Tales from the Sherpa Shed

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 18/08/2025 at 14:49, Heavyspanners said:

Maestros did indeed have an auto choke. It was so unreliable that converting to manual choke became a common modification.

no it wasn't

get in, turn key, put seat belt on- this gave the stepper motor time to set choke, start car

vacuum switch on carb could fcuk up but took 35 seconds to change

[Heavyspanners]

 

11 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

no it wasn't

get in, turn key, put seat belt on- this gave the stepper motor time to set choke, start car

vacuum switch on carb could fcuk up but took 35 seconds to change

My uncle Chris bought a brand new Vanden Plas Maestro (in Opaline green) in 1984. It replaced his Morris Marina estate, which had replaced his Austin Cambridge, which had replaced his Morris Minor. He saw all this as a natural progression, although the Maestro was a step-change. It was a modern car in all the ways the others weren't, really.

It had the talking dash - a real novelty, the neighbours used to come round to listen to it. Everything about the car was reliable (even the talking dash) except the auto choke. At this distance I can't remember the exact problem, but then there didn't seem to be an exact problem - just lots of baffling symptoms.  I just looked in some Maestro-related corners of the internet to see if I could jog my memory, and all this seems very familiar.

As it was a new car it was down to the dealership to fix it, which they did by replacing everything (sometimes more than once) until the problem went away. But as I recall there never was a real diagnosis.

Before I set off down The Road Of The Sherpa, I looked at a few Maestro vans. I might have bought one if I had found one without scary rust in the windscreen surround. I still keep an eye out in case a not-bad, not-expensive one pops up. A-Series only, mind, no fancy stuff under the bonnet.

At the moment this is on FB Marketplace - a fine addition to a fleet of historic BT vehicles. From the yellow/grey transition period, when the BT fleet got a hasty blow-over in the new colour. MOT record shows fails for excessive corrosion going back to 2005, although strangely this isn't flagged up in every test, which might mean it sometimes went through a 'friendly' testing station. Its most recent MOT (in 2019) is a pass with no advisories, so either someone finally fixed the rust (and looking at the state of it, no they didn't ) - or the tester was very friendly.



 

[Heavyspanners]

I think the last time my Sherpa had a service was in 1993 or 1994, at the tail end of its BT career. I have no service history for it (which is a shame in a way, because I should think BT kept meticulous records of all their vehicles) but looking at the engine, all the service parts are Unipart items, all of them obviously fitted a long time ago. That suggests the Sherpa got plenty of by-the-book servicing. Just not in the last 30 years.

This is what I saw when I first opened the bonnet. I think it's been a long time since this engine saw a spanner. Or even daylight.

 

This sticker tells me that a new clutch was fitted in 1993. So the Sherpa was still going into the workshop at that point, still having relatively major work done, even though by then it had completed its standard 8-year service life. It was sold off in 1994, so it might have done a few extra months work after that clutch replacement, or possibly it just sat in storage before being shunted out to a dealer.

 

Did BT service their vehicles just before selling them off?  On the one hand that would have made them easier to sell, but I shouldn't think it increased the value much. I can't believe that a 1985 Freight Rover 255 would have fetched much money in 1994, no matter how comprehensive its service history was. After all, at that time you could buy a brand new LDV 200 Series (not yet a Pilot), with a warranty and all the trimmings, for an attractive economy price.

So, given that it's probably 30 years overdue for the basics, I thought I'd better update the service record. Starting with the petrol pipe...

New pipe on, new filter on. Should I put clips on the hose/filter connections? They're extremely tight, just as push-fit. The main length of fuel pipe, going off to the left (and eventually, by a round-the-houses route, to the petrol tank just behind the passenger side of the cab) is some sort of hard plastic stuff. It seems OK...

There were at least two different types of petrol pump fitted to O Series Sherpas. I don't know which one I've got - possibly this one, although that operating lever looks far too long. Nothing wrong with the pump, so I'm not looking to replace it, but it's always good to know which one I might need one day.

I see a problem. The vacuum advance tube, on the right, has broken off...

New vacuum advance tube from Mini Spares. They're pretty much universal components, aren't they? At any rate, the Mini version fits the connection points on the O Series engine just fine.

The pipe turned out to be about six miles long, which is definitely a bit over the top for a Mini. It's ridiculously long even for a Sherpa.

At the distributor end, the vacuum unit looks a bit rusty, but with any luck it's fine inside.

Unipart HT leads, marked with pre-printed labels so that the BT mechanic can put them back in the right place. Those labels must surely be evidence that Official Workshop Procedure has been followed.

I drained the oil. It was ancient and dirty and smelled of horrible things. Quite possibly 1990s vintage.

