Coming back from brake failure - how we did it

After the rather dramatic end to our summer holiday, Husband was faced with getting the van back on the road sharpish in time for a weekend away - here's his story on how he did it:

So what was the symptom with this brake failure? The brake pedal went all the way to the floor with no braking effect, and there was no visible sign of leaking fluid from any of the wheel cylinders - this lead me to suspect the seals in the master cylinder had gone.

Here's a brief bit of my theory: you press the brake pedal, the servo amplifies the effort using a vacuum to suck the pedal on, and the pedal is directly linked to a plunger in the master cylinder. The plunger pushes brake fluid down the brake pipes, and at the wheel an opposite plunger is pushed out moving the brake shoes or pads to touch the brake drum/disc.

So as reported, having done an emergency stop a while earlier, suddenly the pedal started travelling much too far without any braking effect. Eventually it completely failed – the seal in the cylinder must be completely gone. So to fix it, first I drained the fluid by opening the bleed valve at the front wheel. That allowed all the brake fluid in the tank to run through. Once it was empty I undid the nut securing the brake pipe to the master cylinder. Then the two bolts that retain the master cylinder to the servo (no need to even remove the pin from the brake pedal) and the master cylinder can be removed. Now remove the circlip from the end of the cylinder:

Removing the circlip

The reservoir can be removed by undoing the nut inside. It's easier to hold in the vice once this is off. I also found the seal under the reservoir was in very bad nick so it needed changing as well. 

The old seal is that mess stuck to the underside - new seal slightly different

The circlip and washer behind it were a bit rusty, but cleaned up OK. I then had to push the plunger down in the cylinder using one screw driver to allow a ring of rusty crap to be scraped out using another one. Once that was cleaned up, with a bang on the bench the innards of the master cylinder fell out. The old seal was visibly deformed but not split. Compared to the new one it was clear that it wasn't sealing properly though. There are two seals, so both have to be removed. The tough one is fitted on the plunger, and has to be removed with a small screw driver to lever it off. Re-fitting is opposite being careful not to damage the new seal.

new seal on the plunger

second seal located in the top of the spring

Now just put it all back together. Put the spring in first with the second seal loosely located in the top. Then the plunger. Now the tricky part – pushing the plunger down while trying to get the circlip on. Once done though, it's back together.

Pushing the plunger back into the cylinder

Now fit the dust seal on the end of the master cylinder, and then bolt it all back onto the servo

Dust seal fitted

Now clean off the top face of the master cylinder where the reservoir is going to fit and bolt the reservoir back on.

Cleaned up top face - be careful not to lose the steel collar that goes around the weld bolt

New seal fitted

And finally, fit a new seal in the top of the reservoir cap.

Reservoir seal cap

Now re-bleed the brakes and you're away. I used an eezi-bleed kit and it worked really well (although i've had mixed results in the past with them and usually prefer gravity bleeding or two man pedal pushing/bleed valve turning). I only bled the front right wheel, this was the one I'd allowed the fluid to run through before, and it turned out the rest didn't even need bleeding. The pedal feel is much more responsive now, and the brakes are definitely a bit sharper. 

Job's a good un, now to suss out the dodgy starter that I'm still being plagued by....

Another baby bunk idea

On our holiday to North Yorkshire this summer we were joined by some good friends who've come along on our trips before (in fact, they gave us the idea to get an awning). They have a Toyota Hi Top and this year came along with another little addition - their gorgeous 10month old daughter.

As you know, we've had our own challenges with finding a good place to put a baby to sleep in a camper van, and very often it ended up with three (and now four) in the bed!  I was intrigued to find out how our friends were coping with their little one's bed and thought I'd share their great solution in case it helps out any other campervanning parents!

Like many campervan owners our friends have custom built a bed for their baby, in the form of a solid based bunk above their own "rock and roll" bed. They have constructed it by bracketing wood onto the shelves that run around the roof space and because it's spacious they are able to put the baby's own cot mattress in to make it cosy and familiar:

That looks comfy to me!

