Dead battery tonight, very convenient!!!!

Well it was near dead after 4 days of sitting, the engine barely turned over.

So hooked my jump pack on it and off she went..

Did around 55mi round trip and came home, upon hooking the multimeter to her it seems she is running at 14.11 which is good even with the headlights on

However after turning her off it dropped from 14.11 straight to 12.6 volts, and it started to drop quick quite quickly..

I would assume there would of been some kind of surface charge on the battery after a run, which it didn't seem to show...

Hankook MF31-1000 only a year old!!!

Grr

After leaving her for a 2 minutes she went to sleep so nothing is keeping her awake...

Or something more sinister?

Recently the old girl has taken to not spinning the starter motor on the first turn of the key, however shutting the key off and trying again gets her to start..

It isn't happening every time but it's an annoyance!

Cheers gents,

Anyone done it?

My old bus has some crust underneath in an area I can't get to, apart from cutting a hole in the body of the car the only solutioon I can see it to lift the body off.

I'

Ahh bastard thing.

Seems her life by the sea has done a number on the old girl.

Rear shock mounts are quite crusty, not really accessible unless you're either made of rubber or can lift the body off the chassis.

Just something to check!

Hiya Gents

Anyone know the part name/number of the clips that hold the plastic rain gutter trims to the roof..

Thanks

H

Hiya gents.

Anyone had luck with replacing the lock barrel in the door handle?

I had to replace the door handle on mine a while ago due to the rod from the handle to the latch snapping.

unfortunately it requires a different key..

Which is a pain..

My central locking works well, but if it fails for whatever reason I'm goosed!

Thanks

H

Hello Gents a quick question of three!!

I have the dreaded book of doom on the HVAC and have had since I bought her, the issues I can think of are..

1 - very little air comes out the vents I'm assuming this is because of a dead fan

2 - All the settings work, even recirculate seems to function

3 - when it does sort of poof some air out the vents it is the same temp either side, so I'm assuming the blend motors are working'ish!

4- The book symbol doesn't seem to come on until the engine is running, then it pops up?

Does it do a self diagnostic every time its turned on and if it detects a fault it throws the book at ya?!

Would a dead fan cause a HVAC book and would this in turn prevent the A/C compressor clutch kicking on?

Thanks Gents!

Straight to the point really gents!

Some pillock opened their door on to my door handle with some considerable force I might add and have caved the door handle in to the door creating a nice crease..

The Door itself has a few electrical bits in it, does anyone know whether there is just one big loom plug to remove?

Thanks H

And everything works

https://youtu.be/n0JPGGYujus

I bet it's a right hoot to drive, and a great tow car!!

Poor old P38 looks like it's had a facelift too many..

And those wheels.. yuck..

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1324137

driven home from work in my P38 I parked it in direct sunlight so I had a little play around with the Air-con in the old bus..

I've been operating under the assumption that it didn't work, mostly due to the feeble blower output...

Anyway I turned the aircon on and the if the hieroglyphs on my HVAC are to be believed it was set to "low" the air coming out the dash seemed to be very cool, definitely colder than the ambient air outside, however upon inspection the clutch on the compressor isn't spinning with the pump when the air-con is engaged.

HOWEVER whenever I put the A/C on the engine note changes and she seems to bog down slightly, exactly what would happen when the clutch engages, however I can't see it doing much..

She does have the notebook on the HVAC panel, I've read some place that if the HVAC is in a fault condition it won't allow the compressor to operate?

BUT surely the engine wouldn't change note if nowt was happening??

Any ideas gents?
H

Developed a nice steering shudder under braking recently, very bad if I accelerate hard then immediately stomp on the brakes, the wheel shakes badly and the entire car seems to vibrate violently
There is also a nice pulsation through the brake pedal.

Oh and the weird bit if I brake very gently from say 70 it's fine until I reach around 35mph and she starts to pulsate the pedal . grr!!!

