My latest purchase - Mk.5 LWB 190

[Shiny]

Just bought another van as above.

It's a 94 Smiley with a banana motor and bosch pump, drove home very nice apart from a slight 'warm diesel' smell in the cab. The bloke I bought it off pointed out an injector plastic cap he'd had replaced as it was leaking, so I'm guessing it's just the leaked diesel burning off the head / block as it got a decent run up the motorway on the ride home.

There's also a slight prop vibration from 35mph to 50mph which vanishes after that, and the clutch release bearing is a bit noisy. Oh, and the clutch pedal feels strange, about an inch of free movement before doing anything and the bite point is very low down, possibly just the adjuster mech and cable playing up.

I've got a lot planned for this van, I'll be converting the front section where the SLD is to a 'crew cab' with a bench seat and a small sink / cooker. In the rear will be a fold down bed or even a pair of them so I can fit the double airbed on them.

I'll update this as and when I get round to doing things.

[Shiny]

First jobs on the list:

Fan speed switch - doesn't work in any position.
Air distribution control - just clicks like the plastic has worn / control siezed.
Courtesy light - doesn't work on doors, comes on dim in one position, bright in one, and nothing in middle.
Sort out non-unlocking driver's door
Find / fit a cupholder!
Make good rear door bottoms / purchase replacements (semi-high).
Insulate and plyline rear.

[hdegroot]

nice, pictures?

[Smooth Hound]

lets havea look

[Shiny]

Currently being run ragged at work so pics may be a while coming.

[Shiny]

Still not got round to getting any photos, but struck a couple of jobs off the list last night.

Courtesy light now works. The 'dim in one position' was due to an aftermarket door contact on the SLD being stuck, and still is, so I've just cut the feed from it. Both front door contacts were covered in verdigris as usual, so a quick clean of them both and now I have the light working on both front doors.

Fan switch - took the connector off the back and it's burnt to buggery. It's had one on before as this one is scotchlocked on. Checked under the bonnet for the resistor, well, there's the metal shell where it used to be, but no resistor. I bridged the feed on the burnt connector at the fan switch and up she spun, so the fan is ok.

Couldn't get to the distribution control without having the dash off, so that's gonna be a job for next week.

[Shiny]

Been tarting the SWB 80 up a bit to sell so not got much done on the 190.

Had a quick shufty underneath her today though and found a few bits to make me smile, and a few bits that made me groan.

Smiles:

Apart from a decent coating of sh1te underneath (previous owner lived up a farm track) which I will jetwash off, it's very tidy and solid looking, with only a small section on the front and rear crossmembers needing attention. It's got a lovely post-shaped dent in the middle of the front crossmember though!

Groans:

The rearmost prop bearing is goosed - the rubber on the rear side is non-existant so it's got approx 10mm play in it. I'll shim it with some hd rubber sections siliconed in place till I can get round to replacing it.

The NSR leaf spring has a broken leaf. Took a few seconds to work out why there were more leafs at the back than the front.

I've drawn some rough to-scale plans up based on the internal measurements for my little conversion project. Bad news on that is I wanted a 'Spinflo' combi sink and cooker unitlike what's in my VW bus, but they're 1200mm and I only have 900mm to play with. Looks like I'll have to have a re-think on that one.

[Shiny]

Rooflining out ready for new aerial to be fitted, and extra cables run overhead for rear lighting.

Dash is almost off but lack of light and a thunderstorm means the last screw is out tomorrow now. Thought I had a moment of clarity when fiddling around near my stuck air distribution control, a very old unused tetley teabag fell out from the mechanism! Yay, though that may have been jamming it, but it's still the same.

I also notice I haven't got the needed wire to pin 8 for my mondeo clocks. Never mind, will get that sorted.

[Shiny]

Bit of an update with pics.

Didn't have to wrestle the dash all the way out, managed to wriggle the heater controls up far enough to see what the problem was with the distribution control - it had rode off the end of the plastic 'rack' so the pinion wasn't engaging. A quick push and re-align and it works fine now. Need to glue the background foil back on though as it just fell off.



How much crap behind the speedo?!



Yep, the plug has melted. New one to solder in.



The roof aerial was broken, and it's also been leaking.

[Shiny]

A mate gave me an old aerial from a Golf GTi that has a 12V feed for a pre-amp too. Fits well, had to enlarge the roof hole slightly. Cleaned up the rust from where the old aerial had been leaking back to bare metal, installed the aerial and then blew a bit of primer then topcoat over the lot. Topside I used silicon to ensure the new one doesn't leak, it got a good test today with the rain we had!




New plug for the heater switch soldered on, heatshrunk and a bit of self-amalgamating tape works wonders.




Speedo plug - pin 8 missing for the tacho...




...not any more! Rather than mess around trying to 'trap' a wire in place or solder to the speedo PCB, I took the connector apart and fitted one in place from an old connector.



I've replaced any blown bulbs whilst doing this, so now everything lights up as it should, including the clock, fan controls and cig lighter ring.

Whilst the dash was almost out I've also run speaker wires for some tweeters, and the phono leads for the amp.