Mk1 VW LT 35 Tipper Truck 'Lucky Lloyd'

[jpsmit]

Jun 4, 2020 17:43:30 GMT commycouper said:

Thanks, I am genuinely pleasantly surprised ( and appreciate ) with the positive response Lloyd is getting. I ready didn't think there was going to be much interest.
well.....that little truck you've spotted sure looks interesting? What is it exactly? What ever it is, it would sure look good gracing the pages of Retro Rides.
Are you sure there's no way that your wife could be persuaded? I think you need to try and sell this one to her. You just need to let her know of all the handy little jobs you'll be able to achieve if you had said vehicle......it worked for me  [/quote]

You are a wicked wicked man! It is (I am 99% sure) an Isuzu Elf. This is an earlier version. Not sure that I am committed to the Isuzu as such but love the shape. We never had the Hiace or really even your VW in Canada.




I also wouldn't kick a military surplus Western Star out of my driveway for leaking oil.




OTOH SWMBO is patient beyond the pale, given that my MG Midget needs to be spruced up. I am 9 years into a 2 year project on my Viva GT, she can't get in the shed because of my Austin 7 and my friend Mark is keeping my Multipla 600 in his barn. Still I am an amateur compared to your extensive list and clearly your persuasive skills are your super power!

[Morris63]

As a Somerset lad, I approve of Loyd due to his Somerset registration! Well, that and I'm another who finds old commercial vehicles often more interesting than their people-carrying relatives.

Have a bookmark and looking forward to the tale of Loyd's resurrection

PS - nice work convincing the other half that you "need" a truck

[jjeffries]

This is as cool as anything else here on RR. What a clean and attractive design; doesn't look at all old-fashioned.

I'm glad the International Man of Mystery persuaded you to post.

John

[tofufi]

Good stuff, looking forward to see this progress.

I'm familiar with this engine as I've got one fitted (from factory) in my Volvo 740.

You mentioned the cambelt already, do make sure that this is done at the right intervals as they are very much an interference engine.

Bookmarked!

[joem83]

Love this, weirdly this just popped up on my FB

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 2:53:32 GMT jpsmit said:

Jun 4, 2020 17:43:30 GMT commycouper said:

Thanks, I am genuinely pleasantly surprised ( and appreciate ) with the positive response Lloyd is getting. I ready didn't think there was going to be much interest.
well.....that little truck you've spotted sure looks interesting? What is it exactly? What ever it is, it would sure look good gracing the pages of Retro Rides.
Are you sure there's no way that your wife could be persuaded? I think you need to try and sell this one to her. You just need to let her know of all the handy little jobs you'll be able to achieve if you had said vehicle......it worked for me 

You are a wicked wicked man! It is (I am 99% sure) an Isuzu Elf. This is an earlier version. Not sure that I am committed to the Isuzu as such but love the shape. We never had the Hiace or really even your VW in Canada.




I also wouldn't kick a military surplus Western Star out of my driveway for leaking oil.




OTOH SWMBO is patient beyond the pale, given that my MG Midget needs to be spruced up. I am 9 years into a 2 year project on my Viva GT, she can't get in the shed because of my Austin 7 and my friend Mark is keeping my Multipla 600 in his barn. Still I am an amateur compared to your extensive list and clearly your persuasive skills are your super power!

[/quote]

Wow.....that is a really cool little truck. I've never heard of a Isuzu Elf until now....thanks for the education. It's a good job that I don't live anywhere near you ( in the nicest possible way) because I'd be pestering you to let me know where it's sitting.
In all seriousness though, I am very lucky to have such a patient and understanding missus. Even I have come to realise lately that I have more than I can cope with. So, in an attempt to organise myself a bit, a few of them will have to go......which isn't easy being someone that finds it very difficult to part with anything. Still, I've got to be realistic. I like the term ' persuasive powers '.......in the past it's been mistaken for black mail!

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 12:26:51 GMT Morris63 said:

As a Somerset lad, I approve of Loyd due to his Somerset registration! Well, that and I'm another who finds old commercial vehicles often more interesting than their people-carrying relatives.

