doign a 2500 mile trip - what to check?

You say mad like it's a bad thing!
Pesonally I'd do the above, and give all rubber hoses/belts a good check over, change the fuel filter too. It wouldn't hurt to take a spare coil too, as failure will leave you stranded and it's a cheap part for peace of mind.
I'd leave the LPG conversion till afterwards, unless you can do a good few miles as a shakedown run - the system will settle down and need to be adjusted after 1000 miles or so, plus if you do have problems it would be better to be close to the installers.
And don't forget to take the most important thing.....plenty of beer!

It sounds like a lot of fun, so go for it and enjoy.


Edited by mat_the_cat - 05 Jul 10 at 22:47

I've just done about the same around France in mine, chap. As long as you take it steady it shouldn't be a problem!!! :)

Edited by icky - 06 Jul 10 at 18:07

t'onion wrote: What ever you change (ie ht leads and plugs) save them and take them with you

Good advice - I've had a OE HT king lead fail on me 2 months after replacement  (it would give a spark but only with a plug out of the cylinder). With it being so new it was the last thing I suspected!

Couple more things I've just thought of - going through France you now need a florescent jacket or similar within reach of the driver for if you break down. I think bulbs and a warning trinagle are compulsary, and a fire extinguisher might be a good idea too.

With the poor mpg, have you checked the vacuum advance on the distributor? If that has seized then it will hurt your 'performance' and mpg. To check it just give the pipe a suck with the dizzy cap off - you should see the points backplate move (I assume it has points, never worked on a petrol LT so this is general advice).

Yeah .like folk have already said , check what 'emergency' stuff you need to have for each country that your traveling through .... look on the AA or RAC web sites for the info
Back to tyres , check the spare , also make sure that you can get the nuts/studs undone on all of the wheels before you go nowt worse than been caught out with a tight nut at the side of the motorway 

BeJay wrote:   if you haven't used the van jack yet and like me you've been using a trolley jack or ramps to get under your van up till now it may be worth checking that it's the correct one and will lift the van high enough to change a wheel if necessary, had the van over a year and had a blow out on a front tyre on the way home from Dubbing in Dorset a couple of weeks ago, only then did I discover that the jack that was in it was actually one from a friggin Montego and wouldn't lift the van high enough to get the spare on, (jack ran out of lift before suspension ran out of drop)  managed to cobble it by driving the flat up onto the spare and scrounged a block of wood to put under the jack to swap 'em over, but to say I was a bit pissed would be something of an an understatement, , the above could apply to anyone who hasn't yet used their van jack, it could save you a lot of pi$$ing about at the side of the road.

I'll second that, even if you have the correct jack make sure it fits into the jacking point tubes.

I'd parked up at Stanford Hall and then wanted to level up one wheel so being a lazy git I decided to jack up one side to put the leveller under the wheel only to find that the bottom of the jacking point tube had been flattened off, presumably by someone using a trolley jack to lift on it, and the jack would not go into it .

All four jacking points were the same so on my return home I opened them out with a drift and made sure the jack fitted into them.

As the saying goes, a stitch in time etc...

Hope your journey goes well.

I seem to remember being told that some countries require you to have the V5 (original not photocopy).   Don't know how to confirm that, maybe the AA?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

a friend of mine came round tonight and we rebuilt the carb using the service kit and added an in line fuel filter to stop the dirt getting in again, changed the vac lines, made good the choke (and auto to manual conversion setup very badly), re-did the frayed choke cable and changed all the pipe fasteners.

it was quite dirty inside, but, we think it was leaking air that was causing the problem,  the gaskets were very old and manifold mount had lot's of old old old gasket stuck to it.

Anyway, she started without choke and just ran so sweetly :-) - what I thought was an exhaust area  manifold  leak probably wasn't the source of the high speed noise after all, hence why I couldn't find any exhaust leak (two of searched for an hour for it).

got new reversing lights, full beam driving lights and rear fog lights to replace corroded after market ones already fitted, and 8 festoon bulbs to replace the front and rear roof outside "pilot" lights :-).  she's actually got six headlights, two oe, two dipped spots, two main spots, she'll light up like a christmas tree, or maybe a mobile festival

we checked the cambelt and alternator / fan belt, both good and look newish, no cracks or wear signs, which fits the service history.

gearbox and diff oils next ...


