Club 80-90 Forums

1664 wrote:

davethebus wrote:It says motorcaravan on the v5

Well, that's the important bit as far as you're concerned for insurance and speed limit purposes

I get ya

Brought the bus home yesterday and used it to go down to b&q to get some wood and metal for making the rock and roll seat. It was great to drive it for the first time and get some admiring glances BUT there is a slight problem The engine runs sweet enough but when pulling away you need to pump the throttle to get it to rev, once on the move it's quite smooth but with an annoying occasional misfire and quite down on power and with a very noticeable misfire when under load. Although I did notice that when on choke it's much better but not perfect.

Apart from this problem I've got the foams trimmed and the rock and roll seat made, very happy with progress so far, will post some pics later when it's not full of tools.

Spent quite a few hours on Friday indulging in the oh so manly pursuit of sewing and ended up with this lot.



Friday afternoon I made the brackets for the bed hinges and the support rail for the front edge of the bed. Today it was time to get the jigsaw out and make the bed bases and underseat storage area.



Also fitted some skateboard wheels as cabinet handles then had a bit of a whinge to myself because the freshly varnished Kitchen unit wont match anything else in there (it's all your fault 1664, the seed of doubt had been sewn )

Almost got the interior finished now. Had a small issue with the starter turning really slowly and sometimes not fast enough to fire the engine, had a quick search on here then went out to dave the bus and sure enough the starter motor wires and terminals where badly corroded so rewired it and fitted some new ring terminals and hey presto an easy starting van, no more embarrassing moments sat in the van slowly whirring away.

Progress report

Replaced breather pipe grommits, fuel neck rubber, replaced the missing filler neck overflow pipe and cleaned the tank out, took it for a run and everything was sweet..... until I pulled into the top of my road and the clutch pipe split leaving me with no clutch, thank god I was almost home.
Made a new clutch pipe the day before big bang and had to blow the clutch cylinder out with compressed air as the hole for the bleed nipple was blocked (no fluid coming out even when nipple was removed), bled up and sorted.
Went to big bang and nearly made it home, new fuel pump cured that one.
Then left it sat outside in the pooring rain until this morning..... MOT time
Passed the mot with one advisory, ball joint boot deteriorated but not allowing dirt ingress

Here's a pic of how he's looking now

Had our first successful camping trip with no issues at the weekend, a nice couple of nights at Snettisham.



Just been given some beauty rings for the wheels so just a bit of cleaning to do before vanjamboree on Friday

Excellent job mate. Where did you get the flooring?

john1 wrote:Excellent job mate. Where did you get the flooring?

It was a massive stroke of luck at a local carpet wholesales warehouse. A case of right place right time to grab the end of roll.

davethebus wrote:

john1 wrote:Excellent job mate. Where did you get the flooring?

It was a massive stroke of luck at a local carpet wholesales warehouse. A case of right place right time to grab the end of roll.

Lucky find mate, i can't get that blue anywhere.

I've got a bit left over, I can measure it for you if you like?

looks a great bus - well done on jobs you've done. Get out there and enjoy it!

Well its been a year and the van has been a load of fun for camping, helped us move house and acted as a spare bedroom a couple of times. There has been a few glitches along the way but nothing major and after a little play with the timing last month it has performed very well BUT tomorrow is the dreaded mot Hopefully all will be well as it hasn't covered many miles since last time but I better keep my fingers crossed for another fun year.
Here's a belated pic of Dave the camper at last years whitenoise.

The camper failed it's mot but quite a funny fail at that. Here's the story-
The mot station I go to has pressure plates instead of brake rollers so they can test lowered stuff. The brakes on Dave had a bit of an imbalance so he had to try it a few times, on the third attempt he slammed the brakes on and the piston seal in the drivers side caliper promptly said "I don't think so mate!!" and spewed brake fluid all over the floor leaving me with no brakes lmao! It's lucky I carry a set of mole grips, pinched the pipe up and drove home with three brakes.
Lucky it happened at the mot station and not on a motorway in heavy traffic.

Took the caliper off this morning and found totally knackered brake pads, ill fitting tension spring bracket and a properly bodged up tired looking caliper with both the bleed nipple and drain nipple destroyed by previous owner. Tried to heat bleed nipple and cut a slot for a screwdriver but no success then tried welding a nut to it then a bolt but this morning has been one huge fail. Now in need of a replacement caliper before I can get it mot'd and get out camping again. At least the passenger side looks ok.

Well I didn't realise they where that bad



Drain nipple rounded off and rusted in.



Heated till red but still no luck, must have been like this for a good few years



After trying the cut slot and screwdriver method with no succes I cracked the welder out, first with a nut then with a bolt.



Tried drilling after these epic fails with no success, got a little peeved, noticed the pistons in the caliper had chunks missing from the dust cover retaining lip, closed garage and went inside to chill out a bit before looking for a replacement.

Hey ho, that's how it goes sometimes I guess.

Belated update.
Repairs needed from above post all done with new pads and caliper. Took him out afterwards and had a few issues, fuel pump gave up 60 miles from home (spare one sat in garage at home ), wheel bearings on front both gave up the ghost, exhaust tailpipe fell off and 009 dizzy finally annoyed me enough to remove it.

Replaced the 009 with an 034svda as per the oops thread, new tail pipe, set chokes up properly and fitted new wheel bearings. Timed everything up and was running fine.
Left it to sit while it was sorned, came to it yesterday and the bloody things was hesitating and spitting with hardly any power, number three spark plug lead is now doing the square route of naff all and the spare fuel pump I put on it would struggle to fill a thimble let alone the carbs.

New plugs and leads ordered along with a fuel pump (new facet this time), on the plus side the wheel bearings are lovely and smooth now.

Parts haven't even arrived and the missus has already booked a few days away on the 28th, nowt like a bit of pressure aye?