Have a bookmark and looking forward to the tale of Loyd's resurrection

PS - nice work convincing the other half that you "need" a truck

Thank you, yeah, there's just something about an old truck. I view them like a loyal dog....'Mans best friend'. 
Yes!.....spot on with the registration. There's this on the plates and rear window.

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 12:41:52 GMT jjeffries said:

This is as cool as anything else here on RR. What a clean and attractive design; doesn't look at all old-fashioned.

I'm glad the International Man of Mystery persuaded you to post.

John

Hi John.....Thank you, it's always nice to receive positive comments ( not that I've had any negative....yet )

Yes austinpowers and myself go back many many years......but don't let that put you off him! 

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 13:15:34 GMT tofufi said:

Good stuff, looking forward to see this progress.

I'm familiar with this engine as I've got one fitted (from factory) in my Volvo 740.

You mentioned the cambelt already, do make sure that this is done at the right intervals as they are very much an interference engine.

Bookmarked!

Thank you, well.....it's funny you should mention the Volvo 740 engine.....is yours the D24 TIC engine? My plan, which I've not mentioned yet, is to put the Volvo 940 D24 tic into Lloyd. Apparently, even though the engine is essentially the same in the Volvo 740, the 940 is a more direct fit into the LT because of the engine mounts if I remember correctly. I was looking at buying a whole car to break, but I'd feel bad about buying a decent car just to rob the engine. So I might try and find a breaker that has one already out of the car when the time comes.

As for the cambelt, I've already had to address that problem. As I say, I'm trying to get everything written up that I've already done. The 'story' of the cambelt is coming soon 

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 13:53:10 GMT joem83 said:

Love this, weirdly this just popped up on my FB

Thanks, cheers for the heads up there. I'll keep hold of that number should I need any spares.......or loose the plot and give up on Lloyd!  

[colnerov]

Hi, I hired an LT luton van to move my sister many years ago and I felt like a lorry driver wrestling with the gears, until later in life found that lorry gears shouldn't have to be wrestled with, Lol. On that note it would be an idea to check the gearbox rear mount because back in the day they had a reputation for failing and dropping the gearbox on the road, which usually brought things to a halt.

Colin

[thomfr]

Hi, Nice looking truckie! Working more than 20 years in logistics we always wondered how VW could ever built a van so complex and expensive to service (parts where extremely expensive) with engines blowing every 100.000km latest. Also the payload was relatively low compared to the size (a Mazda 2200 pickup has the same payload at felt half the size).
However I do understand that they have their own charm as classic but they where a pig to make a living with (especially in a fleet with different drivers)
Enjoy it!
Thom

[joem83]

This thread reminded me about this: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-LITE-ACE-TRUCK-DX-1996-COVERED-26K-MILES-42K-KLM-FROM-NEW/174299392120?hash=item28950da878:g:6MQAAOSwZ2Re0OHV

Now I really want that, it needs to be low & have some nice wheels on - but I have literally no use for one, oh and no room lol

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 17:52:35 GMT thomfr said:

Hi, Nice looking truckie! Working more than 20 years in logistics we always wondered how VW could ever built a van so complex and expensive to service (parts where extremely expensive) with engines blowing every 100.000km latest. Also the payload was relatively low compared to the size (a Mazda 2200 pickup has the same payload at felt half the size).
However I do understand that they have their own charm as classic but they where a pig to make a living with (especially in a fleet with different drivers)
Enjoy it!
Thom

Hi Thom, yes....I agree. Having driven Ford Transits of the same age, I do wonder why anyone would of chosen an LT over a Transit.....or anything else for that matter....at the time. Pay load on Lloyd is about 1.2 / 1.3 tonne....depending on how many passengers etc. I know the VW turbo version of this engine ( not the Volvo version) has a reputation for letting go. Apparently the heads crack due to not being as well engineered as the the Volvo unit. A pig to drive sums it up perfectly......but this is kind of what I like about it. Every time I go out in it, it's an adventure......modern stuff that does everything for you gets boring after a while. Saying that, modern stuff is a lot more attractive during the winter! I drove Lloyd around this winter and to say I froze my nuts off is an understatement.