The Dad then fitted a hinged bed guard type thing kept in place by two hooks which thankfully the little one can't undo herself (yet?!):

Hello zebra!!

Safe and sound zeds for baby

It's another great idea on how to sleep those babes whilst away on a trip - has anyone else got any other good solutions?

A 'bumpy' ride to (and a lift back from) Whitby

After a successful summer with the camper van running pretty well, our main holiday was looming when suddenly an issue emerged. One day Trevor just wouldn't start and we had to resort to a jump start. This happened another few times (most notably, in the Ikea car park with our screaming baby looking on).

The camper was cranking but very slowly so Husband charged the battery but it made no difference, despite showing 13volts on the cabin voltmeter (normal). Next he swapped the battery for another one but again, no joy. He assumed there was a problem with the earths as the engine was cranking, but just very slowly. He checked and cleaned the earths and...still no joy. Finally, Husband connected jump leads directly from the battery to the terminals of the starter motor but this again made no difference. His conclusion was that the starter motor was, in his words, "knackered".  He replaced the starter motor and hey presto, Trevor was brought back to life - the holiday was back on!

We made our merry way up to North Yorkshire and stayed at the excellent Whitby Holiday Park which had great facilities (playpark, cafe, clubhouse, laundrette, shop) and was really well maintained, and it benefitted from stunning coastline views.  Once or twice on holiday the cranking was slow again but generally the van seemed ok - until....

We were travelling over the moors between Rossdale Abbey and Egton and stopped briefly to take a picture of the stunning views:

North Yorkshire is beautiful!

A happy scene was replaced by morose disbelief when Trevor refused to start. As we'd just come up a steep incline, the Husband used the hill to great effect by managing to do a reverse bump start (much to my concern, yikes!!). The van roared into life and we were off back to our lovely campsite.

From then on the van seemed ok and Husband's latest suspicion for the cause is a broken wire letting power through for a time but which increases resistance once heating up, preventing enough power reaching the starter motor (did anyone understand what I just wrote there? Mechanics are well beyond me...)

The journey home started off fine, albeit with a bump start off the pitch courtesy of our fellow campers (thanks everyone!). We hadn't even made it past York when the brakes suddenly failed. Luckily we were travelling slowly behind traffic and Husband managed to bring us to a safe stop off the main carriageway. We'd had to stop suddenly a bit previous to this happening so the thinking is that this caused some problem. There was no sign of brake fluid leaking so Husband is assuming it's a broken seal in the master cylinder (again, I have no idea what I'm talking about here!)

The journey resumed an hour or so later, with the camper languishing on the back of a pick up truck, and our toddler son thinking this was possibly the best, most fantastic end to a holiday ever!!

Poor Trevor!

We've been here before, and although a breakdown is not a desirable situation in anyone's book (apart from our toddler's!), the kids were actually really good for the remainder of the trip home (8 hours total journey time, yikes...) - but we now need to get cracking and sort out the problem as the next trip is just 10 days away!Blimey. Nothing is straightforward with an ancient campervan, eh?

Anyhoo, I can't finish a holiday blog post on a negative note...we had an absolutely great time in North Yorkshire with steam train trips, traction engine fairs, beach visits, pretty towns to see, country shows with prize bulls to amaze at and a fabulous coastline, illustrated with this spectacular sunset from our last night:

Plenty more for us to see in this part of England - we will be back (once the brakes are fixed...)!

A most Awesome Awning

Now that we are a family of four, the already tight living arrangements in the camper van were going to be even more squeezed so we decided it was high time we got ourselves an awning.  We were convinced this was a top idea after our last summer holiday in the van, when our friend's camper van awning proved mightily handy for lobbing pushchairs and toys in.

