Tonight I dedicate my love for you...

[Cavcraft]

...the humble Ford Transit.

Despite having driven some truly horrific ones including one with 290,000 miles on the clock, ones with more fibreglass than metal in the chassis, broken steering boxes, smokey engines, injectors clogged with shit and air, noisy diffs, starter motor failure, the inability of some to get past 60mph (and others that'd pull 90-odd and still want to go faster) and the rust issues I still love them.

You can thrash them mercilessly, abuse them, neglect them, not bother to service them, play about with the fuel pumps to try and make them go faster and drive them round everywhere in 4th gear to use more fuel and therefore get more Tiger Tokens.

Aside from the rust problems on some of them they seem almost impossible to kill and the old 2.5Di donkey is without doubt still my favourite sounding diesel engine of ever. Free revving, noisy, decent enough torque (in most of them) and that inexplicable grin factor from even the most horrible looking old shed.

 

Chav-d up but pulled like a train. Had five gears but always seemed to be looking for another seven or eight, huge inside (LWB single rear wheel six studder)...

 

This was a bleeding nightmare when I first got it. 25mph coming back down the M6, had to pull off the motorway and the bastard died at some lights on a slight hill. Had to push it up the hill to the side of the road where a good hour was spent taking some of the wanky decals off it. Nice RAC man diagnose air in the fuel, bled injectors and it got us home only to pack up again a day or so later. New fuel filter, some pissing about and a bit more bleeding of injectors and it ran GR9.901. Rusty as you like but some filler sort of tidied it up a bit and the bloody things is still doing daily service I believe...

 

Bought this off eBay. Seller had 'lost the MOT, but don't worry it is tested and I'll send it on'. You can probably guess that I never actually received the MOT and when I actually took it for a test it had about three or four full pages of failures. Great back on it though, had all kinds of shit on it. Until the MOT man pointed out what was chassis and what wasn't...

 

Despite all the grief they've caused me over the years I'd have another Transit in a heartbeat, bloody ace old buses.

 

Post some pictures up and tell us of your experiences with them please, sure I'm not the only fan of them on here?

[Rusty Pelican]

Drove various ones for 9 years for work , we had 2 SWB ones and 7 LWB , I delivered pallets of paper and covered 150 or so miles a day loaded to the max , often they would use my one for a night run to London and back as it was the newest , so my 150 plus 280 at night , only to do another 150 or so the next day , needless to say it was completely fucked after 3 years . I remember being in charge of loading one day , this run on this van etc , boss came in and asked why our only 7.5 tonne lorry was still in the yard , nothing on it I replied , Feffin was , the early taunton run , so whats that gone in , Id only put 2.5 tonnes of bulk palleted paper on one of the SWB trannys , Talk about overloaded , driver complained there must be something wrong with the motor as it didnt like hills anymore

Not bloody surprised

We had a few breakdowns , a front wheel fly off , loads of dents , a set of forks on the forklift go through the sliding side door , diesel leaks , blowouts , cambelt snappings etc but they were generally dead reliable especially as they got a lot off abuse and were often loaded to their maximum weight .

[cms206]

We had quite a few at aviance Glasgow, mostly bantams though a few were panel vans. J241-243 FYJ were ultra miserable Transit Popular SWBs with vinyl seats, IIRC they'd been on the airfield since more or less new, another smiley flatbed of a similar spec which was our last operational Di-powered bantam at Glasgow. The other two were LWB bantams, N509 BWJ which was a complete pile and L993 VLW which was an absolute flyer and my Transit of choice for some time; wrote off a Mazda 3 on the airfield with N509 BWJ and never really liked it after that...

 

Panel vans... first to die was V173 JWK which more or less dissolved as you looked at it, followed by K486 SFT which never got painted out of BMI livery. The replacements were R970 OHY and N302 URJ, the latter became my runaround after L993 VLW bit the dust. We also ran an ex British Airways Flareside, P475 OLA, which I never drove, and a LWB panel van on six stud axles, N301 HLA which still had the Transit 35th anniversary stickers on the back windows.

 

Other than that we had three Transit Jetstarts, D130 ALX, K963 PLK and P187 NLR, the latter of which was the slowest Transit I've ever sat my arse in. D130 ALX IIRC only had a genuine 6750 on the clock when we got it, drove lovely... K963 PLK wasn't bad either, though it was a bizarre spec with an original Mk3 front. British Airways in general were fond of bizarre specs, certainly most of their luton vans were 2.5Di powered with automatic gearboxes. Odd as fffk to drive.

