The Gers travelled along the M8 to play bottom of the table Livingston in what should have been an easy three points for Alex McLeish's men but the home side were out to spoil the party.
Rangers managed to set the touch paper alight with their first attack of the game through their inspirational captain Barry Ferguson after 15 minutes.
Chris Burke tore down the right wing bemusing Paul Tierney in the process before cutting the ball back for the onrushing Ferguson to drive home from 12 yards under the unlucky Roddy McKenzie in the Livingston goal.
The Gers almost doubled their lead six minutes later when Danish international Peter Lovenkrands ran clean through on goal after cutting in from the left but his crisp shot from the edge of the box forced McKenzie to pull off a terrific save.
The home side almost opened their account in the 56th minute when a looping corner ran through to Richie Brittain who cut the ball back to Greg Strong six yards out but the big defender scuffed his shot into the waiting arms of Ronald Waterreus.
Livingston had to withdraw their player-manager and former Celtic legend Paul Lambert at half time and this seemed to spur on Rangers.
Just eight minutes later a clever through ball to Olivier Bernard allowed the Frenchman to fire the ball across the face of goal for Burke to slide in at the back post to net for the Gers.
Livi immediately pulled one back in bizarre fashion when Robert Snodgrass passed the ball into the net from 40 yards after Waterreus had gone walkabout in the Rangers goal.
Livingston began to turn the screw against an uncertain Rangers defence and were able to level the score when a Tierney free-kick from the right found Snodgrass racing in to glance his header into the net for his second of the game.
Both sides had chances to win the match with Rangers being denied a clear-cut penalty when Dado Prso was fouled by Harald Pinxten in the box, while Livi should have scored when James McPake was played clean through but could not find a way past Waterreus in the last minute.