Club 80-90 Forums

Hello,

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)

happy...camper wrote: 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.)

Not really possible to convert an lt to a t25 they are different vehicles
start by getting a pic up of the van and engine so we can see what you really have
photobucket account and post IMG links

happy...camper wrote:
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.

Welcome to the forum

firstly an LT van and a T25 are two entirely different vehicles.
So should we should assume you have a T25 with a 1.8 passat engine.?

I always thought 1.8 passat engines were injected

The first LT series were based of the same chassis as the t25. The LT 1st generation at least. You can confirm this simply by looking at wiki (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_LT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

See "also called" on the right. The LT 45 was the 4.5 tonne chassis of the 1st generation LT. I have done quite a lot of leg work on it already, if you wish I can find the chassis diagrams to show the relationships between the models.

As for the engine the 1.8 (although we were told it was a 1.9) is not fuel injected (primarily due to its age), it is before most engines where injected, or computer controlled (which is why we like them).

Can provide photo's once the sun rises as at the moment slightly too dark. But of what I am certain; Was registered in 1987 as an LT 45. Is currently in a t25 configuration. The engine is more dubious, and shall upload photo's shortly, but from what I can tell the information we were given is correct.

Either way; taking out from the consideration the make/model can you answer me this;

Should a carburettor'd engine have the same symptoms as described what could the possible causes be?

Thank you in advance

Firstly and most importantly, I hope this thread progresses and the good people here assist in solving your problems.

Secondly, I can't for the life of me find any reference that you mention between the lt and the t25 in wiki. There's no way in the world my van could be plated to take the weight of the lt. The chassis would buckle under 3.5 tonnes on it's back!!!

Wikipedia is not fact and not always right

Dizzy can be put in 180 degrees out but if you have not removed it thats not going to be the problem
id guess you have the dizzy leads on wrong still

get the engine at tdc by looking at the timing marks and by removing the spark plug from no 1 cylinder, then you can work out from where the rotor arm is pointing which is the position for lead no1
The cylinder order and firing order need to be looked up, you can then see in which order the other leads should be

The LT is the the T25 on steroids!!

Yes, they can be configured as a camper - I believe westfalia did them...and you can get a the Karmann as well I believe. But the T25 is rear engined....I don't think the LT is....

I have looked at your link...I can't see a known as T25 in the panel on the right either!!

Good luck trying to get the thing started!

Looking forward to the pics to see what you have got!! I like a decent "guess what it is from the clues" game!!

Em
xx

It's all a bit odd, what with the LT/T25 mix up, and yes, of course they are TOTALLY different, the LT has the engine at the other end for a start But also the carb (presumably EX) motor that is fitted to your van. If the engine was mounted in the usual T25 i4 fashion, leaning over as per the Diesel (which uses the same block as the EX) then the carb would not work (as it is at too much of an angle). This is why 99% of the petrol in line 4 installs use the injected versions of that engine. If on the other hand it was mounted upright, the engine lid would have to have been raised to accommodate the carb and filter.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. As said ^^^ I agree, it is likely a firing order issue in view of the fact you have sparks and fuel. Does it backfire or similar ?

EDITED = Pic removed as I posted the wrong one !

Pics of the engine bay would certainly help with all of this

The pic is a flat four john, now I like to see it, but as you say the fella has an upright inline four.
with a 1-4-3-2 firing order

Oh yes = forgot that bit - I will delete it as the situation is complicated enough already

So this is a front engined LT not a rear engined T3, a completely different vehicle. Caution - wikipedia tends to be written by amateurs who often make stuff up, so don't trust what you read there. Photos or have I missed them?

Ralf85 wrote:wikipedia tends to be written by amateurs who often make stuff up, so don't trust what you read there

Aye, but to be fair, if you look at the Wikipedia page (link) it doesn't say anything about T25 (or T3)

@ happy...camper = please don't let all this forum chattering/banter put you off being here. It's a typical 80-90 "thing" and ia always meant in the best possible taste (as Kenny Everett used to say) Now, is your engine at the front, or the back

Yes agreed, recheck firing order, I may be wrong but do these engines have issues with the keyway on the crank breaking causing the cam belt to slip ?

depends which 1.8 lump it is! FIRSTLY tell us wether the engine is in the back or between driver and passenger seats.