The Range Racer
Discussion
Hey all we are back!
Lots of distractions and lots of slow progress evenings but we have finally got some stuff done, expect a few updates over the next couple of weeks.
While taking off the wheels off for painting. we noticed something strange about the rear anti roll bar drop link.....
The rear ARB had pulled the ball joint out of the drop link! Meaning the rear ARB had not been doing anything.
How many of the cars 170k miles had been without a rear ARB is unknown, but that goes some way to explaining why it has been rolling and under steering so much!
Anyway, new drop link ordered and fitted and we are all good, ish..
In true project car fashion, we fixed one thing and broke another. I somehow managed to damage the rear brake hose during the ARB drop link replacement.
So new rear brake jump hoses were in order too, by the look of the fluid, it was about time the whole system was bled anyway.
Lots of distractions and lots of slow progress evenings but we have finally got some stuff done, expect a few updates over the next couple of weeks.
While taking off the wheels off for painting. we noticed something strange about the rear anti roll bar drop link.....
The rear ARB had pulled the ball joint out of the drop link! Meaning the rear ARB had not been doing anything.
How many of the cars 170k miles had been without a rear ARB is unknown, but that goes some way to explaining why it has been rolling and under steering so much!
Anyway, new drop link ordered and fitted and we are all good, ish..
In true project car fashion, we fixed one thing and broke another. I somehow managed to damage the rear brake hose during the ARB drop link replacement.
So new rear brake jump hoses were in order too, by the look of the fluid, it was about time the whole system was bled anyway.
Sunroof
Time to shed some of that height up weight! The sunroofs time has come to an end.
It's a BIG unit so hoping it should make a difference when it comes to taking this thing back out on track.
This gave us a gap to plug and a friend of ours was just fitting a side window into his transit. Amazingly with a little modification, the window sized part of transit body side fitted the range racers roof like a glove.
A lot of sealant, a leak, more sealant and a little gaffer tape later and we have a nice white sunroof plug.
It will do until we have the money for some sexy carbon.
Time to shed some of that height up weight! The sunroofs time has come to an end.
It's a BIG unit so hoping it should make a difference when it comes to taking this thing back out on track.
This gave us a gap to plug and a friend of ours was just fitting a side window into his transit. Amazingly with a little modification, the window sized part of transit body side fitted the range racers roof like a glove.
A lot of sealant, a leak, more sealant and a little gaffer tape later and we have a nice white sunroof plug.
It will do until we have the money for some sexy carbon.
RazerSauber said:
Ford Transit combines with Range Rover? This must surely be the most obnoxious vehicle on the road 
Loving this project. Taking particular interest because I never managed to drive my Range Rover long enough to get it to a track, let alone hoon it around!
IF that's the case, surely they need to get ahold of the 3.5L V6 from a XJ220, standard block in the transit, right?Loving this project. Taking particular interest because I never managed to drive my Range Rover long enough to get it to a track, let alone hoon it around!
RazerSauber said:
Ford Transit combines with Range Rover? This must surely be the most obnoxious vehicle on the road
Loving this project. Taking particular interest because I never managed to drive my Range Rover long enough to get it to a track, let alone hoon it around!
Haha. All i need to do is put my M3 on a trailer behind and i think that's the full. Game, set and match right?Loving this project. Taking particular interest because I never managed to drive my Range Rover long enough to get it to a track, let alone hoon it around!
charlie-5mkmt said:
Haha. All i need to do is put my M3 on a trailer behind and i think that's the full. Game, set and match right?
Not far off, I think if you put a generic SUV model name on it, you can then legally park while crashing into everything then claim it's not your fault because you're a woman. I will warn, this often comes with the side effects of particular hair cuts and an undying need to speak to the manager 
Paddles 10/07/2019
So a long time ago we got some paddles finally time to get them on the car.
Mechanical engineers playing with electronics is never a good idea (especially electronics as fragile as a range rovers!) But we got there in the end.
A little playing around with a voltmeter, trying every wire near the gear selector coupled with the wiring diagrams, we eventually found the wires in question, quite simple from the car side.
When in manual mode there is 2 contacts in front and behind the gear selector that sit at 12V, when the selector is moved forward or back it hits the corresponding contact and earths it, when then tells the gearbox to change up or down.
So simply cut the wires going to gear selector and link them though our new paddles to an earth and hey presto! We have some paddles.
Sadly the paddles from a jaguar XF are not as simple as just a push to make switch, so we ended up taking them apart and wiring directly to the switch within the paddle and bypassing the rest of the paddle circuit board.
We then bolted the paddles to the wheel (some finishing here required) and then used a telephone cable between the wheel and the steering column to allow the wires to stretch as we rotate the steering wheel.
