1995 Transit SWB High Roof 2.6t cargo 2.5 Di

[hetman]

I wish I had something positive to report, besides the further detailing of the van. I cleaned and waxed it up real nice but after getting up the courage to pack it full for its hopefully first successful delivery, I have lost 2 perfect days (today and yesterday) in which I had expected to be able to actually use this Transit. This is turning out to be the biggest lemon I have ever had the pleasure of owning, and I'm not sure if any of it is due to my ignorance or ineptitude, or do Transits suck so badly that everything must be replaced? Are they reliable at all? Should I go back to my trusted 50-year old Econoline, which I know to be vastly superior in design and quality? Too bad to have to sacrifice these old museum pieces but they are better than today's designed obsolescence junk. No, I won't put my antique Econoline into service like that. Yet. I will try to fix this pieces of trash so that it's reliable. If that is possible.

The van won't start. It cranks and cranks but won't start. Except with a fully-charged battery AND in the afternoon. Never in the morning. The temp outside is hovering around 40 F in the morning, the last two mornings. Yesterday afternoon it started fine. Temperature not more than 50-55 F. Could this be a factor? What is wrong with my van now? Operator error?

[hetman]

Forgive me for my impatience; I know all the blame lies on me. For not knowing what I'm doing, mainly. This van's maintenance history is unknown and likely not been cared for properly, so I need to check everything and learn more about this van. My fault.

[hetman]

Finally got her fired up, after replacing the fuel filter. The element in the old one was quite dirty, brown. I wonder what kind of fuels were put into this tank?!! It was nearly empty when I filled the tank up last time, and after getting it started, I filled up the tank again (was 1/3). The clutch is working flawlessly, and is actually easier to operate than the old one - shifts smoothly and effortlessly. Actually a pleasure to drive. I just hope this is the end of the unpleasant surprises. Since the fuel filter was so dirty, I imagine that I will be better off removing the tank next spring and cleaning it out completely.

[hetman]

Greetings, friends. I'm sorry for not being around much the past 6 months; I've been using my new-found freedom (I'm speaking of having lost my job due to the "lockdown" begun in March) to work on my van. I know I had another thread somewhere about my mechanical problems (overheating, changing timing belt, adjusting valves) but wanted to express my gratitude to all you who helped me through that very exasperating time in March/April. I finally did manage to accomplish all of that correctly, and the van is running splendidly but since my source of income dried up, I haven't had money for fuel (or food, etc), and while the economic situation has improved (finding another job that at least pays enough to eat and pay expenses), I haven't had any spare income for fuel, so I have spent the past 6 months going through the van to get it ready for inspection (you call that MOT, I believe). Essentially, I was convinced that I needed to do something about the rust-through in the rear frame rails, and I basically stripped all the paint down to the metal on the whole underside of the van, including all 4 wheelwells, and inside the bed of the van as well. It turns out that there were a lot of surprises lurking under one inch of bondo along the whole lower side of the left and right sides of the van, very cleverly hiding some accident damage on both sides, and plenty of rust-through. Though this van was billed as "honestly done" by the previous owner, it is the epitome of the typical con job one would expect to find in Poland (and perhaps other countries). Normally I don't like messing with vehicles that have any rust at all, but I when purchasing this van, I felt a dire and urgent need to get a high-top van and this seemed to be in decent condition. However, the reality is that I have had to redo many mechanical things and then tend to the bodywork, which was in much worse condition than it was represented to me. Since I'm not trying to do a concourse restoration of this van, and only need it to serve me well (and pass inspection), I decided to try my hand at cutting out each and every rust spot and hand-beating panels to fit. I am almost done with the project, and have hand-formed and replaced over 100 body patches throughout the van. Not including the doors, which also need work. There is no rust left, which I take as a success. The result is far from what I'd consider an attractive van, but I've replaced all the rusted areas with metal and seam sealer, and painted and undercoated everywhere. I really don't mind that it looks rather poor, but it should serve me for another few decades, or until Jesus returns, whichever is sooner.

I need help decoding this axle tag. Can anyone point me in the right direction? According to the data plate in the passenger footwell, the axle is D, which should be a limited slip 4.56 ratio T34. However, I don't believe the axle is working correctly. The limited slip part doesn't work as it should, and I've had to be pulled out of soft ground when the van got stuck last winter in a field. So, the codes on the small tag seem to indicate that it's the original axle (I had feared it had been swapped out), with a D in the codes. So please confirm what these numbers mean. I'm very appreciative.

5G 11D 4.56:1 T34
95 VB 4001 GA

[Chug]

100 patches Mike... there's always plenting of welding on an old transit
If your VIN plate says D in box 6 and it has the axle tag saying the same ratio with a D then I would say it should be the lsd, as for the numbers meaning I cannot help with the first number but the second one is the part no.
see number breakdown from Matt here ...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=195880&p=1663063&c=1#p1663260

[hetman]

100 patches Mike... there's always plenting of welding on an old transit
If your VIN plate says D in box 6 and it has the axle tag saying the same ratio with a D then I would say it should be the lsd, as for the numbers meaning I cannot help with the first number but the second one is the part no.
see number breakdown from Matt here ...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=195880&p=1663063&c=1#p1663260

Greetings, mate! You are one of the heroes who have helped me, many times.

