My (better) half brought a t25/t3 campervan a few months ago (she had a t2 late bay before, but that requires welding work to pass her MoT so its SORN'd atm), from what I have managed to work out is this;
She (Ruby) was an LT series 1 4.5 converted (don't know when) into a VW t25/t3 camper-van and along the way has had a 1987 passat 1.8ltr petrol engine installed in her. When Katie (the better half) brought her she was running although we knew Ruby had to have a new fuel filter soon-ish.
Ruby worked great for around 600 miles then one day we went to turn her over & she would not fire. She turned over for ~1 second then died.
Puzzled we started to browse forums , haynes and others, for answers and came across quite a lot of information;
We summarised that it can be either ignition or fuel; so we checked both (this is where things get interesting);
We put a new fuel filter in and found the pump was not drawing fuel.
So we put a new fuel pump in, by chance I tried to draw the fuel up the line manually (petrol doesn’t sit well in the stomach I later found out). At this point we found a block in the line from tank > filter.
So we drained the tank & cleared the line. Installed new pump and managed to get fuel flowing again (yay!).
But Ruby would not start.
So we checked the ignition (seeing if there was a spark on the plugs when manually removed) - there was. HOWEVER I did NOT put the HT cables back on in the right order. Which led to Ruby trying to start and (as you can imagine) being very unhappy with the firing order.
Since then she has not started at all.
In my defence, 6 months ago I knew nothing about engines, my background was Accountancy & Law, but I’m trying to learn!
We then found a crack in the vacuum pipe on the carburettor and the power lead to the Inlet Manifold Preheater had come loose. So we fixed both of those.
As it stands now;
Ruby Pumps fuel & has spark
When turning over white, petrol smelling, fumes come back through the carb. & if we persist in turning her over through the exhaust as well.
We have replaced;
Fuel filter, Fuel Pump, Vacuum pipe on Carb., Inlet Manifold wiring & a section of fuel pipe (that split).
I have corrected the firing order & it is now correct.
Any suggestions as to what the cause of her not working at all (beyond my mistakes) is?
I am thinking timing - that the valves could be 180 degrees out?
And how to fix it?
Sorry for the long post, but I think more details is better than less & I am slightly out of my comfort zone
Thank you for reading & any help you could offer in advance.
Rory (& Katie who owns Ruby)
- I will delete it as the situation is complicated enough already 
