Thursday 27 August 2015

This year's trips (and baby number three joins us!)

Been very slack on the blog lately - we've been busy!

We welcomed our third child into the family in January, which meant he was old enough to come along with us when we went on our first trip of the year in the van back in May.  It was a super weekend in Skegness with family.  Fitting three kids in the van was "interesting" - we settled on putting our middle child in the front car seat with the eldest and youngest wedged in the back, with the non driving adult sat in the back too to keep an eye on things! 


Next up was Swanage in July for the town's festival week, and what a brilliant time we had. Great, traditional entertainment for the kids including 'wacky races', a tots disco, fancy dress, sandcastle competitions and for the grown ups a fun run, darts, pool competitions and of course the infamous wheelbarrow race! Mentioning the pool competition brings me onto the most dramatic van moment of the holiday - Dave entered the pool comp and as it got later I took the kids back to the van (we'd driven into town) to put them to bed and wait for him to get knocked out...

Hours passed....it got darker...still hours went by...kids were asleep and I was bored...I saw a lone pool player walking home with his cue...still no Dave.  Has he walked home to the campsite, I thought?  About 1130pm I decided to start the van and drive up to the venue to check - however there was absolutely nothing happening when I tried starting it.  Great.  I couldn't ring Dave as my phone battery had died, so eventually spotted some girls going home and asked to borrow their phone - it was now 1230am, and I got through to Dave who had literally just won the pool competition!  (thank goodness - I wouldn't have been happy if all that waiting was for nothing!)

Dave returned victorious to the van having also won the wine in the raffle (my pay off for babysitting I think!) - there was no starting the camper so in the back streets of Swanage at 1am we pushed the campervan and eventually managed to restart it - thank goodness! Could have been interesting for local residents to see us brushing our teeth on the pavement come the next morning....


Dave's written a separate post about all the maintenance jobs from this summer - a long list as usual!  My job is going to be to repaint the van - the paintwork is looking decidedly tired now and some bits are peeling off. We are off to France in October so I'm hoping to have it spruced up by then...I'll be checking our European breakdown cover too....

Wednesday 26 August 2015

NVH (noise) in a 40 year old van

My day job is designing the metal structure of Nissan cars, most recently doing the engine compartment metal of the Mk 2 Qashqai. Part of my responsibilities on top of the metal are dash insulation, carpets, battery brackets and all sorts of other bits and pieces. Having commented a couple of times on noise concerns on CF's on the forums, I thought i'd make a post explaining how to make it possible to have  a conversation with your passenger without having to shout/resort to megaphones.

When we first bought the van, the noise while driving was deafening. Having spent years just getting it running, the noise was never the priority, but a couple of years ago I took one of our NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness) experts out for a run around the block to diagnose the cause and suggest a solution. He was immediately clear on both - there are gaps between the engine bay and the cabin allowing engine noise to come through unchecked, and there are gaps from the cabin to the outside world allowing wind, road and engine noise to come in. The main problem as well was a blowing exhaust manifold to down pipe joint, but that's the easiest to solve with a new gasket.

All the leakage to the engine bay is through the engine cover. Around the edge there may have been a seal once, but there's nothing there now, so noise goes straight through the gap. I fitted some sticky backed foam sealer with immediate results. Here's a picture of it in place, it runs all the way round the opening

I've lifter the cover up here and you can see i've got two beads of sealer running around. Before being compressed they were 5mm high, but are compressed to ~1mm when the cover is screwed down.

The difference in engine noise was amazing. From shouting to each other and having the radio on full volume, we now drive along in comparitive peace....

Next was a problem that only really shows up at high speed. At high speed the pressure outside the van reduces as the wind rushes past (like an airplane wing), so the pressure of air inside the van is higher, sucking the doors and windows open. The Sash on the front doors is very weak, and can be sucked outwards so much that a gap opens up between the door sash and the seal on the body side. I used the same sealant in this area, in some places with two beads of seal on top of each other the gap was so big.


That was enough to completely close the gap and eliminate the problem. before, I could actually see daylight through the gap like this:

(i've opened the door a fraction to show the effect). Now that i've made those simple changes, the van is so much better than I could ever have expected. in the future I might go further and add some insulation to the actual dash metal panel. The theory here is that you add a soft layer (foam or felt with air in it) that absorbs higher frequency noise, and you add mass tat blocks and reflects lower frequencies. In Nissan we do that with multiple density felts or Polyurethane foam along with 'heavy layer' - a plasticy  gooey substance that's found in the dash insulator. If I get round to it, i'll make another post, but there are more pressing issues to attend to for now...!


Thursday 20 August 2015

Maintenance and improvements

Some serious maintenance jobs...