After selling his Transit in 1991, my dad bought a brand new Mazda E2000 van. I went with him to pick it up from the showroom. I was 14 at the time and it was the best thing ever! Do you know, he only parted with that van around this time last year. It was very difficult for him to do so, but he was 79 at the time and hardly used it. In the whole time he had it, it never once let him down. It started every morning ( unlike the Transit ). Apart from regular service parts, the only things that were ever replaced were the exhaust, rear leaf bushes, all of the tail lights and front indicators as they had all faded. It was rust that got it in end......it was literally falling apart around is self body wise.

Regards,

Dan.

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 17:01:07 GMT colnerov said:

Hi, I hired an LT luton van to move my sister many years ago and I felt like a lorry driver wrestling with the gears, until later in life found that lorry gears shouldn't have to be wrestled with, Lol. On that note it would be an idea to check the gearbox rear mount because back in the day they had a reputation for failing and dropping the gearbox on the road, which usually brought things to a halt.

Colin

Hi Colin, I find the gears are fine going up....it's coming back down that tends to be the issue. Thanks for the heads up with gearbox mount. I did some work on the prop just before Christmas last year ( which is what my next post will be all about ). The rear gearbox mount was inspected then as I felt that the rear of the box seemed to be hanging low. But on inspection, it all seemed to be fine.

Regards,

Dan

[commycouper]

Jun 5, 2020 18:09:32 GMT joem83 said:

This thread reminded me about this: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-LITE-ACE-TRUCK-DX-1996-COVERED-26K-MILES-42K-KLM-FROM-NEW/174299392120?hash=item28950da878:g:6MQAAOSwZ2Re0OHV

Now I really want that, it needs to be low & have some nice wheels on - but I have literally no use for one, oh and no room lol

Very nice! I actually owned the van version of that model of the Lite Ace. It was one of my dads fleet of vans that I bought off him when he and my uncle finished with it. My uncle used it as his daily work van while my dad used the Madza E2000. I should have a picture or two somewhere.....I'll try and dig them out. I think I've only ever seen one truck version on UK roads.....the van is a rarity nowadays, that truck must be super rare......nice find....and yes....low with some nice retro J style wheels would see it a treat!

[commycouper]

The story so far.......continued......

Strangely.......ignoring the vibration that happened at around 50mph didn't make it go away....for some reason, it got worse! ( what were the chances of that? ). It got to the point where it would barely hit 40 before it tried to shake my teeth out. But....again, I just ignored it.....sort of. About a month before Christmas 2019, a had to travel about 15 miles to pick up a load of logs. I took my 2 lads along with me. We were about half way there when the vibration suddenly got twice as bad as it had been at only 20 mph. I pulled over and I'd all ready had my suspicions that it was the prop shaft. So got underneath and sure enough, the prop had about 1/3 of a rotation play in it.....so I did what anyone else would've done.....jumped back in the cab and carried on. I mean......I was halfway there.....no point in turning back! Once I continued the journey, it seemed to improve slightly. I was able to 30 before any vibration.
I loaded Lloyd up the gunnels with free logs and was about to leave. It was at this point I found out that the handbrake was.....shall we say ' not up to standard! '. I slammed the rear tailgate shut and Lloyd made his merry way off out of the sloped drive and into the road with my lads on board and no one in the drivers seat. It was heading for parked cars across the road! I just ran as fast I could to catch up with the bloody thing......flapping and panicking all the way! I threw the door open and then threw myself hands first on to the foot brake. Because it was loaded right up and the engine wasn't running, it took a lot of effort and what seemed like an eternity to stop it. But stop it I did! Luckily with about 6ft of road left before total disaster. Once back in the drivers seat, we headed home. Now.....with all that weight on load bed I would of expected the vibration to get really bad......really really bad. But it didn't....it actually got better. We traveled almost all the way home with no vibration at all. When I say almost all the way home, I'm sure you've already guessed that there's more bad news no the way.......well you'd be right! The prop came off with about 200 yards of the journey left. Thinking that it snapped or something I looked underneath to find that the front UJ had lost all of it's bearing and had fallen out. So walked a short way back down the road and found the UJ. Stuck it back where it came from and wrapped a load of gaffer tape round it all and limped the 200 yards to my drive way. Well......what a day that was!!

