Project What has two seats, a mid-mounted 6 cylinder engine, and a turbo? Rewire complete - finally success!

[Zelandeth]

Is it just me or does that gear lever look about ten years too new to be in that cab?  I realise it's not really given the actual age of the van, but it just looks oddly modern.

Shameless behaviour ripping off the Afterburner, though I wish I could say I'm surprised.  Always the risk when you put something like that out there in the open domain.

[mat_the_cat]

Well, after 14 years and 75k miles, for the first time this has needed roadside attention whilst on a journey! We're on a minor European road trip after visiting the Field of Dreams, and first of all crossed into France on an eerily quiet Eurotunnel train. This was the restaurant building!

Managed to find a few quiet spots on the way down, as looking at the rules you are allowed to pass through France, and so long as you don't mix with other people, don't have to quarantine upon return.

This was a lovely car park next to a river, and had it to ourselves. It go me thinking that we prefer to avoid campsites not because we have to pay, but because we'd rather find somewhere away from people camping next to us! I'd gladly pay double for a spot like the one above! 

Compared to a campsite like this one just over the German border:

(Albeit with nice views and sunset!) Surely there's got to be some market for a campsite, with individual secluded spots, so it feels like you're the only one there?

While passing through France I was just about to pull over when the engine cut out. Less than ideal when you're relying on it for transport, charging the batteries to power the fridge, and to run the AC. No strange noises, so inclined not to think a catastrophic pump or belt failure, but without a multimeter I was unable to prove whether I was getting 12v at the stop solenoid. 

Rummaging around I found a length of wire so rigged up a temporary supply directly from the battery and it started! But then cut out again, seemingly at random. In the end I removed the plunger from the solenoid which did fix it, although surprised it has failed again in my ownership.

Crossing into Germany I thought finding one for a Bosch VE pump would be simple, but you'd have thought I was asking for a drive belt for an Invacar with the responses I got. Even pulling into a Bosch service centre I was told no, and that I'd have to go to a town two hours down the road!

I've ordered one from Autodoc to arrive at where we are saying for a while (a log cabin in the Black Forest) so hopefully that will arrive in time.

[mat_the_cat]

After nearly a week, the new solenoid finally arrived from Autodoc.de - I'd expected faster with stereotypical German efficiency, especially after paying 7 Euros for delivery! 

It was a simple job to fit it, and now all is working as normal, so I no longer have to embarrassingly stall it to stop!

All else seems good under the 'bonnet' - no obvious leaks at least!

Yesterday I met up with an old friend who owns a proper 70 Series Landcruiser, which I unfortunately didn't manage to get any decent photos of!

But it's a proper solid old truck which he's shipped back from Tasmania where he used to own it. 4 litre straight six diesel which feels like it will go on forever.

[chaseracer]

It very likely will.

[mat_the_cat]

Ever since I've owned this the front ARB bushes have looked a little perished, but never seemed to get worse or have any detectable play. I'm now questioning whether I have been able to apply enough force to satisfactorily check for play against the loading of the suspension!

I'd noticed a clonk yesterday, so jacked it up to check, and I *think* I may have found the cause. Fortunately it's from an era where you can buy just the bushes rather than the whole link, and at £1.30 for a genuine VW bush I think I may splash out and do both sides.

[mat_the_cat]

The bushes arrived this week, so I set to replacing them. I decided to do the whole lot while it was in pieces, although wished I hadn't when the first fastener sheared off! To be fair it's the first one to do so in my ownership I think. Drilling out wasn't too bad, with the aid of a jack:

But tapping it again was slow due to limited access. Eventually it was back together though (position has now settled after a few compressions of the suspension).

Just in time for a trip to one of our favourite spots, which has yet to become overrun by crowds. Only a matter of time before the location is posted on the internet somewhere, and it'll be full of litter, then up will go the height barriers

[dollywobbler]

Good stuff, though I'm monumentally distracted by the Opel Sintra in the Land Cruiser pic!

[mat_the_cat]

That's his daily family wagon (V6 as well ) - you remember Todd from the BXagon trip?

[dollywobbler]

Ah yes. Top chap. I actually really want to try one to see if they're as awful as folk reckon. At the very least, I would love a video of the windscreen wipers in action, as they're hilariously frenetic.

[mat_the_cat]

Whilst underneath, I noticed one of the front dampers was a bit oily, and come to think of it, the ride is possibly more wallowy than it used to be...

Pattern dampers seemed to be around the £120 mark for a pair, and an eBay search including the word 'genuine' didn't bring up any results However, searching for the VW part number scored two promising hits, each listing a single damper though. One for £40, in UK, and another in Poland for £75. Result! Slightly cheaper than pattern parts to boot! I fired off an email to both sellers to check whether either had a pair available, but both were selling singles - although shortly after their replies they offered me a lower price. £35 and £60, so I hit the BIN button

Easily fitted last night, apart from the last bolt which sheared off. Managed to get it out by welding a nut onto it, fortunately.