 

 

Other than that, a local operator has an M-reg Transit minicoach with a four speed manual box... date of build on the body is September 1989!

 

Gibson Direct - M876 DDS by cms206, on Flickr

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

They're a useful old bus for sure, but the sound of a 2.5Di is like an air raid siren - you have to lock everything up and rush to the window to see which Gypos are hawking for scrap.

[Pete-M]

I love Transits too. Only ever actually owned one - which I sold to Pikeys - but I've driven hundreds of 'em over the years and they do always make you grin. Spent a good nine months driving a recovery job all over the country. 250k on the clock and other than occasionally eating an alternator the thing just kept on going. It's still going strong now.

 

Then there's the one I drove to Czech. LWB Semi-High top 2.5 NA job, N reg 'Smiley Mk3' (A.K.A MkXXVIIIb to some). Used to be a mates band van, which I drove all over the country for 'em, and then it was sold to a Czech mate of mine and I ended up driving it there. I borrowed it for a solo 600 mile towing expedition to collect the Escort as well. Even though it has been abused mercilessly for years it's always been serviced fairly well and had the bits that broke fixed instead of bodged so it's actually a pretty reliable old heap. The axle whines under load, and the power steering occasionally reminds you what non-pas Transits were like, but it got from Liverpool to Berlin on one tank of diesel.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I rememnber hiring a late-model pre-fwd swb transit van, maybe a P reg or something, and thinking it was fuggin awesome, it went really well and was super comfy. I remember thinking it was better than than pretty much any car I had driven. It was a real drivers machine too!!! You could cane it along the backroads and get the back end sliding about on roundabouts. I'd love to have a decent one of those as a daily now. What engines did they have, were they all 2.5 Di non-turbos?

[CreepingJesus]

Back in my pics thread, theres a pic of Mk3 I used for a while. I hated the 4-spd 1600 pinto fucker, it was inferior to my Midi in every single way.
It took til 97 for me to be pleased to be given a Tran, and I've been happy with them ever since.
Except for Securicor Omega's max cubes. They were nasty.

[freebird]

As a BT/Openreach Engineer, ive been driving these for 20 odd years, before that Itals, Maestros and Sherpas which should make me King fuggin Autoshite...

What can i say? The very latest FWD ones may well be driver friendly, drive like cars, handle like cars and a nice place to be but they are soft shites compared to the old RWD ones. The modern ones have niggling issues, mainly electrical, the older ones were too basic to have any. My first two new ones a 92K plate ( top speed 94MPH fully laden ) only required an alternator at 10,000 miles and ended service with me after 72,000. My new replacement S plate smiley grille( top speed 92MPH fully laden) also needed a new alternator at the same mileage and went on for 82,000 before it was renewed.

The K plater was hewn from granite 5 accidents in her and she still kept going, no PAS pansy shite, it was fuggin rock. It all went wrong when Fords went all mamby pamby and started building Trannys for driver comfort. The modern radio/cassette in my S plater had flimsy controls, the centre armrest broke etc, etc. In saying all that, they were far better than the modern ones. I work in rural areas and i used to be able to take the RWD ones anywhere off road and know Id be able to drive out again. Ive lost count how many times ive had to get pulled out in my FWD one, they are fucking crap off road.

The box transits, we call the Tonners, on the fleet are a different story. The old petrol ones were slower than Sloths with piles, drank fuel like ollie Reed drank booze but soldiered on. The moderns are still RWD and, for that, they are better than the panel vans. Our firm went over to Vivaro panel vans sometime in 2003/2004,not sure why, lots of stories banded about but they have now returned to Transits proper. The Vivaro has "big issues"...............

Sorry for boring the tits off of you and....hello.

[MK5 Escort]

You certainly aren't alone, Cavette. In my opinion these were the best overall Transits and I rate them much more highly than the horrendous TDCi shite sold today.

 

My father’s works’ had a 1992 SWB basic model, no side loading door and two vinyl seats. J610 RCC. When I was on school holidays, he'd take me around various north/mid Wales spots making deliveries in it. Sometimes my mother would come along, so I’d end up on a fold-up deck chair directly behind the two seats, sliding around as he’d be turning tight corners e.t.c... The gearbox wasn’t brilliant though and was bloody hard work getting into first, so everyone who drove it simply took off in second gear instead. Happy days. The alternator died somewhere just outside of Ruabon but that was about all I can remember going wrong with it mechanically (other than that gearbox issue). It’s long dead unfortunately, sold in 2000 and only lasted another couple of years...

