Club 80-90 Forums

Well there’s something strange going on...

I’ll give you a full run down even though I’m sure most of it will be irrelevant.

Firstly, vehicle running fine before I parked it up for two weeks over Christmas. When I jumped back in, 1st & 2nd gears seemed to be ‘moved’ where I had to push down slightly on the gear stick to access them. I adjusted the slip joint in the middle of the shift linkage (many times) with various amounts of success but no great outcome. I dealt with that for a day or two and on the way to work I started loosing clutch power. I checked reservoir and it was a little low so I topped it up and I tried to bleed the clutch at the slave cylinder but nothing came out. I pumped the brake slightly to build up pressure and see if that would make a difference but a rear brake pipe blew.

Ordered the parts from brickwerks and set about swapping the full rear set up before I realised it was a fecker of a job that requires moving a gearbox. So I had to admit defeat and put it in to a garage near my work it took 3 garages before one agreed to do the job. One week and £240 later I got my truck back with a new set of problems.

Heater/overheat light flashing (various speeds/ strength- depends on revs) but needle in normal place. Headlights dul and flickering. Indicators not intermittent. Wipers slow if at all and relay making rapid clicking. Fan not blowing. Full beams not happening.

Think that’s all I have......does that sound like anything anyone has come up against?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like an earthing problem.
Does it start ok? if so, your gearbox earth and battery earth are probably ok.
Worth checking your earth crowns, you don't say what engine/age your van is but on my late model petrol van the earth crowns are behind and to the left of the fuse box.
Worth pulling all the earth crimps and cleaning them up.

Sorry. It’s a jx 1.6td, 1988 LHD syncro.

I thought about the Earth crown but it seems strange when it’s so far from where the garage should have been working. I dropped it back off at them this morning for them to have a look.

As I drove to work this morning in the dark I noticed that the lights would brighten if I reved heavily and die if I dipped the clutch and coasted.

The contacts on the earth crowns just oxidise over time which means they can start causing problems at any time.

Given that it's only a fifteen-minute job to pull all the connectors from the main dashboard earth crowns, clean the contacts up with a bit of fine grit sandpaper and reconnect everything, it's something that's worth trying in any case.

(You probably know this already, but if you don't, the earth crowns for the dashboard are on the left a-pillar behind the fuse box.)

The garage just called. Say it was an earth strap on the engine that was causing the problems. Don’t know if I’m convinced but I’ll see when I pick it up.