In order to get at the oil filter, it's necessary to take the front off. But that's no big deal, because the front of the Sherpa is designed for easy disassembly. You just undo three self-tapping screws, and the grille is off. Then undo four bolts, lift away the bonnet slam panel, and there's plenty of access. The radiator slots into position and is clamped by the slam panel - quite a clever design. It means that once the hoses are detached, the radiator just lifts out.

But I wasn't looking at the cooling side of things yet. At this point I just wanted to get at that oil filter, wherever it is.

Ah, there's the oil filter, tucked away bottom-left of the block. There were two different oil pumps/filter mountings on the O Series engine: the early type, like this, where the filter sticks out horizontally, and a later type where the filter is held upright. Presumably you get better filtering if the filter isn't sideways.

This filter definitely looks like a vintage item.

At this point a slight problem occurred. I couldn't find my oil filter wrench, and there was no way that filter was going to unscrew with just hand pressure.

So I resorted to the messy method - stab the filter with a screwdriver, and use the screwdriver as a handle to turn it. This tends to gouge a massive hole in the filter (they're not much stronger than a coke can), and oil goes everywhere. But then, I don't think there's any way of getting a sideways filter off without making a mess.

Here's the filter, with some sort of warning on it to the effect that it should not be used on Austin Maestros with automatic transmission. Well, that dates it! 

It seems to be one of these - still available as new old stock. But I suspect that when my filter was fitted, it was new new stock. So we probably are looking at 1993 or thereabouts as the date my Sherpa was last serviced.

I fitted a different kind of new old stock filter. I don't know if Fram filters are still made, but this one had been on somebody's shelf for a few years.

I'm glad to see I'm supporting the Welsh filter industry. This filter was made not too far from where it's now being fitted, but I bet it took the scenic route to get here.

A little top-up, so that when the engine (eventually) starts there is a bit of oil in the system. It is, of course, impossible to fit the sideways filter without a fair amount of this nice fresh oil going everywhere....

Freight Rover Special Tool Number One in evidence on the bumper, there.

And finally, the main dose of oil goes in, via the long filler tube which goes directly into the sump - just like an old Land Rover engine.

I always thought that the reason the tube-into-sump filling method was abandoned on Land Rovers in favour of a filler in the top of the engine was so that when new oil is poured in, it lubricates everything on its way down. But it seems the idea made a comeback.

I've seen photos of O Series engines with an oil filler in the cam cover, but apparently this was an early feature - in fact it may not have ever been used on production engines. At any rate, almost all O Series engines have the filler tube going into the sump.

Here's a picture of an early O Series engine, trial-fitted in an MGB engine bay. Oil filler in the top!




At one time the MGB was supposed to get the O Series engine, but never actually did, presumably because it wasn't thought viable to rework the MGB for a new engine when it was nearing the end of production anyway. A few home-brew O Series MGBs have been made, and apparently they go quite well.

 

[grogee]

23 hours ago, Heavyspanners said:

At any rate, almost all O Series engines have the filler tube going into the sump.

Mine has this, with some pipe lagging to keep it warm...

On the Maestro the pipe sits at the very front of the engine so receives the incoming airflow. 

I can only think the lagging is there to stop condensation mixing with oil and producing 'BL Mayo'. 

[alf892]

8 hours ago, grogee said:

Mine has this, with some pipe lagging to keep it warm...

On the Maestro the pipe sits at the very front of the engine so receives the incoming airflow. 

I can only think the lagging is there to stop condensation mixing with oil and producing 'BL Mayo'. 

This was actually part of an official breather mod on S series maestro/montego

[Noel Tidybeard]

later s-series has cam cover cap

[Datsuncog]

On 20/08/2025 at 12:17, Heavyspanners said:

It was sold off in 1994, so it might have done a few extra months work after that clutch replacement, or possibly it just sat in storage before being shunted out to a dealer.

AFAIK, ex-British Telecom fleet vehicles in Northern Ireland were generally disposed of via Wilson's Auctions in Mallusk. They would hold several dedicated ex-fleet sales a year of decommissioned commercials on behalf of big organisations like BT, NI Electricity and the Department of the Environment.

I used to go along to Wilson's Tuesday night car auctions back in the mid-90s when you could have snagged a dreadful Rover P6 for £50, and can recall seeing row upon row of yellow Sherpa, Maestro, Transit and Escort vans up the top of their yard waiting for the next fleet sale.

Reserve prices were generally pretty low, if applied at all, since they'd have had their asset value depreciated year on year by the bean-counters and by the end of their service life probably held little residuals. But they made for good value and low risk auction buys, as they'd generally have been well maintained.

These fleet auctions were pretty popular, and I can see why anyone looking a farm pickup might have gone there first.