 

It was replaced by one of the last of these models - W*** RDM (687/697 or something like that). MWB, Medium roof. Leccy windows, mirrors and central locking. Probably the best all-round mid-sized van that I can think of - even today. It’s still on the road today as a glaziers van. Starting to look a bit rough though, which is a shame as it was always surprisingly well looked after in the time the company my father works for owned it.

 

One at my old works’ is very memorable. P209 HBA - a LWB dropside, white of course, which had covered 240k-odd when we got shut of it in March 2005. Sluggish, a bit rough in places but uber-reliable. It just would not die and according to the DVLA anyway, still taxed... There were various others including three Flaresides with snazzy wheeltrims, but none quite as memorable as this one.

 

There's a T reg one where I work now. In odd LWB, low roof spec. It used to be company owned many moons ago, but the one of the lads in the workshop bought it and uses it as his commuter back and fourth to work. Bodywork wise it's dog rough and partly pained in dulux white. It's done 311k and still reasonably runs well.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Old Mark 3 Transits were okay, but were shocking rust buckets and they're all fucked now. And I thought the diesels were terrible to drive with the non turbo models absolutely painful. We had two petrol Mark 3's, both 80 SWB low tops. The first was a 1986 D 2 litre Pinto which was colour changed three times and rotted it's bonnet out in four years. 'A word' in someones ear and a replacement was procured, still with the signwiting of a certain organisation.

I rebuilt the engine on it and added a Piper 270 degree cam, upped the compression and fitted a 32/36 Weber from a Capri which was rejetted. It gave about 100 bhp which shoved it along nicely. Best of all, it would do 30 mpg on a run and I don't think the diesels do that.....?

The second was a factory black 1990 G reg 1600 Transit 80 bought at 14 months old from Blackbushe auctions for a silly cheap sum - It was less than half the price of a new one. It had the MT75 box which of course had a buggered second gear, but a recon box wasn't dear. I Waxoyled that one to buggery - the whole under side, sills, door bottoms, bonnet and inside the front arches from within the engine bay. It was later sold to a local builder who took 13 years to kill it, and I saw it in a Bicester scrapyard in 2006. Battered to fuck, but completely unrusty. For a 1600 it went well and would sit at 80-90 in fifth without a problem.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

great first post Freebird!!!! Welcome, you sounds like a hardcore 'shite head'.

[CIH]

I watched a dude at work a few years ago spend most of the day t-cutting a LWB low roof smiley he had up for sale. Came up alright too. He also had a renault traffic that was a rightuseful tool.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

This one looks a straight old thing, £600 with 2 days to go:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FORD-TRANSIT-120SWB-/190529864723

[Mr_Bo11ox]

This one looks cracking, £600 as well but res not met:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ford-Transit-SWB-P-X-clear-NO-RESERVE-NO-VAT-EX-BT-/190530144237

 

its a '120' model rather than an '80', what does that mean?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Payload over t'rear axle pal.

 

 

 

I think.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Heres a daft film of some Polish guys slithering down a forest track in a Mk3 Crewcab transit.

 

[freebird]

This one looks a straight old thing, £600 with 2 days to go:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FORD-TRANSIT-120SWB-/190529864723

Thats one of the last that got painted "BT Grey" They were painted white from W plates.

They used to be kept for no more than five years, mileages wernt high but, fuck, some of them, were utter pogglers before they left service. My last S plater had five replacement windscreens in 5 years, mainly due to errant sugar beet deciding to leave lorries and head for me windscreen, the bastards.

These were all in the days when we had fleet workshops at every engineering centre, anything wrong with yer van, it went in. You could almost say that, even if they were dogeared leaving service, they were mechanically spot on. The idea of skiving off for an hour to have something looked at was always the way to go, those vans were running like Swiss watches, well most of them..

Thanks for the welcome Mr B.

Edit: The racking in those vans, if still in situ, would tell you what they were used for, some were "CSE" vans ( multi skilled engineers, some Payphone engineer vans etc. Also IIRC, the steps on the back were different depending on use. Most steps were dented and battered what with backing into the odd post, lamp post, street sign etc.