 Taking it for a drive tonight revealed the old ones were well past their best! It's amazing how you adapt to a gradual deterioration, especially when you don't expect much from the handling anyway. I reckon it's now driving better than it's done in my 15 years of ownership.

[mat_the_cat]

I meant to say, there was no mention in the service history that the dampers had been changed, so I wondered whether these were the originals. After giving them a wipe down, it seems like they could be:

No idea why they are green, and the replacements (with exactly the same part number) are black though. Here's to the next 280k miles!

[mat_the_cat]

Although we're in lockdown, we had a night away in this last weekend - just driving up the track into the forest. 

Woke up to a bit of a dusting!

Not done much on this recently, the only thing being replacing the surface mounted speakers bolted above the cab, with some flush mounted ones.

Only reason being that I pinched them to go in the Land Rover, but they'll be less prone to knocks here - and I reckon they sound better.

[Zelandeth]

Just looking at the previous post, one of the things which has always interested me about vans and any commercial vehicle where things tend to look superficially so similar, is that how different they can be under the skin.

Your suspension is a bit more sophisticated than mine!

By the way, that axle stand was the third line of defence, there's another one just out of frame under the chassis rail.  This was just the first time I'd jacked the thing up and I was a bit nervous!

[mat_the_cat]

Interesting, as they were both classed as high end vans of their era, with a premium to match. It does ride the bumps well, better than my iLoad does when empty!

[Zelandeth]

To be honest this rides astonishingly well for how basic the suspension is.  I'm guessing the weight of the body is just well matched to the spring rates.

At speed particularly she tends to do that sort of gentle floating bounce which I've always associated with 70s and 80s coaches.  Though my shocks may be past their best as well!  The offside one has its cover held on with cable ties after the barbarians who worked on her at Egerton's broke it off changing the steering drag link.  In addition to overfilling the brake fluid to the point of barfed a load of it all over the bulkhead when I drove home, left three wheels with the nuts finger tight and left me with barely any handbrake.  This is the garage which maintains our area's ambulances and a good portion of the buses...that fills me with confidence!

Just find the contrasts interesting.  While you've got coil springs rather than leafs, the brakes on the Merc look more substantial, with four pot calipers.  The van does stand on its nose just about if you stamp on the anchors that much I can vouch for.  On a dry road anyway.  On a wet road the commercial compound tyres are more of a limiting factor...

[cort1977]

Top tip about the afterburner controllers. Looking in to Chinese heaters at the moment and that controller is just the thing I want.

Your van trips are very inspiring.

[wuvvum]

The Iveco has a different front suspension setup again - independent but on torsion bars rather than coils.  It rides quite similarly to an LT though I think - quite a soft ride for such a heavy duty vehicle but with the same sort of gentle wallowing over bumpy roads.

[Asimo]

"Smiley" Transit is another van that has independent front suspension* on the lighter weight variants and solid front axle / leafs  for the heavy vans.

**Similar to this Mustang  coil-not-over strut arrangement.

[wuvvum]

Being pedantic, the "smiley" Transits all had IFS.  The early Mk3s were independent for the lighter duty models and beam axle for the 190s, but that changed with the facelift when they also lost the twin rear wheels on the panel vans.

[wuvvum]

The VW LTs were the same though come to think of it.  I had a C-plate LT40 which had twin rear wheels and a beam axle on the front.  The similarly-aged LT35 I had was the same setup as Matt's, single rear wheel and IFS.  Bizarrely the LT40 handled better, although it had no PAS so was a heavy bastard to throw around corners.

[mat_the_cat]

10 hours ago, cort1977 said:

Top tip about the afterburner controllers. Looking in to Chinese heaters at the moment and that controller is just the thing I want.

If you think about the controller in isolation it may seem pricey, but for the total outlay with a CDH it's still a bargain. The ability to turn off if it gets too hot is invaluable if you are in a space with any reasonable kind of insulation! I've actually refined it further by limiting the maximum fan speed also which has a number of benefits:

When it cuts back in during the night there isn't the whoosh of it running at full speed waking us up.
It will take longer for the temperature to climb, so the number of on/off cycles is reduced, cutting battery drain during startup.
By tuning the fuelling at the closer together ends of the range, I should get better linearity of the mixture, so a cleaner burn (I tweaked to get maximum burner temperature for a given rpm).
Lower max rpm will increase the bearing life.