Good to see the progress on this one!

[Snipes]

The o-series MGB had me wondering how an M-Series MGB would do, but then I thought how about an M-Series Sherpa!

[Heavyspanners]

I've spent the last week being ill, so no new work got done on the Sherpa, or the shed, or anything else. Which was a shame, because I had plans to power through the bank holiday weekend and make some big progress. All I ended up doing was languishing in bed, making spluttering noises.

But I can at least show you a few more things I'd done earlier, as part of my Sherpa's 30 year interval service.

I thought I'd better have a look at the coolant - and it seemed surprisingly clean. So clean, I suspected that the previous owner had hastily topped it up when some fool (me) bought his old Sherpa, and now he had to make good on his claim that it was all up and running.

Well, that's encouraging. But even so, I thought I'd drain, clean, and refill the whole system. You can't skimp a 30 year service, that's what I say.

As I mentioned earlier, the front end of the Sherpa is cunningly designed for easy disassembly. The radiator is clamped in place by the bonnet slam panel. With that away, and the hoses off, everything can be lifted out with no further fixings to be undone.

One feature of the Freight Rover front end (as opposed to all the other front ends the Sherpa had over the years) is that the grille doesn't quite cover the full height of the radiator. The bottom of the radiator sits behind a solid panel, as seen here. This probably wasn't the greatest technical decision, because it blocks a small amount of the airflow.

The earlier Leyland Sherpa, and later Leyland Daf and pre-Pilot LDV models, all had deeper grilles with extra vent holes along this bottom bit. Only the Freight Rovers and early Leyland Dafs have the solid panel (I hope you're writing this down in your Book Of Sherpa Facts).




Here's a picture which I've just found on the internet, showing the later grille with lots more vent slots.

I have to say I'm not a great fan of the multi-slot grille. In my view the Range Rover lookalike grille is the best one the Sherpa ever had, even if, technically, it's a bit style-over-efficiency.

I drained the coolant, which did indeed seem encouragingly clean. I even managed to catch some of it.




Oh no. Too late now! I hope I haven't invalidated the warranty.




Radiator out (those are the locating lugs, top and bottom), and flushed through.  It looks good - not even any damage to the fins.

Behind the radiator, things look a little grubby, but nothing that won't clean up. Although I'm a little concerned about the state of the alternator - it's looking rather rusty. Is that likely to be a problem, or is it just cosmetic? The electrics do (mostly) work, but I haven't run the engine long enough to verify if the alternator is actually charging or not.

I had a look at the internet to see if Freight Rover 200 Series alternators are available, just in case I need one.  And I found this, on the Euro Car Parts website:



'Stylish and efficient'. Well, I've always said so. I'm pleased to see the experts agree!

Now the radiator is back in, and the front end is reassembled. Of course, it would have been a good time to replace the belts while I had the front off, but I didn't actually think of this at the time. Still, it's so easy to take it all apart again it's not a big deal to come back later and do it.

It's time to fill the cooling system up again.  I'm using Forlife Advanced Engine Coolant (with its strangely amateurish my-first-attempt-at-graphic-design label), not because I think the Sherpa really needs it, but because I happened to have some on the shelf.  I originally bought it to try and damp down my Land Rover's chronic fuel vapourisation, which didn't really work because (I strongly suspect) the Land Rover's engine block is toast. That's another story, however...

I also got some new pressure caps, because engines always run better with some shiny stuff on them.




In it goes...

Now my cooling system is full of ribena, instead of lime cordial. It was actually all fine - no evidence of blockages - which is just as well, because I forgot to check the thermostat. That's another one for the come-back-to-it-later list, if necessary.  O Series thermostats aren't quite made of unobtanium, but they do seem to be hardtofindium these days, so maybe I should buy that one...




In other O Series engine news, this was on FB marketplace. I was kind of, sort of, thinking about it - when it was sold, literally as I looked. But if that's what a running O Series engine goes for, it's not bad. I wish Land Rover engines could still be bought for that kind of money.




Come to think of it, a Land Rover O Series conversion probably could be done. The Perkins Prima (basically the diesel version of the O Series) was a popular conversion at one time, and if that fits, the petrols should fit, too...

 

[grogee]

I think the alternator will be fine, but the rusty pulley might chew up the belt until it's all cleaned off. 

So maybe not changing the belt was actually a master stroke

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 31/08/2025 at 19:12, Heavyspanners said:

Come to think of it, a Land Rover O Series conversion probably could be done. The Perkins Prima (basically the diesel version of the O Series) was a popular conversion at one time, and if that fits, the petrols should fit, too...

