Just signed up after chris pointed me in this direction.

Need to get some pics of the new bus, only got this one for now:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/17arp9ht75e87z4/2016-08-29%2013.21.57.jpg?dl=0

Looks pretty good for a very early one, most have got a lot more blobby bits on that that (even my '98 has rust on the front edge of the bonnet). What are the lights next to the front fogs? I assume they don't do anything as they appear to have wires dangling.

You'll find most of the UK based people that answer questions on the other forum are on here. We've all fell foul of the over zealous moderator over there (the one that doesn't consider Fife to be a legitimate location but that WA is) at some time which is how this forum started in the first place. You'll get a much better class of sarcasm here too......

The orange bits next to the fogs appear to be just reflectors. No idea if someones stuck them on or what.

The dangling wires are from the fogs. I had the bumper off removing the brackets from a nasty bullbar thing and just hadnt plugged them back in.

It was bought on ebay for £360. It was reported to have a crank sensor fault caused by a leaking rear main seal and had been parked up for a while.

Thus far i've given it a new set of front shocks (turned out the old ones were fine, one had just come off its lower mount?!), and a new crank sensor (the old one wasnt even oily) and stuck it in for an MOT.

It failed on brake issues (accumulator) some exhaust leaks, and a few minor things like bulbs and a broken seatbelt catch. There was a fairly significant oil leak which appeared to be coming from the oil filter area and seems to have been caused by the oil pressure switch. It also seems to be running very rich.

Early oil pressure switches do leak on occasions but a leak from the oil filter area could be one of the oil cooler hoses leaking, they do perish and start throwing oil around the place. Or someone has taken them off and lost the O ring. I had to get a centre silencer for mine recently and found that Euro Car Parts do a Klarius system which seems to be very good quality, far better than a Britpart (if you want things to last, avoid Britpart like the plague), and very cheap with one of their very regular discount deals.

Rich running is probably down to a lambda sensor (or both), unfortunately not cheap for ones that will last.

Cheers, i know all about britpart, i'm about half way thru a rebuild of a 90 thats only taken me 10 years so far :P Having said that, i've just ordered an oil pressure switch off ebay and it'll no doubt turn out to be a britpart one. I'd ordered one from Eurocarparts but the part they got in was completely wrong, so got annoyed and just hit up ebay instead. The choice seemed to be £3 for a cheap one or 10 times that for genuine.

The leak appeared to start exactly at the oil switch, and removing the switch exposed a properly bodged seal where some idiot had fitted both an oring and a copper washer, and clobbed hylomar blue all over it for good measure, so fingers crossed that was the cause.

I'll probably fit a stainless system to it, as i fancy a bit of exhaust tone, but in the mean time i've bodged the two small holes with some epoxy putty.

My plan is to get it on the road and put some miles on it and make sure its all good, then if it seems alright, i'll look at tidying up some bits like it needs a tailgate and the exhaust etc. I just dont want to pour too much money into it and then find out the engines smoked or something. I've bought it to replace my Vauxhall Monterey, which i've used for 2 years mainly for towing, but its rusty and a bit knackered and i fancied something a bit more worthwhile. I've bought the monterey, spend two years fixing stuff etc, and realised its not worth a penny more than i paid for it, and even then i'm struggling to sell it. At least with the rangey i'm adding value.

I've found genuine NTK direct fit lambdas online for about £60 each, so not toooo bad if it turns out to be those... First job though is to feed it a new set of spark plugs.

I have 2 gems Lambda sensors that were fitted to the stainless system I just bought, I've been told there a different plug to my Thor, if that's the case your welcome to them, they look reasonably new

Not only are they a different plug, they are different sensors. GEMS uses 5-0V Titania sensors but Thor uses 0-1V ones. There's two types fitted to GEMS, early and late (late 97 to 99), he'll need the early ones. Easiest way to tell is that the late GEMS ones have grey plugs on them, early have black plugs.

These are black plugs, there out if needed

Could be useful as spares, will send you a PM.

A bit of a late reply, just came home from Spain and forgot to copy my password to my phone so all I could do was lurking.
What makes you find this is an early P38? I see later type fogs, wheels, inner mirror and I think headlamps so it must be at least a '99.
If not, teach me the lesson.