Obviously it's slightly slower to warm up from cold, but it's so quick in a van anyway this is a minor issue. Still got to set it up so I can turn it on from my phone, which would mean I can have it toasty warm before I get back anyway

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

If you think about the controller in isolation it may seem pricey, but for the total outlay with a CDH it's still a bargain. The ability to turn off if it gets too hot is invaluable if you are in a space with any reasonable kind of insulation! I've actually refined it further by limiting the maximum fan speed also which has a number of benefits:

When it cuts back in during the night there isn't the whoosh of it running at full speed waking us up.
It will take longer for the temperature to climb, so the number of on/off cycles is reduced, cutting battery drain during startup.
By tuning the fuelling at the closer together ends of the range, I should get better linearity of the mixture, so a cleaner burn (I tweaked to get maximum burner temperature for a given rpm).
Lower max rpm will increase the bearing life.

Obviously it's slightly slower to warm up from cold, but it's so quick in a van anyway this is a minor issue. Still got to set it up so I can turn it on from my phone, which would mean I can have it toasty warm before I get back anyway

I really need to have a poke around in the tuning settings more on mine at some point.

Probably the single most useful feature I've found during the winter though has been the ability to set a frost guard mode.  Mine is set to kick in if the temperature drops below 3C and run up to 8C.  Basically because I've been too lazy to blow out the water heater this year.  Doesn't cycle very often as the van is pretty well insulated.  Just having that stopping the core temperature dropping further than that seems to have really helped stop any damp getting in this year.

I've had to top the fuel up once so far since the summer, which says something about how heavy fuel use is in this mode.

Power use would be an issue if it was remote obviously, but I've generally just left the van hooked up to "shore power" when on the drive so isn't an issue here.

I do occasionally use it as a workshop.  Being able to just turn the heater on with my phone before I head outside and have it nice and toasty warm when I get there is still something I've yet to tire of.  Really need to get around to hooking a couple of relays up to drive with the GPIO functions though. 

[mat_the_cat]

Seeing as travel is now allowed, and we've got two weeks off work, I decided to put this back on the road. The COVID MOT had expired over winter, so was booked in for today. Giving it a service and check over I noticed the exhaust rubbers were past their best, and a brake pipe was fairly pitted although not (yet!) leaking.

I've not had rubber last more than a couple of years, so have gone for some branded parts in the hope of longevity.

Quickly fitted, as was the pipe.

I realised last night that I still had HID lights fitted, which are now outlawed, so had to swap back to halogen. Previously I was using the original feeds purely to trigger the switching of the HIDs, and when asked to supply any current, the voltage drop at the fuse box was enough to stop illumination! The fuses are the old-fashioned ceramic type, with a couple of exceptions where blade fuses power circuits added after the original design. (The 3 extra blades are my own addition, for the HIDs and HRW I've installed).

Not a massive fan of the ceramic fuses, as IMO they are more prone to poor connections than other types. Still, a bit of contact cleaning got them working, although not *quite* long enough to pass the MOT!

They didn't charge me for the diagnosis and fuse wiggling to rectify (maybe they went straight for the fuse box?) and I was rewarded with a pass

Where to head off to...?

[Minimad5]

Please tell us all, that brake line - It isn't copper?

[dean36014]

 Cupro nickel by the looks off it. Perfectly safe and far better to work with than steel.

[mat_the_cat]

Yes, it is copper....

[twosmoke300]

Nothing wrong with copper brake pipe  although I tend to use kunifer where I can .,

[Ian_Fearn]

On 9/21/2020 at 10:26 AM, mat_the_cat said:

That's his daily family wagon (V6 as well ) - you remember Todd from the BXagon trip?

Did Todd used to go by Dudo? (Or similar?)

[mat_the_cat]

15 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

Nothing wrong with copper brake pipe  although I tend to use kunifer where I can .,

That's my reasoned opinion too. Yes, kunifer/cupro nickel is a better material in terms of fatigue strength, so for extreme applications where you are regularly subjecting the pipe to full braking pressure, then maybe it's worthwhile to do so. And I am careful when forming not to over-bend. But given that I have to to an emergency stop in this vehicle maybe once a year, and a failure would only incapacitate the rear brakes (which do little work anyway seeing as it's not carrying massive weight), and I had the tube already but had run out of kunifer, you can probably see the reasons for my choice 

Plus, the extent to which a steel pipe can be pitted by corrosion and the corresponding reduction in burst pressure, is a much more worrying factor.

13 hours ago, Ian_Fearn said:

Did Todd used to go by Dudo? (Or similar?)

Yes, and he's still got it - awaiting its turn for tidying up. Last time I saw it on the road was when he came over to visit the UK, and we met up in a Welsh forest.

[Ian_Fearn]

I only ever met him once donkeys years ago at a Citroen rally but we had a great evening chatting away in his bus. Lots of booze was consumed and i remember him talking about that Landcruiser.