Next job on the list was of course to fix the prop. I ordered in a UJ from Poland again, as I couldn't find one here. Most UJs on any sensible vehicle are held in with either external or internal C-clips. Well it was just my luck that the UJs on these LTs are staked. Meaning that the casing/channels within the prop and yoke are peened over to hold the bearing caps in place. This would of been done by a special press tool when new.
I wish I'd of taken a picture, because it was a right mess. There was only one out of the 4 bearing caps left in place. It could clearly be seen that 2 had been missing for a long time. The bearingless storks on the UJ had been worn down to more or less nothing and the casing was worn oval. To be honest, I should of taken it to an engineering company to get it repaired/replaced professionally. But, it was close to Christmas and I was short of cash as it was. As we all know, Christmas is never a wallet friendly time of year.....especially when you throw kids into the mix. I have a 12....or 20 tonne press ( I can't remember ) which is fine to press the bearing caps in. But peening the casing back over was going to be difficult. So, I came up with a plan. First, I welded up the oval casing and carefully ground the bearing cap channel round again. Then positioned the UJ and pressed in the bearing caps trying to keep everything as central as possible. Next, I put the prop back on the truck and set up a dial gauge so that as I spun the prop I would see how central it was.....or wasn't. Once I was happy with it's position, I welded the caps in place. Sounds like a total bodge I know, but considering how bad the prop was in the first place, what did I have to loose. As it turn out, it did the trick. I took it out up the dual carriageway and pimm's o'clock.....no vibration. I got it all the way to 50mph.....eventually.....then I ran out of road, but still no vibration. Let's hope it lasts.

NEXT!........new handbrake cables. Even though the poor performing handbrake is down to more than just the cables, I thought I'd order them in as a rear brake overhaul is imminent. I also purchased front tie bar bushes at the same time as the current set have almost disappeared.





I haven't fitted them yet, they're just one more thing I've added to the 'to do' list.


Over the winter of 2019 into early 2020, Lloyd suffered a few electrical issues such as indicators packing up along with the hazards. Wipers stopping.....when I needed them most and headlights randomly switching from low to high beam, or nothing at all. At first I thought it would just be a bad earth somewhere. But no....it turned this was the problem.....






Directly underneath this aerial is the fuse box. When the rubber seal drys out and hardens, it lets the rain water in and drips it all over said fuse box. This had obviously been happening for a while as the relays were all corroded. When I opened up one of them to try and rescue it, I found it was full of rusty water. So I replaced the relays, aerial and indicator stork as that was a bit iffy anyway.







The next up date will more than likely be about the body work that I've started. That should then bring us up to date.

[giuliettaevo]

Fuse boxes are curse word on those cars. They consist of layers that tend to disintegrate or something. Most are not too good...

My mate has a few LT's, van/pickup/cartransporters. Most of them had the engines replaced. The old engines are not very good on gas or reliable. The 2.0 petrol is the worst, drinks like a templar.

Common conversion is the 2.5tdi found in the audi 100/a6 and the volvo 850tdi. Shortened 6 cylinder oilpan fits, as does the diesel gearbox, flywheel and starter. Electronics are a bit of a challenge as you get immo and an electronic throttlepedal to work with.

I've helped my mate put a few different engines in his cars, including my favourite with an om606 engine and sprinter gearbox. About 200bhp makes for a nice drive. Other one has an opel 3.0cih on lpg with an automatic gearbox. The van has a 2.5 tdi with a mechanical pump and an automatic gearbox. We're gonna build one with a bmw 530d m57 engine in a few months probably, also automatic.

They're all the older type with the high enginecover and the upright engines.

Mechanical they are strong, biggest problem is rust. They rust harder than many of my alfa's did...

[commycouper]

Jun 9, 2020 16:21:53 GMT giuliettaevo said:

Fuse boxes are curse word on those cars. They consist of layers that tend to disintegrate or something. Most are not too good...