Because when he first popped up on the other forum, RRTH, our favourite know-it-all, told him he hadn't got a P38 because they weren't available in 1994. It is a very early UK car, first registered in December 1994. I admit, it's been updated with a few later bits, but the basic car is a very early one.

Thanks for the lesson Richard, I did not know that and I'm spending less time on the other side of the big lake...

C'mon Tony- anyone can tell it's a December 94 4.6 HSE! <br>
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or at least they can if they've noticed Aragorn's postings in "the other place" <br>
:-) <br>
EDIT- beaten to it by Gilbertd

I just love this forum

You get a much better class of sarcasm, in fact, you get sarcasm without it being edited out by a moderator......

Ferryman wrote:

Thanks for the lesson Richard, I did not know that and I'm spending less time on the other side of the big lake...

Same here .... since Richard posted on here about the shenanigans over there, I haven't visited in protest.
By the way, Richard, the old beastie is looking good? Has she had her respray or have you just washed her?

Not had the respray as they weren't able to fit it in at a time when I didn't need to use it. As it was going to be being driven most of the way across Europe with a GB sticker and Union Flag on the back (Dina's idea), I figured it ought to look vaguely respectable. So I reminded myself why I usually leave body and paintwork to the pro's and had a crack at it myself. With an aerosol of paint mixed to match, a bit of grey primer, a dollop or two of filler (on the rear arches) and a big roll of masking tape, I got stuck in. From 20 feet away it looks perfect, from 10 feet away it looks pretty good but up close it's not that pretty, you can see every mark and run. Painting the front grille and bumper so they are black and not a sort of faded grey made a big difference, as did painting the bottom strip of the grille in body colour and the wheels in silver instead of bubbly aluminium oxide.

The full respray will be happening in a couple of weeks.......

Finally got all the bits and got stuck into it this morning.

Oil switch changed. Supplied o ring didnt seem all that great, so i swapped it for a slightly thicker one. I think something else in that corner is probably leaking, perhaps the oil pressure relief valve? but will revisit once the MOT is sorted.

Got the new belt tensioner on, and reinstalled alternator and serp belt and got the wires all reattached.

Installed the 8 new plugs found that plug 6 and 8 appeared to be oily rather than just fuelly, i guess something iffy going on with those cylinders, again job for later, will revisit after its done some miles! Using the BKR6E's seemed to make fitting them a lot easier, the smaller hex and smaller socket just seemed to fit easier, which is what i'd hoped.
Quick pic of the plugs:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/biarij5dwpuk06n/2016-09-17%2010.14.17.jpg?dl=0

Got the brake accumulator fitted last week, but i decided to run thru the full bleeding procedure before trying it to make sure it was all good, so went thru the guide from the other forum and got it all bled up. While under the rear end i discovered this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q09e3hbksz4n2bn/2016-09-17%2012.31.36.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hinsgnb8s5vdzsi/2016-09-17%2012.31.51.jpg?dl=0

Bit puzzled as to what its supposed to be attached to, its just floating in thin air. Theres not even the remains of where it might have been welded onto the axle case... I've stuck a jubilee clip around it to secure it to the axle for now, but needs a proper fix. Theres also strange metal shield things (i think they cover the ABS wires) that are just sort of floating around along the rear axle, held on with cable ties. Looks like they should be screwed on or something?

With all that done i fired it up and immediately noticed a significant improvement in the engine tone. It sounded much crisper, revved cleanly and no vibrations. Took it round the block for a spin, brakes now actually work, nice firm pedal and no spongeyness. I didnt take it out on the road proper just went round the block, but happy that its actually progressing :) Just need to rebook the MOT now, and ensure i've not missed anything else that was on the fail sheet!

I thought the brake pipe run looked very odd but then realised it was only the early cars that had a pipe running along the axle, they are laid out differently on later ones. Here's a pic of how they should run (later layout is shown in the box).

To be honest, I though that insecure parts would be an MoT fail but I've just checked the testers manual and there's no mention of a failure for pipes flapping around in the breeze (even though there is if it were a fuel line rather than a brake line).

Gilbertd wrote:

You get a much better class of sarcasm, in fact, you get sarcasm without it being edited out by a moderator......

You can't believe how much I want to edit that :-D