder if that was the original colour, or whether the wings were swapped earlier in its life?

While examining her further I also found traces of ... excitement?



Look at those insulating grommets!



Hmmm. There aren't any fitted now either, so thats something else I'll have to look into. But the first job will be to get that tank swapped out!

While I'm here, I have two questions - firstly, what is this? It only has one wire 'connected' (!) so I don't think its actually doing anything. I vaguely recall something called a ballast resistor but its been decades since I've had a points distributor on a car



The other question is to do with the heater. The reason it wasn't working is that the operating cable was loose in the engine bay. There is a connector mechanism which appears to have a roller to run against the accelerator linkage, but apart from that I can't see anywhere obvious that it should go - can someone help me out, ideally with some pics please? This is the back of my engine - its also missing the airbox, which I'll reinstate when I find one.



Thanks!