A daily dutch mk2

[evanmandos]

Well first who we are:

I am a 21 year old student and my father is a 58 year old projet manager in environmental solutions. Since my father was fed up with the dutch road tax system he decided to ditch his focus tddi for far too less money and buy a mk2 transit from a very nice turkish man who could drive it anymore since his back gave out(may be the mk2, maybe the burden of his 9 kids).

Then the adventure started, 5 months to fix it up for it's MOT and it was to be my dads daily car(60 miles a day), he is just a bit crazy and doesnt want to spend more on his journeys to work and back than necessary.

By now the mk2 had some welding done(teached myself in 3 months time, with a pre-stoneage stick welder) and most of the really bad body work has been fixed to a point where you won't get tetanus(??) or any other diseases from touching it. Also my parents took it for a nice holiday to the czech republic and total mileage in 5 months raised 22000 km(14500 miles?) so it is used way more than a 30 year old car should .

This monday it had its MOT, and the first MOT-man rejected it, too much underseal clayed on to see if its rotten or not, but happily the second one(a guy with a great heart for oldtimers) approved it, only some very minor thins(brakelight swith, steering return to center) had to be done, so that big obstacle is out of the way.

In the upcoming weeks/months/year/centuries i will post some progress on this forum, and i hope to put some photo;s in very soon, hop you'll like our story !

The specifications of the mk2 are:
Ford transit 100 9-seater
Built: 1979
2.0L OHC pinto (not-so)powersource(dreadly VV-carb because of LPG-setup)
Overdrive-gearbox
5.14:1 diff
Mileage(this engine):159000 km(100000 miles), cars total: approx 450000 km(300000 miles)

Things which are certainly on the roll in the not-so-future:
Other crown/pinion, 4:1 orso(any tips which ratio's best?)
Full round window-rubber and door-rubber replacement(yuk, they get dirty after 30 years)
VV-carb restoration(i have a spare to f*ck up )
Overhaul of propshaft(see next post for last adventure)
Final welding on the chassis

Things to do in the long run:
2.9i scorpio engine conversion(or so), when the LPG has pulled the valves into the rocker-cover

Total restoration of body work including nice paint job(still have to learn that)

Update of sound system(now 4*100 + 2*80 and 1*150 sub but not well adjusted to the 'acoustics' of this car, also radio itself isn't too well anymore(FETs are up for retirement)

Re-doing the seats, still thinking about what fabric to use

Re-placing the roof-lining(why don't we do it, has been out since we had it , havent found the 15 minutes to replace it)

Whatever we can imagine in the future

In the end we are just two freaks who wan't to learn to do everything ourselves and love to drive a nice old car which otherwise probably would have been scrapped in the near future!

[evanmandos]

Well we had some adventures up to now, but the first one i'll post here is one with a weird solution!

Today we took the prop out to check were some grumbles and vibration came from, and found out it is the last u-joint(diff-side). After replacing the prop(havent got replacement yet) the grumble already started at 30mph, so that is not nice to drive.

Now we have pulled the uj in parts and itturns out there wasn't even one needle left in one of the four bearing(where have they gone?). Since it's saturday night, were will you get a new one, and next to that my parents live in this tiny village which doesn't have a decent parts-supplier, so getting one would be a horrible job.

The solution

Pull apart 2 HF radio plugs(bronze/silver alloy or so) file out it's inside thread and sand them until they are such a nice snug fitin the bearing. Grease them up very well and replace all needles in the 2 opposite bearings by this bushes.

Now the prop starts to grumble slightly at 60 mph and it makes some rattles so now and then, but certainly this car will get my dad to the parts supplier monday

Since i havent heard about anyone doing emergency reapirs to u-joints i really wanted to share this weird solution.

I havent made pictures, but when my dad takes it off monday, he is obliged to make some pics of his creation.

[evanmandos]

And here is the pic of the van as we bought it, appears though the lens wasn't too clean that day

[hdegroot]

Nice van, but why not buy an mk1 german firevan

[FredTransit]

Nice van. What is the situation with your road tax then? is the Mk2 exempt?

[evanmandos]

Yes, here in the netherlands all cars older than 25 years are free of tax , and hdegroot, this van was ways cheaper than a Feuerwehr van also those Feuerwehr vans are almost all mk1 i believe, and the mk2 drives ways better in my opinion(also parts are better exchangeable with mk3)

[hdegroot]

always thought only mk1 was tax free here

[evanmandos]

most mk2s are too new but this one is a early one(produced begin of 1979)

[evanmandos]

Replaced the bad u-joint(damn, theyre expensive at the local supplier, 30 pounds , but a nice strong one), one of the two axis still isn't rolling too smooth, probably the flange is a bit crooked

The temporay fix with the hf-radio plug held up very well! drove 250 miles with it


Sadly the vibrations aren't gone completely, seems the center bearing has had quite a punch in the face

The problem now is that the center bearing is not the original one i believe below is a picture of the rubber, if anyone has any tips which type of bearing(dimensions?) this is, please tell me!!!

I don't fancy to pull the bearing of the propshaft to check measures and then refitting that old bearing!

[evanmandos]

A little progress message, though not too much has been done.

Sadly today the heater-fan has died especially a shame since i was felling so lucky to have about the only mk2 with a working original heater...

If anyone has tips where to get an affordable fan which more or less fits the heater casing, please contact me!! its now literally freezing here(-5 celsius/centigrade) so i do NOT fancy this death at this point

Next to that, las week i fitted my fully revised(did it myself ) VV-carb, just a bit fiddling with air/fuel, re-setting the LPG-idling screws, and suddenly the little beast starts within a second, even with current temperatures!!!

New to me is that it will idle on LPG without a bit help from the accelerator! Man VV's are so sensitive with the choke mechnisms. Will try to give the old carb a nice make-over, maybe it will work once again!