Thought Id show some pics of what I’ve been up to in the van over the last couple of months. I’ve put on a few thousand miles on him and he’s been pretty much perfect bar a few old car grumbles.
Our final night away camping of 2016 to Kent we drove down from a wedding in Essex for our anniversary. We ended up in Whistable staying in the local campsite where we paid the few pounds extra for the hookup so we could use the £10 heater.
Whitstable was great, nice pubs and small shops that the gf could enjoy. We were a bit hungover from the wedding so didn’t do much browsing or drinking but ended up back in the van ordering an indian takeaway. Next day weather was great so we got up early and left the campsite before breakfast. We ended up parking in Reculver had a bacon and egg sannie looking out over the sea. We then walked through herne bay and back to Whitstable before getting a bus back then driving home.
Reculver
Sunset
Weather was great which really helped.
Since November no nights away but the van has been put to use… as a van
I have done a few bits
New radiator cap as the old one was looking past its best
For future reliability and as I had a intermittent hesitation I fitted a new electronic distributor to replace the points and whilst I was there i changed the HT leads - didn’t change the sparkplugs but will do soon. I had initially retarded the timing to much as noticed a drop in fuel consumption and down on power/top speed. I did the timing just before xmas and didn’t advance it again until after I’d been up and over the M62 so was struggling over the the moors. When I changed it was accelerating up all the hills and had plenty of power.
I changed the oil to check whether any fragments of metal in the oil as the first change there were some flakes. Thankfully there wasn’t. I fitted a magnetic sump plug so I can keep tabs on it. I had whipped the front wheels off to grease kingpins. I managed to shear a nipple off so I’ve got to replace it and it slipped off the jack denting the sump… need to get a bigger jack (see below) as although I’ve got a 2.6 ton jack it definitely struggles with the extra weight.
You can make the dent out here...
Brake pins are a bit short so have ordered some new ones.
The brakes actually work really well so although aesthetically they look tired I’m pretty sure the discs and pads were new but rusty.
I swapped in a new drivers sun visor as the string was required to hold it up.
And test fitted an older rear light to return back to earlier spec. I need to add some metal back in as by fitting the newer lights the metalwork was cut away.
Looks a lot cooler though. (I know this is a mk1 light got the mk2 lights in the garage wrapped up). Will figure out how to do it soon.
The main problem I kept having during this time was a battery that keeps going flat when left to stand for a week or more so I purchased a small solar trickle charger to keep it topped up when parked up that I plug in the cigarrette lighter socket. I later discovered that the negative earth wasn’t tight on the battery terminal. I had broken it at somepoint and not picked up on it which wasn’t helping. So a new terminal sorted that.
Another issue I had whilst on an Xmas trip to lancashire was the oil cap coming off and exploding oil over the engine bay on the A1. It luckily happened as I pulled into fuel… the cap landed on the exhaust manifold and was starting to melt but I managed to retrieve it before it went up! Not sure why, but maybe it was on loose/worked loose. Anyway I’ve tied on a replacement I had on one of my spare engines and will keep an eye out on it future. At least it adds some rust treatment to the engine bay...
I used him extensively overr Xmas and New Year between London, Essex, Sussex, London, Lancashire, London so done a few miles and been exposed to a bit of cold
Smoke screen in sussex
Frozen with Frozen locks in lancashire
Drive back during sunrise was great
This left me with a dirty transit
So I went through a jet wash to get a cleanish Transit
Although lost some paint
After then parking up for a couple of weeks the starter battery was flat despite having a solar trickle charger. I think the cold weather finally killed it after it had gone flat a couple of times after I left the lights on and as a result of the alternator failing. So I took the battery out and brought it indoors to charge it. After leaving it for a day on charge I tested it and it read 12.6 volts I then did nothing to the battery and left it until the end of the day and it was 12.2 volts then it had dropped further to 11.9v, By this time I’d condemned it and ordered a new battery which was the biggest capacity I could buy for under £50.
I needed the van working, not to go away but to transport a quarter of a Capri to repair my capri..
Its bloomin useful to have as I can transport all sorts of stuff in the back… the joys of a van and it sure beats my old v70
On the way back from dropping the quarter off at the repair shop I picked up a PCV valve and grommit from Burton power to help with oil cap issue. Had a half hearted attempt at fitting but gave up after I couldn’t get the flame trap out and it started raining. I also thought I’d be better off reading a haynes manual first rather than forcing it.
I did however manage to try out my new 3ton jack and stands from SGS engineering. I’ve got the 2.5 ton low profile jack already and the transit had fallen off once (as above) so invested in this as has a wider lifting point. Its seems well made like my other one so happy with it.
What I wanted to check when I jacked it up was there is a creaking noise coming from the drivers side suspension that is getting worse. I wanted to make sure leafs weren’t about to drop off… which they aren’t. The rubbers in the springs look pretty knackered so reckon it is that. I’ll look out for a bush kit and do a refresh of both sides or check the spare leafs I’ve got in the garage and swap them in.
As it had started to rain I retreated indoors and took the old stereo out. (Old archive pic)
I then took the stereo that I had removed from my XR3i
And fitted it back to here
Happy days - much better sound and also tunes into radio stations considerably easier.
As it was still raining I went into the back and noticed the lights didn’t come on…. Ahhh bugger the 2nd battery was flat…
I removed it from the rear cupboard which was easy as its not secured down. It was the first time I’d had a good look at it and after googling it it seems to originate from a mobility scooter. It seems a good brand and although the date says 2008 I’m hopeful. I’ve left it on charge since yesterday - currently sat at around 12.5v. I’ll leave it until tomorrow morning on charge then remove the charger to track any voltage loss over the day,
Whilst I had the battery out I thought I’d test the circuit for charging. Theres a black box in the engine bay that I assumed would be a relay that switched to charge with ignition on. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case and with the engine running and a healthy voltage being produced nothign was reaching the battery. So I’m going to redo the elements of the wiring so I know whats going on and add a voltage sensitve relay. I suspect that if theres no way of charging the battery the last time the battery saw charge was when on shore power in whitsable at the end of november and was probably killed as I suspect I left a light on
The rest of the wiring in the rear cupboard looks like this - this shows the 240v fuse box and 12v fuse box
Overall not to bad I did do a bit of tidying up by shortening some overly long wires and will swap out the 12v fuse board to take blade type fuses. The next step on this is to wait for some ebay packages including a battery tray to relocate the battery to under the bonnet and win back some storage space.
I’m quite looking forward to sorting the wiring out as its strangely satisfying. I will change some of the feeds from being off the car battery to the leisure battery - the stereo is the obvious one as want to be able to leave it on when onsite without fear. I may also do the same to the courtesy light and an accessory 12v socket. I’ll also add a battery voltage meter so I can keep an eye out on the state of the charge.
Thanks for reading
Cheers
Josh