Well, I acquired a new van at the back end of last year, a 1980 1600 air cooled Devon T25 camper van.
The Missus has had an "itch" for a T25 camper for a while, and regularly surfed Ebay for them. Anyway, she found one she loved, and started giving me the nudge to take a closer look.
Pics looked good, description was frighteningly honest, so I rang the seller.
What the poor bloke knew about T25's could have been written on the back of a postage stamp with a very large crayon, and it was clear from the onset that he had not only had his pants pulled down by the garage he had used t put things right, they had done things to him that by all rights should have carried a jail sentance!
It had no MOT, 2 weeks of tax left, and I had nowhere off the road to keep it if it needed work. It wouldn't idle, and the guy had been told that it was the timing that was out but the garage had run out of time and no longer wanted the work. It had been given a new carb, all sorts of stuff that just wasn't required had been done, bought and paid for. We went to view it, with the cash, and after a long look at the van (in the dark!!) I decided that it was worth the asking price so took a HUGE gamble and paid up. A very, very brief inspection of the engine bay revealed that the fact it wouldn't idle was down to a van port on the manifold that wasn't in use and wasn't blanked off. Got it running nicely, but had an issue with the gearshift, could not find first at all, and in reverse the van shook violently.
I insured it there and then over the phone, booked an MOT with the garage on our street corner so I could legally drive it home, and off I toddled.
20 miles later, and I'm waiting for the RAC. Great stuff! :lol: The clutch has gone rather suddenly, so the van was recovered.
Got it home, and the first job was to drop the engine and a few things became aparrant. There should be four bolts connecting the engine to the gearbox. There was just ONE on this one, and the reason for the violent shuddering became obvious. The engine had pushed away from the gearbox, so when engaging reverse the clutch was jumping off the input shaft.
I then turned my attention to the engine support bar, and was absolutely horrified to see that there was jsut one M8 bolt on each side, neither were done up all the way, one was halfway done, the other had the nut just four turns onto the bolt. I was in serious danger of of that engine falling out on the drive home, thank God the clutch went before the engine fell out!
So, dropped the engine, braced for the horror of what I might find, and was greeting with this:
Still, at least the input shaft was ok! But the clutch was in rather more pieces than it should have been! :lol:
So, I replaced the clutch, and looked around for what else might be wrong. Turned out two wheel bolts weren't too clever, closer inspection revealed that all the studs on that side were pulled, one had been puched through into the drum and one was stripped. Seriously, what spanner monkey had been messing around with this van?!?! I contacted the seller to warn him of my findings so far but heard nothing back from him since, maybe he's worried I'm unhappy about the van - if you're reading this then seriously dude, I aint, I'm very pleased with it!
Anyway, replaced the studs, stopped one of the oil leaks, a patch of welding, unstuck a siezed caliper and then all done and MOT'd!
Under the engine hatch, this is what is there:
It's missing the air filter, and the dizzy is wrong for the engine (should be a twin vac), but because it's only a 1600 I want to swap for the 2 litre air cooled (meaning my engine and gearbox are up for grabs if anyone wants it? The CT engine I have the same as a type 1 Beetle / Camper engine for all intents and purposes) to make it more driveable.
Also on the list is some steel wheels for it (I don't like the EMPI's that are on there) and a few other bits, but by and large I'm not going to change a thing!
The little 'un LOVES it anyway! Bless her! :lol:
All in all, got a nice gem of a van there!
Gamble paid off, thankfully! I was getting pretty stressed as the tax came closer and closer to being expired, but all sorted now and I'm a happy boy! The MOT tester commented that it is in damn good shape considering the age of the van too. Hurrays!!!
The Missus has had an "itch" for a T25 camper for a while, and regularly surfed Ebay for them. Anyway, she found one she loved, and started giving me the nudge to take a closer look.
Pics looked good, description was frighteningly honest, so I rang the seller.
What the poor bloke knew about T25's could have been written on the back of a postage stamp with a very large crayon, and it was clear from the onset that he had not only had his pants pulled down by the garage he had used t put things right, they had done things to him that by all rights should have carried a jail sentance!
It had no MOT, 2 weeks of tax left, and I had nowhere off the road to keep it if it needed work. It wouldn't idle, and the guy had been told that it was the timing that was out but the garage had run out of time and no longer wanted the work. It had been given a new carb, all sorts of stuff that just wasn't required had been done, bought and paid for. We went to view it, with the cash, and after a long look at the van (in the dark!!) I decided that it was worth the asking price so took a HUGE gamble and paid up. A very, very brief inspection of the engine bay revealed that the fact it wouldn't idle was down to a van port on the manifold that wasn't in use and wasn't blanked off. Got it running nicely, but had an issue with the gearshift, could not find first at all, and in reverse the van shook violently.
I insured it there and then over the phone, booked an MOT with the garage on our street corner so I could legally drive it home, and off I toddled.
20 miles later, and I'm waiting for the RAC. Great stuff! :lol: The clutch has gone rather suddenly, so the van was recovered.
Got it home, and the first job was to drop the engine and a few things became aparrant. There should be four bolts connecting the engine to the gearbox. There was just ONE on this one, and the reason for the violent shuddering became obvious. The engine had pushed away from the gearbox, so when engaging reverse the clutch was jumping off the input shaft.
I then turned my attention to the engine support bar, and was absolutely horrified to see that there was jsut one M8 bolt on each side, neither were done up all the way, one was halfway done, the other had the nut just four turns onto the bolt. I was in serious danger of of that engine falling out on the drive home, thank God the clutch went before the engine fell out!
So, dropped the engine, braced for the horror of what I might find, and was greeting with this:
Still, at least the input shaft was ok! But the clutch was in rather more pieces than it should have been! :lol:
So, I replaced the clutch, and looked around for what else might be wrong. Turned out two wheel bolts weren't too clever, closer inspection revealed that all the studs on that side were pulled, one had been puched through into the drum and one was stripped. Seriously, what spanner monkey had been messing around with this van?!?! I contacted the seller to warn him of my findings so far but heard nothing back from him since, maybe he's worried I'm unhappy about the van - if you're reading this then seriously dude, I aint, I'm very pleased with it!
Anyway, replaced the studs, stopped one of the oil leaks, a patch of welding, unstuck a siezed caliper and then all done and MOT'd!
Under the engine hatch, this is what is there:
It's missing the air filter, and the dizzy is wrong for the engine (should be a twin vac), but because it's only a 1600 I want to swap for the 2 litre air cooled (meaning my engine and gearbox are up for grabs if anyone wants it? The CT engine I have the same as a type 1 Beetle / Camper engine for all intents and purposes) to make it more driveable.
Also on the list is some steel wheels for it (I don't like the EMPI's that are on there) and a few other bits, but by and large I'm not going to change a thing!
The little 'un LOVES it anyway! Bless her! :lol:
All in all, got a nice gem of a van there!
Gamble paid off, thankfully! I was getting pretty stressed as the tax came closer and closer to being expired, but all sorted now and I'm a happy boy! The MOT tester commented that it is in damn good shape considering the age of the van too. Hurrays!!! 