Edited by 1day - 08 Jul 10 at 01:32

really not sure if this trip is going to happen now :-(

went on a week long trip to kent last week and ended up being AA relayed home :-(

initially she felt great with the serviced carb, first 15 miles across 30- 40 mph zones to the M25 was no problem, although she was running a bit fast without choke.   soon as I hit a 60mph zone went for more throttle in 3rd and she started to cough and splutter, same in fourth.... but only on more than 50% throttle, net effect no more than 45mph on the flat.  

Hills where a real problem, very nerve wracking having to feather the throttle up steep hills on motorways and dual carriageways, the thing you really want on a hill is to be able to full throttle!

Anyway, managed to crawl along to the place I was working for a week (a festival I was helping at) , and after discussing with the friend who helped me re-build the carb, we decided the timing was probably out, so borrowed a timing gun and reset the timing. 

Initially this made it perhaps 5% better, journey back was across country on single carriageway A roads to drop off kit and passengers, but in reality overall the more miles I did, the worse the problem got, including pinking.   At one stage she died on me in 2nd gear, 10 mph going up a 1 in 4 hill.  managed to get to the top of the slope in first gear using no more than 20% throttle, 3 mph!  not nice, had kent traffic up my arse, kids crying in the back, and kent police telling me to shift my pile of crap off the road :-(

So, after the A road journey's where done, I stopped at at motorway services to have a rest,check the timing again and decided to call the AA for some help (still 60 motorway miles left to do at this stage). 

When the AA guy arrived he set the timing by ear (on idle), but no improvement (test drove round the roundabout, managed to get 3rd, cough and die again). 

He then tried to clear the carb (saying there is something stuck in there) by removing air intake from top of carb, covering it with his hand and trying to pull whatever it was through.  

result = engine died and wouldn't re-start, £200 fee to increase my AA membership to relay and get the van brought back to London (8 hours in total! two kids and 1 dog with me, not pleasant).

van now at southern carburettors, fault diagnosed as no fuel coming into carb, but, they can't find out why (their working on it again today).

Also, I can't get the gearbox or diff' filler plugs out (gearbox filler plug hex socket is well and truly mashed up already).

my confidence in the van is now really low, the trip to kent was supposed to improve my confidence and test out if the MPG had improved, epic fail :-(, may have to cancel the whole holiday :-(

bah :-(



Edited by 1day - 23 Jul 10 at 10:43

I agree, I think it's fuel supply related, especially as the previous owner stressed that he'd cleaned the carb out. 
I think it's an electrical pump, as there is a whiney noisy when the ignition is on but engine not started, and you can watch the fuel fill up the newly fitted filter just before the carb inlet, on the newly fitted rubber fuel pipes (from main metal pipe from tank to carb).

There is also huge fuel filter just after the petrol tank exit, which doesn't look too old (white plastic outer shell, looks like half a pint capacity).   When we serviced the carb, we also changed the vacuum pipes to distributor, purely as a simple and cheap thing to do.

I don't know if the fuel pump is in the tank? (van not here so can't go looking for it), and, I do think the problems have been made worse / brought to a head by my friend running the fuel gauge into the red when I lent the van to him for Glastonbury (cheers dude!).  

I'm wondering if the exit from the tank is actually blocked ("fuel pickup") and if the petrol tank needs removing and cleaning out / flushing (is this even possible?).   I presume the fuel pump has some sort of inlet filter, and that the tank dating back to 1979 means it's got lot's of crap in there, maybe even some contamination.

my problem is now that I have to make a decision about booking the ferry etc, and, whether to tell my two friends who are coming along (to share the driving and cost) that the trip is un-sound and to book flights :-(.   so diagnosis today / this weekend has to be sound otherwise my lack of confidence will equal "wife say's NO"

Yeah - looks likely it's just the tank pickup that's blocked. A tank flush would be good if you/the garage can do it in time. People often say that you should never run your tank low on an old vehicle as the pick up is more likely to get clogged with any contamination in the tank being that more more concentrated...I reckon if you have got crud in the tank you'll get problems sooner or later regardless of the fuel level, but running it low won't help!

To get the filler plugs out I would be inclined to weld something to the 17mm hex, and buy a new one if they really are that bad. You *may* be able to get a better fitting 17mm or thereabouts bolt head in there, and twist the bolt using 2 nuts screwed together? If the bolt is long enough you might be able to support the other end of it with a jack to keep it perfectly straight on to the plug. Or obtain a tight fitting spline drive or torx bit, and hammer that into the drain plug.

EDIT - And give the plug a tap with a hammer both before and ideally repeatedly during the attempt to remove - this will both help to shock loosen it and also ensure that the removal tool is as well seated as possible.


Edited by mat_the_cat - 23 Jul 10 at 12:24