Club 80-90 Forums

ok started washing down the syncro this week and noticed that the rear spring platform support chassis was full of mud.

on the 2wd vans you can get in to this area to clean it out but i`ve noticed with the syncros the fuel tank is in the way.



so what do you guys do after you have been of road to wash the vans down.

and how much work is it to drop the fuel tank .



i`m sure if i got rid of all this mud the van would be 1/2 the weight.

..lee.. wrote:ok started washing down the syncro this week and noticed that the rear spring platform support chassis was full of mud.

on the 2wd vans you can get in to this area to clean it out but i`ve noticed with the syncros the fuel tank is in the way.



so what do you guys do after you have been of road to wash the vans down.

and how much work is it to drop the fuel tank .

i`m sure if i got rid of all this mud the van would be 1/2 the weight.

I would say fuel tank is the worst job on a syncro

Leave the mud, thats what holds it all together isnt it?

As long as that area has been cleaned once properly and dried out, then painted with soemthing appropriate, its a once a year job really, before the onset of the wet winter weather...

Most think that jet water washing is best and its is probably easiest and quickest

I'm a coat hanger/fencing wire, dry it out and vacuum it out guy myself.. tending to think that washing out inaccesible sections alwasy leaves a slurry behind, or slurries what wasn't a slurry in the first place, which never really ever dries completely.. so I prefer clean clean, so when it gets wet wet, it all runs out and dries proeprly again... hot air gun helps, and a very powerful vac with 5/8" bore rubber attached for the difficult sections.

Horses for courses though!

The offside spring hanger is much harder to acces than the nearside, due to the tank, but if its done once properly and painted well wehn really dry, that'll stop it suffering too much during a muddy season

What you must do is keep the inside of the main rear rails clean and the rear cross-member empty of slurry

Also the front and rear of the sills, at each jacking point, the front is a sod to repair when it goes as about 5 or 6 different sections all meet there.. look up directly below the heavy metal aperture for the front j.p, see that plate above, bet that won't take a lot of prodding before it pops through to nothingness, and just behind that area as the sill proper starts.... get it dried out if nothing else, and try to vac out rubbish/ slate rust etc.

Even drill a hole in it to air and drain, can then weld a doubler plate around it. easier than fixing the whole thing later, IMHO a right sod to do anything like properly

and if its been doen before not every well even worse a few years later

I usually drive through a puddle.

Yeah, pray for a downpour and go out and drive. I was lucky the weekend before last coming down the M1, it was torrential from Birmingham south. Pickup got the best clean it's had all year !

thank for the replys guys.

drying stinky(my syncro)out will be difficult this time of year. i guess i`ll keep washing it and put it on the ramp and get the heater under it over christmas.

cant forget the westy or the wife will kill me.

Removing the tank is the second worst job on a Syncro .......... the worst is putting it back in !!!!!!