It's been a year of a few big problems and conundrums but eventually some good solutions. The first trip of the year was to Skegness, and as the journey went on, it became harder and harder to access 3rd gear. The synchros had been going for a long time, in fact ever since I bought the van, but they had finally gone necessitating double de-clutching and matching engine revs to get it into gear. Never fun. I knew what the problem was, and frankly the options for repair though available, are a bit hit and miss with second hand or old stock parts. Certain parts of the Vauxhall 4 speed box that i've got on the van aren't available any more, but my fellow CF enthusiast in Northampton Graham West came up trumps with a spare box that he'd removed from a crashed vehicle about 20 years ago. It had sat in his garage ever since, but when we dragged it out, it was still full of oil and seemed to turn smoothly, so we took a chance.

At least there's plenty of room to get under a CF without jacking up, and the cross beam in the picture is the only other part holding in the gearbox:



Fitting it is both a very easy and very difficult manouevre. Getting to it, stripping off the prop shaft and cross member are easy - 10 minute job. The difficult part is getting the bolts out that join the box to the bell housing. You have to go in through a tiny window, and have the clutch lever in the way. There's plenty on the internet about how to overcome this - buying the special Vauxhall tool being the easiest, but i don't have one and the price on the internet could surely be bettered by a bit of ingenuity...

Photo's upside down, but there's a bolt somewhere through that hole behind the lever and down a bit. First I cut a spanner in half and welded it back together on a crazy angle to allow me to get to the bolt. that's effectively what the Vauxhall tool does. I also had to shave some material off the flanks of the spanner jaws, and that made it so weak that it sprang off the bolt rather than turn it. Several hours of frustration later and I discovered how to disconnect the lever from the rod, allowing it to move out the way more, get better access, and get a standard ring spanner on the bolt. 1/12 of a turn at a time and job done.

Next it was fitting the new box. Effectively you have to push it upwards to the right height, then slide forwards locating the input shaft through the clutch spines. Easy with the right kit, difficult when you're lying on the road with the box on your chest bench pressing it into place trying not to bend the shaft... About 4th go I managed it, think I didn't do any damage, and got it bolted back together. Filled with gear oil and tried it out.... perfect. The annoying gear stick vibration is gone, the shift is smooth and synchros actually working fully.... lets hope it lasts. The only problem was a severe leak from the rear oil seal, but Adrian Bailey has some new old stock, and after chisseling the old one off, fitted a new one OK and problem solved. There's a small leak through the gear selector but nothing to worry about (I checked it after several long journeys and it hadn't lost a measurable amount.

Next was the exhaust. I'd done the back box years ago in stainless, but the down pipe was second hand in mild steel and kept coming loose at the manifold joint. Decided to replace it all, especially as it looks like Adrian is packing up the business, and as far as I know, he's the last man out there re-making bits for CFs. brand new stainless steel pipe and box fitted and will be there still in one piece many years after i've expired!

 It did take some cutting and bodging as it seems there are loads of variants of diameters of pipes and of course my old and new pipes don't match. But a sleeve joint and loads of sealant sorted it!

Finally, after years of really trouble, i've finally sorted (fingers crossed) the battery drain and starting problems. Some years ago I replaced the starter motor as i'd done everything else and concluded that had to be the problem. The new starter always turned over a bit slowly, so assuming it to be good, I ended up back at the battery. Faulty leisure batteries and a mis-functioning split charge relay that prevents the leisure battery from being connected when the engine is cranking were all part of it, so I decided to go back to basics, strip out the leisure battery and all other wiring systems to just leave the radio, wires to the dash clock showing battery voltage and the main starter. After all that work - no difference. Next to check was the main wires to the starter. I'd shorted using jump leads and it made no difference, but I decided to make sure by getting new battery cable and routing it direct to the starter for the +ve and -ve. That eliminates the well known problem of corrosion of the seat mounting box that has the -ve connected to it (battery sits under the passanger seat) causing bad earths throughout. Still no difference. While on holiday, the starter packed up completely, I guess the solenoid sticking. See kath's post about bump starting at 1am... When home I contacted a guy I'd used years before who deals in alternators and starters from a barn just outside Daventry. Picked up a starter form a Jag V8 engine that fits the CF with a minor mod of drilling out the mounting holes, wired it up (same terminals so dead easy) and turned the key. It's a geared started unlike the CF original, so the motor turns a gear that drives the output shaft at three times the speed. Therefore the engine turns at three times the speed, making it much more likely to start on the first turn. Turned the key and vroom, straight to life like never before, instant firing of the engine and problems solved. Just shows, everyone advises that starting problems are almost never the starter, but when all the evidence says it is, worth checking the starter. The old one must have had a short, causing major battery drain when you cranked, and causing it to turn over extremely slowly. That's the second major headache i've had where a replacement part is faulty putting me onto the wrong track for ages...

here's the new starter and wires. New earth connected to the bolt that attaches the starter to the bell housing:

 And the battery. Earth goes via a kill switch that enables the battery to be completely disconnected when not in use. Switch is the other side of the wooden panel so accessed through the passenger door (or by leaning right across). Wires are there for a secondary battery, but don't think I need that now.