What year? Red Tail Light Chrome Ring

[ScottT]

What year were these used?
Cleaning out the shed and trying to figure what goes with what.

[Bostonian1976]

59-67 or 68 I believe

edit:

actually I think it's all of them. The amber lens was the only one that got bigger I think. But I don't think the turn signal lenses became amber until '68, so you'd need more of the red ones for the earlier models

someone correct me if I'm wrong!

[SwampRat]

I don't know; but, I know that ain't right. Early series II's had sparto lights.

[sven]

My 73 NADA has those lights. Not sure if they are "correct" for that year though.

[crankin]

My '72 has them.

[Bostonian1976]

my '63 and '65 (both original) have them

[Drain Rovers2]

I thought that they were later because my 66 dosent have them( with the screws in them) i like those better though easier to change bulb.
correct me if im wrong

[1961 109 WAGON]

my 1966 88 has them

[TeriAnn]

I believe these lights were standard fitment for US spec Series IIA Land Rovers. The Series II had different lights.

My 1960 had earlier Lucas tail lamps and sparto turn signals when I first purchased her.

[Momo]

These Lucas lamps were on US spec LRs from 1959 thru 1968. There may have been some Bugeyes equipped with them too. The L691 is a single filament for turn indicator and the L692 is double filament for stop/tail. The lenses are the same, just the internal assemblies differ.

The Sparto lamps can be found on 58s and maybe a 59 here or there but the L691/692 would still be correct on a 59. This particular lamp was used on other British cars including Healeys, Hillmans and later Cobras.

[SwampRat]

my 59 & 60 both have sparto lights. original US spec.

[Momo]

Swamprat, have you decoded the SN on your '60? It may actually be a '58 or '59. These trucks weren't exactly flying off the showroom floor in the US...it wasn't uncommon for them to sit at the dealer for a long time before sale. And it was common practice to list the year first registered as the model year on the title. I've seen a fair number of them that are a year or two older than the title indicates.

But either way, there are always some exceptions to these niggling changes.
Too bad Land Rover didn't keep detailed records on this stuff.

[Eric W S]

My 66 has Lucas L691 & 2.

Question, what are the part numbers for your sparto's? If they are identical in appearance, I wonder if there would be a significant price difference from the L691/2's which are steep...


EwS

[SwampRat]

Momo, you are right on, those are build dates, they are both titled as 61's, the year they left the lot in VA. Could they have used up the old inventory before switching over to the new ones? Could it have been a vendor issue? I'm sure the 59 is original, uncle bought it new, can't abosutely verify the 60 but I believe it to be. Same with the bulkhead vent switch from knob to lever and turn signal switch from dash to steering column. Rover seemed to switch arbitraily, mid year.

Eric, No, they look different. Smaller, flatter lense with chrome ring on the outside. I'm not sure about price difference since the sparto's are hard to find. RDS had some red but no amber. If anyone knows where some NOS ones are, I would like some spares.

[Momo]

Swamp, funny you mentioned parts inventory...I was thinking about that when I wrote my last post. In fact some early Series II 88s were built with the Series I 2 liter engines to use up the inventory.

At some point in Series II production, they must have realized it would be simpler and maybe even cheaper to go with the Lucas lamp assemblies- after all everything else was Lucas except for the Tex Magnalight turn signal switch. Probably they just used up the Sparto inventory and may have even been building them with both Sparto and Lucas lamps simultaneously.

As far as finding spares, you might try Dunsfold Land Rover in England. They have a huge NOS parts inventory. Sparto stuff is ultra rare. Most of their stuff went on motorcycles but even those components are repro now. Don't know what became of Sparto, maybe absorbed by Lucas?