We did some research on various forums as not many drive-away awnings are suitable for our camper as it has rear doors rather than a side sliding door.  The Movelite XLF seemed to come up trumps, with long straps going over the top of the van to seal the awning to the van.  It also had ample space for all of our stuff.

We purchased a second hand one via eBay and took it on our latest trip to Wales without checking it first, crossing fingers it was all ok. On unpacking, it was happy days as everything was there...apart from, we soon realised...tent pegs...  Unfortunately the campsite we were on wasn't well inhabited and the few other campers there didn't have any spares to lend us. Fortunately we travel with a mega tool box which includes a variety of useful screwdrivers, files and crowbars - we found a new use for these as temporary pegs for the awning...see below!!

Thank goodness for a well stocked tool box!

See below for a better view of the awning - you can see here that the big yellow straps secure it to the campervan. When you want to drive away you simply unpeg these and zip up the awning to secure it.

And here's the other side - this has the extra pod which has an inner tent creating two bedrooms - or the 'playroom' and the 'store room' if you're us!

The only downside was the unbelievable driving wind (and rain) that we had over the weekend at the campsite - the front strap which secures the awning across the top of the van vibrated loudly, and one of the sides wasn't tight into the van which meant there was some audible flapping one night. [Husband found solutions to both of these: twist the straps so they don't resonate in the wind; and take the straps to opposing sides of the van to pull it in tight]

Apart from that we consider it a great success and so useful - we are really pleased with it! Now to dry it out....

How we made a camper van baby bunk

Now that our toddler has graduated to using the proper bunks running the length of the camper van, rather than the coffin arrangement, and we have become a family of four, we had the dilemma of where to put our baby girl.  Originally, Autosleepers had a baby bunk as an optional extra but of course these aren't available now - so Husband set about researching on the internet in order to come up with a homemade design solution. 

Looking at the old Bedford design and some of the modern VW campervan baby bunk options, this is what we came up with (and we need to mention J.E. Matthews Blacksmiths in Northampton who supplied the raw material and painted the finished bars, all for £15!)

First thing: Some lengths of 22mm O.D., 1mm wall thickness steel tube and some 18mm steel bar. Cut the tube to approx length (half the width of the cab) and welded in a short length of bar.

These will slot together like so:

Step two: At the other end of the tube, weld a very short length of 18mm bar, drill the centre out to 6mm and insert 6mm bar which you then also weld in. Do this to both ends and these pips will locate into the pillars of the cab...

Step three: We used an old piece of wood dowel and a spring from eBay. This is inserted into the open tube and a small grub screw inserted into the side of the tube holds the dowel in place...

Next: Make four small brackets and screw to the A pillar (by the windscreen) and B pillar (by the seatbelt top mount) and drill out a 7mm hole where the pips will locate...

Then: Push the bars together and compress the spring in order to slot the pips into the brackets. Had to tune the length of the tube to get it just right...

And finally: get your Mum/Mother-in-Law to make up a hammock out of fairly strong fabric (this cost us about £12). She stitched the ends together so there was some kind of barrier to baby scootching up and over the end of the bunk.  She also doubled over the fabric to give it some extra strength. It had to be high enough to avoid the steering wheel but low enough to be comfortable and safe.  The final touch was adding a curtain across the cab so that baby could be screened off at night. And here's the end result!!  Our 7 month old baby slept pretty well in the bunk (it was the teething that caused any nighttime upsets!)

Comfy baby!

Happy 40th Birthday!!

We're not quite there yet ourselves but our superb camper van Trevor has reached the milestone of his 40th birthday!  Of course we always knew he'd make it to this grand age, even when he looked like this. 

We took our first trip of 2013 in Trevor this weekend just gone, and once we got set up on the campsite we celebrated with a nice birthday cake...our toddler even managed a rendition of "Happy Birthday to Trevor the Camper Van"! Congratulations Trevor, we hope you manage many more years to come (I think we'd be lost without you.....)

Yay! Let's Party!!