I very much think this is a bad idea. A Morris Camper?

[High Jetter]

Is it quite smoll now? You seem to have taken loads (of crud) off!

[Talbot]

Weight reduction innit.

I'm properly impressed with how much you got for your money there.  Just goes to show that if you're happy to have something seen as "undesirable" by others, you can save an absolute fortune and/or get a shittonne more for your money,

[Mally]

6 hours ago, Talbot said:

Weight reduction innit.

I'm properly impressed with how much you got for your money there.  Just goes to show that if you're happy to have something seen as "undesirable" by others, you can save an absolute fortune and get a ton of shit for your money,

ftfy

[Talbot]

40 minutes ago, Mally said:

ftfy

Harsh!

.

.

.

But possibly accurate.  It is, after all, a Sherpa.

[Mally]

I like it, I'd drive it about no problem.

It was just too obvious to resist.

[catsinthewelder]

Last night's chopping was slightly impeded by the fresh water tank being in the way so tonight was a spanners night in order to remove it.  It was held in by 2 fairly substantial metal straps each halfway across it and at 90 degrees to each other, one was half off already as one end screwed into a wooden bit of bodywork I'd already chopped off.  First job was to disconnect it from above, I undid the jubilee clip on the filler hose, covered it in gaffer tape to keep it clean and pushed it through the floor. 

The same happened to the outflow pipe then I could look for the pump wiring which had so far eluded me from testing things.  Obviously I found it just after disconnecting everything else but could still hear the pump work before cutting it out.  With that taken care of I could drop the tank.  I carefully braced it on my knee from underneath and undid the remaining bolts and it dropped most of the way down.  At this point I realised that the filler pipe was quite long and was clipped by a bracket that was screwed to the floor, the drill did a great job of rounding off the screws so I had to try and balance the tank on my foot while I strained to reach the toolbag and means of undoing the other jubilee clip, amazingly I managed and it came apart easily.

While I was underneath thoughts turned to fuel lines and I started fiddling with the lines above the fueltank which obviously led to one coming off in my hand.  Further investigation found this was the feed (it looked too thin being plastic pipe of about 5mm diameter)  I did eventually get it reattached by more or less cuddling the back axle while slicing the end off the rubber pipe that was sticking out of the tank to have a fresher surface to work with.  I really hope it works as dropping the tank will be a nightmare of rusted bolts.

I'm not sure why but the feed pipe ends underneath the back of the cab,  under the bonnet there is a pump with nothing on the inlet and a rubber hose on the outlet that could reach the filter.  The filter has some blue water pipe from the Jerry can and a rubber hose to the injectors.  There is also a return pipe running back to the Jerry can and the loose original return back to the tank.  I formed a plan, I just need a rubber hose from the cut off fuel line to the pump then I can run the engine from the Jerry can to prime the fuel line before swapping the pipe back on.  I've got a metre or so of rubber hose left over from the Discovery that I saw last week.  Can I find it now?  Of course I fucking can't.  I did find a moped horn though so that might be another thing I can use to get it a step closer to MOT.  I also found an old 12v light fitting in the shed to amuse Dez.

 

Then I realised it was dinner time so I packed away.

[catsinthewelder]

I grabbed a couple of hours again today and tried to make sense of this lot.

 

Didn't get very far though, it wasn't helped that I couldn't find my crimp set but I wasn't really in the mood to rip big sections out which is needed really.  Currently there are something daft like 10 different wires heading to the leisure battery (Thanks Mat ) so I need to send them inside to the fusebox and just have a single pair which I'll probably just attach with the spring clips rather than clamps.

Only thing I really achieved today was getting the reading lamp to work.

On a completely different matter the brake and clutch reservoir caps should be identical but one is missing and has been replaced with tin foil.  Does anyone think this will fit?  They feel like the same size as the ones on my old 1100 but I'm not certain.  The remaining one has Girling on the molding but I'm obviously not that fussed about that.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172239700364

[Patent]

All these recent posts on campers have made me notice them more when out and about. Have one I snapped two days ago in Edinburgh.