[RichL]

I am lucky in that I have the pleasure of driving around in a 2000 'Y' Transit 2.5Di Turbo at work, SWB with PAS. It should have been retired years ago but keeps on going with pretty much zero maintanance. Engine is fine as long as I keep topping the water up, it uses quite a bit due to a slight leak somewhere. I suspect the terminal body and chassis rot means the next MOT will see it's demise though, even after last years welding. Possibly one of the best engines ever made.

[oman5]

I've had a few over the years. possibly the worst to drive was W reg Mk2 swb with a 2.0 pinto and 3 speed auto. you'd come to a hill and it couldn't pull it in top but would be screaming its nuts off in 2nd. horrible steering that you'd have to chase all over the road too.

I had an L reg mk4 with the 2.5 di, poverty spec 80...god it was slow, but did over 40 mpg and was pretty much unburstable. not impressed with the ability the chassis had to rot around the spring hangers though. That one died when I stupidly tried to run it on veg oil....a big no-no with a Lucas pump. as I know NOW.

(by the way, its generally reckoned that the later smiley face front transits are even WORSE for rust. they rot absolutely everywhere.)

Most pleasant to drive was a J reg ex-ambulance, had a 2.9 EFi V6 and 5 speed manual, that thing would pull a house down and take any hill in top gear. Looked like it had only had one crew from brand new, it was immaculate. The rev limiter would cut in at about 90mph which was plenty quick enough. Non-power steering was shockingly heavy though.

We have a 60 plate tranny in work which really is a totally different machine. a dream to drive with loads of grunt, 6 speed box etc but I don't think I'd want to pay to work on the damned thing.

[Cavcraft]

I always thought the '120' or '100' or '80' referred to wheelbase in inches but stand to be corrected.

The really odd thing as mentioned earlier was how some Di models would just keep on pulling to daft speeds, others accelerated like a scalded cat and others were flat out about 60mph. I did hear rumours there was so many different diffs it was knowing which was the right one depending on what sort of driving you did.

All the LWB six studders I drove pulled like a train and always wanted another gear or two.

 

Still remember my first drive of a Mk3, an early (possibly 'C' plate) which had a four speed with overdrive. We used to try and brake the overdrive by constantly fucking about with it and we were pretty successful at it too. One lad found out if you screwed a five speeder then dopped from fifth to fourth at decent speeds you could get the rear axle to sort of lock up briefly.

We had a couple doctored too, from memory there was a blue plastic cover on the side of the fuel pump and they cut into it, screw drivered it off then there were two nuts, 13 and 19mm. Undo the outer one, back off the inner one and then tighten the outer back up before pissing about with the throttle stop thing. Something like that anyhow and this seemed to be the one sure way to knacker the engines up as they usually didn't last too long after that.

 

Stacks of parts still about for the Mk3, if the belt goes you just bend the valves out, slap a new belt on and off you went according to the bloke who fixed ours. They do seem to be fetching even better money than a while back now, possibly because the newer ones seem to have a poor reputation.

[Timewaster]

I always thought the '120' or '100' or '80' referred to wheelbase in inches but stand to be corrected.

 

No, its the carrying capacity. My L reg skip onwheels is only an 80 and has skinny tyres and what looks like a narrow axle (and sits on its arse if I fill it with rubble!)

80,100 and 120 were usually short wheelbase and 130, 175 and 190 were usually long wheel base.

Of course , being Transits they were available in 8 billion different specs, so I'm sure you could get a low roof short wheelbase 190 with 4x4 and a 1.6 pinto automatic!

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I find the direct injection cackle of a Transit diesel extremely unpleasant, I'm sure they've engineered that trademark sound into the common rail Transits.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

do the 80/100/120 have different engine specs?

[dollywobbler]

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I've never driven a Mk3 Transit, only later ones. Oh, and a Mk1 Ambulance, which was ace but very low geared (V4).

 

I'd quite like a Torneo - that's my idea of a people carrier. Much better to start with a van than to try scaling up a car.

[Cavcraft]

do the 80/100/120 have different engine specs?

 

I don't think so. In think the only flavas available were 2.0 pez and 2.5 diesel and you just ordered whatever model with whatever engine. Did hear various rumours they made a 1.8 diesel one but never saw or came across one.