 

discovery MPi is an M-series so it's basically is an O-series landy

[MarinaJosh]

On 20/08/2025 at 12:17, Heavyspanners said:

I've seen photos of O Series engines with an oil filler in the cam cover, but apparently this was an early feature - in fact it may not have ever been used on production engines. At any rate, almost all O Series engines have the filler tube going into the sump.

Here's a picture of an early O Series engine, trial-fitted in an MGB engine bay. Oil filler in the top!




At one time the MGB was supposed to get the O Series engine, but never actually did, presumably because it wasn't thought viable to rework the MGB for a new engine when it was nearing the end of production anyway. A few home-brew O Series MGBs have been made, and apparently they go quite well.

 

Production engines did feature the cam cover oil filler. Not sure when the change was. All the O series Itals I have owned have had the sump filler whereas MK3 Marinas tend to have the cam cover filler. I picked up a seized unit from a car which is being banger raced the other day. If you need any random O series bits let me know. I only really wanted the gearbox! Whole lump is free-of-charge if you can get it from Suffolk... Thermostat housing has sold, that's the most common failure point. The Marina club is working with the Marlin club (O series-engined Marina-based 30s style car) to make replacements although number of outlets and angles vary across different O series applications.

Sherpa radiator is the same shell as the Marina radiator, but has a bigger core/more rows.

They are not a sought after engine. Certainly in the Marina world the O series engine cars are often overlooked. A shame as they're lovely and smooth. The main reason I sold my O series Ital was because it felt too much like a modern car so I didn't find it very interesting! 

[Heavyspanners]

12 hours ago, MarinaJosh said:

Production engines did feature the cam cover oil filler. Not sure when the change was. All the O series Itals I have owned have had the sump filler whereas MK3 Marinas tend to have the cam cover filler. I picked up a seized unit from a car which is being banger raced the other day. If you need any random O series bits let me know. I only really wanted the gearbox! Whole lump is free-of-charge if you can get it from Suffolk... Thermostat housing has sold, that's the most common failure point. The Marina club is working with the Marlin club (O series-engined Marina-based 30s style car) to make replacements although number of outlets and angles vary across different O series applications.

Sherpa radiator is the same shell as the Marina radiator, but has a bigger core/more rows.

They are not a sought after engine. Certainly in the Marina world the O series engine cars are often overlooked. A shame as they're lovely and smooth. The main reason I sold my O series Ital was because it felt too much like a modern car so I didn't find it very interesting! 

My engine should be basically OK (famous last words there, of course) because it looks like it got some good maintenance during its BT life, and it's only done about 50,000 miles. But the first thing you learn about O Series engines is that there just isn't anything like the parts availability or support that you get for the likes of A or B Series engines, so I do find myself looking at second-hand O Series bits whenever they come up on the internet, and wondering if I should build up my own spares stash...

The one thing that's missing off my engine is the pipe and flappy valve which goes from the air filter housing to the 'hot box', which is just a tin box mounted on the exhaust manifold. Just about all BMC/BL engines had this kind of arrangement, but I have to admit I've never known how it's supposed to work, or even why it's supposed to be a good idea.

The theory is, on start-up the flappy valve moves over to close the cold air inlet pipe, so warmed air that has passed over the exhaust manifold goes into the engine, making cold starts easier. Once the engine is running, the flappy valves moves over to block the hot inlet pipe, and open the cold pipe.

BUT...how does the valve move? It's not powered, or activated, or controlled. It literally just is a flap in a pipe, not connected to anything except its own hinge. And while warm air might be a good thing if you're trying to start the engine on a frosty morning, the air doesn't warm up until the engine has been running for a while and the exhaust manifold gets hot. So cold starts are still cold.

My Mini has this kit, but the flap seems to have permanently stuck in the half-way position. It can be pushed to and fro, but it doesn't move by itself. My Mini has a plastic air filter housing, like this - the flappy valve is in the 'saucepan handle', shown closed in this photo:



The whole thing seems so vague and unworkable that I'm thinking of just running my Sherpa with the air filter intake as it is - just an inlet into the saucepan. I'm sure it won't really matter. Unless anybody can give me a reason not to do it BECAUSE YOU'LL WRECK THE ENGINE YOU MAD FOOL?


 

[Asimo]

Is the hinge a bimetallic strip? (Bends as air temp increases etc)

 

[Heavyspanners]

19 minutes ago, Asimo said:

Is the hinge a bimetallic strip? (Bends as air temp increases etc)

 

Could well be. I can't see any other way it would work, although it seems unfeasibly sophisticated for a flap in a pipe.

[Noel Tidybeard]

1 hour ago, Asimo said:

Is the hinge a bimetallic strip? (Bends as air temp increases etc)

 

yes, yes it is