Yes, Box 6 of the VIN plate also has D, which is why I wanted to determine if the axle tag corroborated this, and it does. Now all I have to do is figure out why my LSD differential isn't working. I hope that a fluid change will do the trick.

Yes, the body work has been grueling and exhausting but the benefits are great: I've managed to keep another Smiley on the road!!

[hetman]

Greetings, folks. I haven't been here in a few years I believe. In the past few years I've been able to make more upgrades and improvements to the interior of the van and use it from time to time, but a about 3 years ago I lent it to a friend to help him out and he returned it 6 months later with overheating issues. I thought I had solved that problem already (see some of my other topics on that issue) but last summer on the way to a campground with my son, the van developed serious overheating issues, spewing coolant out of the reservoir. It was a disaster and I only made it the 100 miles back home by stopping every 15 miles and adding water to the reservoir. In any case, I figured that there is a serious problem with this van and decided to remove the head and see if it's cracked, or if the head gasket is faulty or something worse. I haven't had much time in the past year and a half but am resuming this project now and can't figure out how to remove the injectors. Could someone guide me in the right direction, including what kind of took I might need to buy to get them off?

Also, in the 6 years I've had this van, I've never been able to solve the problem with cold starts. I have had to use a quick start fluid to start it in temperatures below about 10-12 degrees C. I tried various solutions, including adding an aftermarket glow plug into the intake manifold (which someone had tried in the past but that was not working when I bought it). My system kept burning out as well and someone told me that the Transit's factory glow plug doesn't operate on 12V but rather something lower, and needs a reducer of some kind. Can someone please help me understand what I need and where to get the parts? This van is less than desirable to own with no way to start it in the winter.

Thank you.

[hetman]

I was unsuccessful in removing the injectors, but I did manage to remove the head yesterday and take a look at everything today. I did a leak-down test on all the valves, and the valves in every single cylinder leaked. So they are not seating properly and the head needs to go the machine shop for a valve job and also planing. Besides tons of sediment in the cooling passages of the block and heads, there is also evidence of blow-by over the gasket, which means the head is warped. The van was not showing these symptoms before I lent it out to my friend. He must have overheated the engine and continued driving it (and he did mention it had overheated). Another interesting note is that there is very evident wear in the cylinders which according to my older neighbor (machinist by trade) who looked at it today says is more typical of Diesel engines over 250-300K miles, whereas my odometer indicates only 170K miles. My guess is that the odometer was turned back a significant amount, which is an unfortunate tradition here in Poland.

By the way, while looking back at this thread, my last post was over 5 years ago, and I thought I had posted more updates especially of the exterior repairs and interior upgrades I carried out years ago, making the van look halfway presentable. But I don't see any posts like that.

[hetman]

Greetings, friends. An update is called for: success in many ways but not quite running yet. What are the protocols on bleeding the air out of the fuel lines? I can't find any information about that.

I got the head back from the machine shop a while ago but it's been way too cold over the winter to put the engine back together, but in the past month I've accomplished that. I have tried starting the engine (it cranks over immediately and keeps cranking.... I"ve tried about 15-20 seconds of cranking, but it doesn't seem to be getting fuel. I thought the fuel pump was self-bleeding? How long does it take for fuel to get to the injectors? Or am I missing something? I believe I've followed all the procedures correctly, and the engine and the van haven't looked this good for 20 years, most likely. I even polished and waxed this old workhorse and the original paint (where it still exists, which is about 80%) shines so beautifully. Anyway, I'm eager to get the old girl back on the road after nearly 2 years.

The head was planed and rebuilt and valve seats ground. I sourced and purchased 4 new Stanadyne fuel injectors (not cheap!), because all four of the injectors were faulty/defective (not spraying at all (2 of them) or not correctly. Besides those and the new gaskets and head bolts, and the valve job, I didn't spend much money on the project, but I cleaned every single part and also the whole engine bay, removed the rotted and damaged firewall insulation and painted the firewall and the whole engine bay and front of the van, installed a missing heat shield for the initial fuel pump on the block, and also flushed out the engine block and radiator again (it's nearly new) along with installing a new coolant reservoir. Though it's tedious and dirty work, it's also satisfying rebuilding things, and now I hope that I can enjoy the van for many decades yet.

Some interesting things I discovered about the van. I simply can't believe how much abuse it's been subjected to. For one thing, while tightening down the smaller 8mm valve train securing bolts, one broke off while tightening it!! When this happened, I removed the head again and took it to the machine shop to have the broken bolt removed from the head, but fortunately it came right out and I needn't have removed the head itself. Anyway, I bought a new set of head bolts (no telling how many times the head has been off but for sure it's been off before I bought the van, and possibly more than once?) and torqued down everything again. I noticed how the new bolts "stretched" while torquing them down whereas the older bolts didn't seem to have this elasticity in them. I secured a set of original 8mm valve train bolts from an older Ford mechanic in my area and I noticed that all 4 of those bolts on my engine had been stretched!! So much that they all had a visible "waist line" in them, extending them a couple of millimeters. They are visible longer than the undamaged bolts. Now how I ask you does one stretch a bolt like this?! Anyway, I bolted everything down and now the engine should run perfectly but I need to figure out how to start it.