[Father Ted]

 

Cost £400, took 16 teenage lads and lasses all over France and back again (nearly killing them due to ingress of petrol fumes through various holes in the body work). Kept jumping out of top gear, had an 8 track cassette player. 2000ccs of raw POwAH.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaahvelous.

 

Interestingly the Doovlay say it went over the bridge in 2002 and was white, whereas I know for a fact it went over the bridge in 1995 and was very orange, everywhere - even under the bonnet.

 

Fuvk knows why, but I have a picture of the dash...

[wackywacerwill]

Bought this SWB 80 for top dollar (800 sovs) after my Kawasaki broke down on the way to view it. 5 years on this is still the most modern/expensive/rusty 4 wheeled vehicle I've ever owned. Bonnet was stoved in in a hit and run styley and the screen was cracked. Proper shite.

This pic is after a couple of years proud ownership under going some prettying purely for vanity reasons (It was our soul vehicle at the time).

 

Despite the purchase price it made it's money back many times over in the first couple of months doing odd jobs whilst running on a 50/50 veg mix back when I could get 20ltr drums for a tenner. Took us all over the country did that van and provided accommodation for drunken revellers many times too. Sold it on in the end when it didn't have enough seats for kiddie number 2. Missed it, bought it back for pennys with no T+T after it had sat in a Thamesmead car park becoming home to a local vagrant (didn't know this till he jumped out the side door at the traffic lights on the way home leaving his sleeping bag in the back).

Always was the plan to do a camper conversion though by the time this got under way it was starting to look frilly in all the usual places. Armed with a big tin of wob, some fibre glass, a mix of household/hammerite paint I set about making it family holiday respectable in a bid to further justify it's existence in the family fleet

After the first bout of sanding I decided the ripples gave it character and should remain

 

 

Chopped in a window each side which was as far as the 'conversion' went.

 

 

It fluked it's final ticket after the paint but chasis rot and the looming lez meant it's days where numbered. Sold it to a kid at works dad who used up the last 2 weeks of legality tutting before saving it's DI heart for his own better bodied van and putting the rest over the bridge.

The DI was great and I do miss it soo, mainly whilst getting bummed at the pumps filing up this v v v

 

 

 

The twink is great, smooth quite and pulls well though somehow just don't seem right driving a Transhit without that dizzler rattle. Still mustn't grumble, I can drive it without getting fined come 2012 and it's a much more solid base for a camper. Plus it's a 1 previous owner 55k ex council bus which could be weighed in for twice the purchase price

Trampervan trannys rock.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I've only ever driven a van a couple of times in my life, it was a Transit (that happened about 4 years ago and I think it was an 03) and I have to say I hated the bloody thing. I found it really uncomfortable, but I guess that's not surprising given that I usually am to be found in waftastic barges.

[The Moog]

Spent a summer 3 years ago moving house and 3 other peoples houses in a P reg high top cube. Loved it. Fantastic van even though it was a dump. LWB so pretty much could swallow a whale. Sold it for £300 more than I bought it for to a bloke from Derby who needed it for his band.

[CreepingJesus]

 

Ok so... back home on an actual PC, instead of at work on phone. That's the pic I was referring to. Hateful POS, I got stuck in a snowdrift outside Airdrie on the A73 in that. My survival kit was in the Midi...in the workshop. Crawled it thro' a 'puddle' just outside Balfron one time, which was deep enough to have water lapping across the cab floor. Bet that did wonders for its' tin-worm! Showed the Rangie owner who refused to go thro' it, who was boss...

When I was at Laidlaw's up in Cupar, we used to get handed Wiseman's milk floats regularly; Kenny, the fitter in their workshop had enough on his hands with their HGV's. So when the milkmen rallied the Trannys, it was up to us to resurrect them. Bent propshafts, bent wishbones, air or water infested/deceased injection pumps were all grist for the mill: one came in on the local recovery wagon 'needing a clutch' once. Dropped the gearbox out, and ducked to avoid a rain of shrapnel. Once I'd picked all the bits out of the pit floor, there were 41 of them iirc. 41 pieces of plate, cover and bearing. How one does that, I'm not sure, I only wish I'd got a pic!

All but one were resurrected (blown engine+high miles=uneconomic), and those N/A Di's only ever did 45mph at best.

There was a 120 swb Turbo panel van, which went to a local coachworks to get a living area tucked in behind the cab; apparently it was specced by a local courier who had 'all of Europe' as his patch. That one was still pulling at 80-odds on the A92, with a tight engine.