My mate has a few LT's, van/pickup/cartransporters. Most of them had the engines replaced. The old engines are not very good on gas or reliable. The 2.0 petrol is the worst, drinks like a templar.

Common conversion is the 2.5tdi found in the audi 100/a6 and the volvo 850tdi. Shortened 6 cylinder oilpan fits, as does the diesel gearbox, flywheel and starter. Electronics are a bit of a challenge as you get immo and an electronic throttlepedal to work with.

I've helped my mate put a few different engines in his cars, including my favourite with an om606 engine and sprinter gearbox. About 200bhp makes for a nice drive. Other one has an opel 3.0cih on lpg with an automatic gearbox. The van has a 2.5 tdi with a mechanical pump and an automatic gearbox. We're gonna build one with a bmw 530d m57 engine in a few months probably, also automatic.

They're all the older type with the high enginecover and the upright engines.

Mechanical they are strong, biggest problem is rust. They rust harder than many of my alfa's

Yeah, even before I bought Lloyd I was looking at engine options. The choice I'd love to do is the OM606 conversion using the Sprinter gear box. many because the OM606 sounds amazing and puts out decent power. There's a chap on line that's currently half way through doing this. Apparently the OM606 sits a bit too high, so I'd probably have to loose the 3rd seat if I go down that route. Someone's also put a M57 into an LT recovery. He actually took it back out again due to big over heating problems.
What ever engine I do put in, it will have to stay 6 cylinder ( or more )......you just can't beat the sound.so...... the choice that's tempting me the most at the moment is the D24tic out of the Volvo 940. I've been chatting to RR member tofufi about it. The 940 engine is almost a direct swap for what's already in the truck, with the added bonus of being turbo inter cooled. The D24tic out of the Volvo 740 and 940 had stronger bottom ends, stronger and better engineered heads that don't crack like the VW turbo version of this engine does. Plus, it had a much better camshaft as well making it an around viable choice for Lloyd. Or though I'd like to go all out with OM606, I just can't afford the money and time it will take to make it happen at the moment.

As for the rust, yes I'd agree with you .....I've only got to look at Lloyd to know you're 100% correct.

[commycouper]

Right, at the end of my last post I said the next update will be about body work. Well.... thing is I started the body work, which involved taking out the front seats, air filter ( behind the drivers seat ) and removing the engine cover. This was the first time I'd removed the cover to reveal the whole engine....I'd only seen small bits of it previously through little flaps that allow you to check the oil and coolant. I was well into the body work side of things, when while pondering my next move with a rusty piece of metal, my attention was drawn the the engine. In particular, the cambelt cover. Now....bearing in mind that the previous owner had told me that the cambelt had been done recently, I thought, while I'm thinking about it I'll make sure it's still okay. I removed the top half of the cambelt cover and found that someone had been telling porky pies! It was at this point, my heart sank. I was on a deadline with the bodywork I was doing, as I had a job to do with the truck. I had 2 weeks to sort the off side rear bodywork on the cab, do something with rusted/broken handbrake mechanism and now I had a curse word cambelt replacement to do! Anyway, here's a picture of what greeted me when I removed the cover.





It's one of those situations where if I hadn't of seen the cambelt, I would of just carried on driving Lloyd regardless. But, I had seen it.....and knowing what I'd seen, it would have been like playing roulette with the engine if I carried on driving it. So, as my plan is to eventually change the engine for the Volvo D24 tic, I thought I'd order just the cambelt.....to save money.
The new cambelt arrived a few days later and I started to take everything off that needed to be out of the way to access the cambelt. That included the header tank, the radiator, radiator shrouds and the viscous fan etc.









I'd been looking on line just to see what was involved with a cambelt change on a D24 non turbo diesel and many people were insisting that only a complete fool would change the cambelt belt only.....and not the tensioner, idlers and water pump at the same time........( hello ).
Thing is, I wanted to penny pinch as like I said, I want to change the engine out soon/eventually. Well once I got the thing apart, it was clear to see that Lloyd had other ideas!

Now.....competition time....can anyone spot what's wrong in this picture.....?





........and the prize.......well, you'll officially be allowed to wear a smug look on face for how ever long you choose to do so