More maintenance/improvements

A few more stories to tell on the maintenance side of things. After a period of OK starting, the battery failed again. It was a £220 odyssey extreme, and fair enough, I caused the failure by leaving the radio on it's own circuit (not automatically turned off when the van is), and that sort of parasitic load isn't good for any battery.

New one fitted, and better wires run to the starter, and continual use of the kill switch that disconnects the earth every time we parked up for any period of time has solved it.

Then as we planned to go away the other week, a new problem came about. Since last year there's been a small leaf on the rear wheel, and I assumed it to be another wheel cylinder gone. But the brake fluid wasn't going down, so realised it had to be diff oil coming through the axle to the wheel and getting past the bearing seal. I had the same problem on my MG Midget, and it's a pretty easy job to take out the half shaft, press out the bearing with a suitable sized socket as a drift, then replace.

In March i'd used the van to pull a full load of timber that i'd cut down, and on the journey home, there was a noise coming from somewhere that i'd not heard before. Then as I took it on a test run to work on the Wednesday before holiday, I discovered the problem. The noise (which got much worse by the time I got to the other side of town and turned back) was the wheel bearing failing. Therefore the seal wasn't the major fault, but the whole bearing.

I set about taking the half shafts out to discover they are a press fit and you need a slide hammer. haven't got one, so gave it to the garage to do. The problem was that getting a spare bearing is really quite difficult. Could only find Adrian Bailey stocking them, and it was now the Thursday and we are going on holiday Friday night. Massive thanks to Adrian who dropped everything and got the part in the post express delivery, and it arrived Friday lunch time. next big thanks is to Sheltune garage in Northampton who did a great job. You have to heat the old bearing ring with an acetylene torch to make it expand enough to hammer it off. It took the chap 45 minutes just to do that one bit. he eventually managed it and got it back together by 4.30 Friday afternoon!

Here it is at 3pm in sheltune:

So off we go that evening, and the other minor fault that i'd been suspecting shows it's head. The fuel electric fuel pump makes a banging noise when it's pulling through air, but goes quiet once fuel comes through. On some recent journeys it had been making noise on and off at random times, so I guess the pump was failing and bought a replacement in case. As we left for Cromer it started to make the noise more often, and then found the engine was being starved of fuel at high speed. I pulled over to replace the pump, a fairly simple 20 minute job, but upon starting up again, nothing. No fuel coming through at all.... So is the new pump a dud? Switched them back and the same... so it's not the pump, must be something else. A blockage in the fuel line between the tank and the pump maybe? I blew down the fuel line and it was absolutely clear. Then I realised the problem. There's a split in the fuel pipe at the tank exit, and rather than pull fuel through, the pump is pulling air through the split. That's where I ended up at 11pm at the side of the road with the fuel tank out, but in the dark realised it wasn't going to be possible to repair there and then, so got a tow home (Autoaid, £42/year for full recovery, excellent service, much better than the big names). Saturday morning I had new fuel line throughout and we were off again by 10am! The rest of the trip went without any faults, so just some improvements to make this summer...