Bought this Rover off a Lockheed co-worker in 2009. His father passed away and his wife sold off some of his Land Rover collection. This one was the ugly duckling (and the cheap one) compared to the two Discoveries and 1992 D90. She did not have paperwork other than title for it, ut told me the motor was "new". I did a compression test and cylinders had great compression, o took her for her word. Truck had been sitting for about 3 years.
I've put about 25-30k miles on it since owning. Work I've done to it between 09 and 2013: Mallory Unilite distributor, ew plugs wires, ew brake lines, alipers (all 4), rake pads, rotors were good, ut have new in box Lucas ones). Knuckle rebuild, wivel pins and CV joint on drivers front side. New steering damper, ew lug nuts on all wheels, -treme Thunderer MT tires, 45/75/16s. New water pump, ew hoses, ew belts, ew O2 sensors, ew thermostat and a few sensors, lso put new lift shocks on the rear window, ired in a 4 pin trailer harness and fixed the moonroof.
The bad: Have not run it in about 1.5 years. I like projects, or about 4 years I was running the Rover, y 94 Samurai and my 91 Bronco. I started driving from NJ to DC every week for work and for one reason or another none of my toys fit the 140mi one way trips (mainly because of MPG or in case of the Samurai, t's pretty white knuckling doing 75mph on I95 south). I switched to a newer, etter MPG car, ut kept this Rover for Farm duty, ainly loading vegetables...I took out the rear seat and carpet, hich I still have, o I could use it more like a truck. Rover was generally reliable, ut started having intermittent issues with not having spark, sually after a heavy rain storm, o I assumed its a bad ground somewhere, ut didnt use it much so just lived with it. Drove it two winter's ago and had the heater core go, plugged the heater core off so I could still run it, ut with no heat I was pretty much done with it.
It sat parked until summer, nd found the no spark issue had grown worse, arked it and used my Bronco for farm duty instead. I am changing job locations again, his time working abroad, o I am weeding out my clutter and unused toys. I contemplated putting this thing in storage, hen considered taking the Rover to the junk yard since its pretty much all aluminum. I'll probably regret getting rid of this truck, ut I know I wont work on it anytime in the near future. Not many of these left on the road and just cant bring myself to scrap it, o setting this at no reserve with hopes someone uses it as a parts car or fixes it up.
I think the no spark would be an easy fix of just cleaning the grounds. The 4wd drive has never worked reliably since owning, am fairly certain its the transfer case but didnt want to put the money into fixing it since I didnt off road this truck. Suspension is soft, eeds replacing. None of the windows worked, ncluding moonroof when i bought it, ow all but passenger side front work. I rebuilt the knuckle and swivel pin housing on the drivers side, nd installed new cv joint. Leaks out of the housing on the passenger side, robably needs the same treatment done to it. I have a the swivel pin kit and cv joint for it, till new in box. Rust in usual spots, pare tire well, iftgate and drivers side floor panel.
If this rover sells for at least $400, 'll keep the mallory unilite distributor in it and throw in all my spare parts, hich is around $400. If it sells for less than that, will include the Lucas distributor only, e keeping the Mallory and the spare parts (I really want a D90 one day).
Spare parts include, x set of wires, et of copper plugs, ew in box Mallory Ignition Coil, allory Ignition Amplifier and resistor. Lucas distributor, wo new caps and new rotor. Couple new spare O2 sensors, peed sensor, oolant sensor, ew Coolant tank, BS accumulator (not a cheap part), ew hoses, x New Lucas Brake Rotors, few new Lug nuts, wivel pin rebuild kit, ew CV joint, ail light guards, dle air control valve, uel filter, x oil filters, xhaust gaskets and a hardback service manual. Probably a few other things I've forgotten to mention, lus whatever I pulled out...rear seat, arpet, helf, pare tire, tc.