 

[High Jetter]

Charity case?

[paulplom]

Just caught up with this thread. I never realised you'd bought it!

Top fettling in the true essence of autoshite. #Hero.

[catsinthewelder]

I've not done much at all this week but have finally found my electrical crimps and a gas bottle.  It's a Camping Gaz 907 so I need to order up a regulator and hose then I can test stuff.

Searching for other stuff online I found this listing which doesn't give me much confidence they could fix my rear suspension.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183792117231   🤣🤣

[Keymaster]

I've not done much at all this week but have finally found my electrical crimps and a gas bottle.  It's a Camping Gaz 907 so I need to order up a regulator and hose then I can test stuff.
Searching for other stuff online I found this listing which doesn't give me much confidence they could fix my rear suspension.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183792117231  

Aha! That particular brand of spring assister kit is something I have direct experience of, as when I bought my Talbot motorhome it had one already fitted by the PO. Very heavy duty frame and each spring was rated at 700kg IIRC. I never needed to use the stabilising arms when camping as this thing meant there was virtually no movement. Downside of that was it made sleeping policemen an obstacle best avoided/dealt with at 10mph max

[catsinthewelder]

It's not an immediate worry but much like you hitting bumps causes much crashing.  I have a feeling that a lot of this is caused by the enormous bumpstops that have been added to the rear axle to stop it falling over on corners.  Hopefully a better set of rear shocks will sort things out.

I was pointed that out partly because they had illustrated it with completely the wrong van 🤣

Not much happening due to weather and other things to do.  Will collect the mains lead tomorrow so I can check more of the electrics.  Need to seal up some holes at the back as the weekends horizontal rain has got inside.

Looking more closely at the space under the gas locker and shower I could fit something huge under there so perhaps I could fit a larger water tank which being inside the wheelbase might be better.

[catsinthewelder]

Turned out the leak was coming from an iffy vent on the roof rather than the holes on the back but filling them with plastic numberplate bolts was cheap and easy and a bucket is now in place to catch the drips.  The cab leaks too but that isn't carpetted and has holes in the floor already so is less of an issue 😂

 

I could do with knowing what car shares the hazard switch if anyone knows?  It should be a sort of flashing red cube on top of the plastic cowling behind the steering wheel.

[wuvvum]

I'd imagine it's the same as the ARG cars that shared the same parts bin switches, so Montego / Rover Metro etc.

[Mally]

My dad had a Mk2 Escort van camper. Yes really.

I fitted coil over shockers to the rear axle. Massively long, had to take the rear leaf spring shackles off and jack it high to get them on.

Worked though.

Measure the length of your rear shocks as it stands, and how much lift you require.

Also measure bolt size in your shocks. Ours are only 3/8", but there are ways!

We use coil overs on the stock car and have springs about with different ratings. Will likely be too short but you never know.

When I had something like yours, water had got in at the joint above the screen, rested on top of the steel roof and rusted through the roof and top of the door frames. Similar can  happen with the VW campers with fibreglass high top.

Edit, pm me the sizes or I'll forget

[Mally]

http://www.monroe.com/en-US/products/shocks-struts/load-adjusting/monroe-load-adjusting-shock-absorbers/

That's what we used.

[Three Speed]

56 minutes ago, Mally said:

 

http://www.monroe.com/en-US/products/shocks-struts/load-adjusting/monroe-load-adjusting-shock-absorbers/

That's what we used

 

I’ve fitted those to the back end of my Chrysler because the leaf springs are very saggy. Very good.

[catsinthewelder]

Those Monroe shocks look rather good and are available for a wide variety of US cars of the right period but is there a way of telling which one would fit a Sherpa?

[Mally]

They used to sell them for UK vehicles, but the only thing I can find now is air shocks, which is another possibility, if you can sort the right length.

It would be a gamble finding US fitment to suit, and obviously guarantee would be void.

Measure yours for me, see how upright yours are.

The more they lean the less lifting effect you will get,  but it wouldn't be as hard on suspension.

Make sure your shocker mounting points are sound.