The verdict, fantastic. So much more intuitive to change with the paddles rather than a backwards sequential box and the change speed isnt too bad (for an auto), it also pops and bangs when you change down early!!!
So a long time ago we got some paddles finally time to get them on the car.
Mechanical engineers playing with electronics is never a good idea (especially electronics as fragile as a range rovers!) But we got there in the end.
A little playing around with a voltmeter, trying every wire near the gear selector coupled with the wiring diagrams, we eventually found the wires in question, quite simple from the car side.
When in manual mode there is 2 contacts in front and behind the gear selector that sit at 12V, when the selector is moved forward or back it hits the corresponding contact and earths it, when then tells the gearbox to change up or down.
So simply cut the wires going to gear selector and link them though our new paddles to an earth and hey presto! We have some paddles.
Sadly the paddles from a jaguar XF are not as simple as just a push to make switch, so we ended up taking them apart and wiring directly to the switch within the paddle and bypassing the rest of the paddle circuit board.
We then bolted the paddles to the wheel (some finishing here required) and then used a telephone cable between the wheel and the steering column to allow the wires to stretch as we rotate the steering wheel.
The verdict, fantastic. So much more intuitive to change with the paddles rather than a backwards sequential box and the change speed isnt too bad (for an auto), it also pops and bangs when you change down early!!!
Edited by charlie-5mkmt on Tuesday 29th October 13:02
illmonkey said:
Won’t the connections take a battering with all the turning of the wheel and the flex moving about?
Also, what are the chest hole makers on the steering wheel for?
Its not too bad, with the coils in the cable its quite easy to firmly hold the telephone cable with some cable ties just before the electrical connections, we have been using them for a while now and had no problems what so ever.Also, what are the chest hole makers on the steering wheel for?
In terms of the bolts, this was just a test fitting stage, before swapping to something marginally safer.
Matt Cup said:
Videos please!
Dont worry, we have lots to come!We took the car to Curborough sprint circuit a while ago, we have lots of go pro footage to sort though then upload (hopefully soon!)
Here is some images for the time being.
|https://thumbsnap.com/h2MDaZIM[/url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/q9k25Neh[/url]
So it's finally time to go back to fat camp weigh in.
Last time we weighted the range racer was back in dec 18 in standard trim
Total 2640
Front 1265
Rear 1370
I remember being quite shocked that a front engined car with a superchaged V8 managed to be heavier on the rear!
Since then we have put her on a modest diet, things removed include:
Side Steps
Seats (replaced by 2 buckets)
dash
Interior trim
Rear tow bar assembly
Rear exhaust muffler
Steering wheel (replaced by racing wheel)
Spare wheel
Headliner
Rear load floor
Sunroof
LOADS of NVH foam
Infotainment system including sub and all 15762447 speakers
Fog lamps
Carpet
And so what's the effect of all that?
480kgs!!!
Total 2160 (-480)
Front 1150 (-115)
Rear 1010 (-360)
Fairly chuffed with all that. Slowly getting back to a 50% weight distribution.
In terms of what weight is left, things from now on will be a little more complicated than just unbolting things sadly. But we have a few ideas as we really want to get the weight out further.
perspex windows
Fiberglass bonnet
Bin the AC system
Bin the air suspension system
RWD and bin the front diff and drive shafts.
Time we tell how much or little of the future list we get round to but for now we are just enjoying the effect of taking 5 people out of the range!
Last time we weighted the range racer was back in dec 18 in standard trim
Total 2640
Front 1265
Rear 1370
I remember being quite shocked that a front engined car with a superchaged V8 managed to be heavier on the rear!
Since then we have put her on a modest diet, things removed include:
Side Steps
Seats (replaced by 2 buckets)
dash
Interior trim
Rear tow bar assembly
Rear exhaust muffler
Steering wheel (replaced by racing wheel)
Spare wheel
Headliner
Rear load floor
Sunroof
LOADS of NVH foam
Infotainment system including sub and all 15762447 speakers
Fog lamps
Carpet
And so what's the effect of all that?
480kgs!!!
Total 2160 (-480)
Front 1150 (-115)
Rear 1010 (-360)
Fairly chuffed with all that. Slowly getting back to a 50% weight distribution.
In terms of what weight is left, things from now on will be a little more complicated than just unbolting things sadly. But we have a few ideas as we really want to get the weight out further.
perspex windows
Fiberglass bonnet
Bin the AC system
Bin the air suspension system
RWD and bin the front diff and drive shafts.
Time we tell how much or little of the future list we get round to but for now we are just enjoying the effect of taking 5 people out of the range!
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