If I ease into the brakes the car is fine but I get the pulsating pedal,

If i'm doing over 60mph the car behaves fine under braking however once i'm under 35mph the pedal starts to pulsate and the other issue is hard to describe but i'll give it a go - it kind of feels like the brakes are being put on/off quickly - like the car is rocking forward and backward like it would if you were on/off the brakes but this only appears when going under 40mph.

I should stress that these issues only appear when braking, driving normally she drives beautifully.

Very odd.

Any ideas gents?

H

Not sure if it is just me but some pictures in older threads seem to not be showing?

Marty's engine rebuild thread is one example i can think of?

Is it me or a problem with the pub?

H

The three Amigos!

Bastards!

Hello Gents..

I've had a problem with the amigos for a while, weirdly for the MOT they vanished but reappeared a day later!

I've a sneaking suspicion that my accumulator may be to blame as when I first start it the pump is running for a good 30 seconds and when you prod the brake it always comes on, it even comes on when the brake pedal is held steady it buzzes initially when the brake pedal is pressed but if left on steady it primes again!

Also if the lights for whatever reason stay off, pumping the brake will cause them to come on, the pump will also run continuously if the brake pedal is pumped..

Activating the T/C on a slippy surface will also cause it to misbehave.

Brake fluid was new 2yrs ago and according to my tester has no water in it..

Oh and they can stay away when initially started however a mile down the road they'll flash up and the speedo will drop to 0 and then go back to normal

Cheers!!

H

An odd one this..

The frame that my glovebox bolts to is getting very crusty due to past water ingress

is it possible to replace that section?

It's still solid enough to paint " I think"

but eventually it'll rot through..

my car has weird issues! lol

Passed!

Well chuffed and only one advisory for an oil leak..

Only 5k since the last MOT which is around what Richard does every month lol

Branching out from my other thread regarding shock absorbers..

My experience with them have been a bit like goldilocks and the several sets of shock absorbers..

original BOGE units were knackered.
So I fitted Bilsteins thinking they'll be better, and unfortunately the ride was so hard I sent them back and put my originals back on!
The next week she found herself with a set of BOGE dampers I managed to get from Island4x4 and Ebay the ride seemed perfect, far better than ever, for around a month before one started to mist oil!!
As a final ditch effort a set of Terribly ferm shockers were fitted, which have made the ride near unbearable

So i'm back at square one..

As said in my other thread shipart shockers are the only ones left to try and i'm sorely tempted..

Oh and not the "dynamics" or any of that shit, the standard black ones, I just want a soft ride..

Don't care about how sporty it is to drive which is all the manufacturers seem to care about, etc etc

My question is how well should the P38 ride?

Is it supposed to be "magic carpet" I'm guessing with 18" wheels my ride will be slightly harsher than with 16"s

Mine at the moment seems to find every single bump in the road, which ain't ideal...

THKS

H

Gonna be replacing my TF shocks with some new'uns..

BOGE are NLA and I have very little cash to spare so i'm going to punt on some Britpart shockers from rimmers..

I can get a set for £75..

Should be a good bit softer than the set I have now..

P38 V8

Anyone else do this or am I alone lol

Ever since I bought the old bus I've always cut the old filters open and had a gander inside, either to judge oil filter construction or any foreign contaminates that might of found their way in there.

My old filter is a Bosch unit and to my surprise it is very well made, even after 5000mi the pleats were still firm with no sign of collapse and it was quite the job to cut through them!!

The filter material I like to squeeze in the vice to remove all traces of oil which might hide any contaminates that are embedded in the surface

Once squeezed the dry'ish filter material is stretched out on my bench where a good gander can take place

Admittingly I was surprised to see absolutely no contaminates of any size contained within the pleats, which is surprising considering the apparent EP grade viscosity the 10w60 has turned into, it is the consistency of maple syrup which is worrying..

And it is very dark

Which is weird considering the inside of the engine isn't dirty I can only assume the detergents in the Oil aren't up to the job, weirdly Castrol doesn't list the additive package for their oil so I can only assume!!