1978 Mk2 Ford Transit Autosleeper Campervan

That is an awesome Transit mate!!

Looks tidy!
I love the way its almost identical in layout and design as mine.

Any big plans or just use and enjoy?

Nice find mate, looks really nice.

That looks mighty purdy. Enjoy your retro camping. I really need another one don't I?

Thanks again for all the comments definitely will be using and enjoying. So reason I didn’t complete the first thread post, and didn’t then follow up with much on the second was because I was knackered. Reason I was knackered was that I was using the driveway and hose of my gf parents in Sussex to clean and go over a van. Now not normally a problem we went for a drive after the cleanathon and headed back for a bbq before heading home to London. I however stupidly left the lights on and meant when we went to start the van to go back to London it wouldn’t. Everything had died, the dash lights wouldn’t even come on. So we stuck it on charge and tried to start it a couple of times. This went on until about 11.30pm when we finally got enough juice in the battery to get it going. We then set off for home. That was where the second problem and the route cause of the first problem, the battery wasn’t charging as the alternator was shot. I work north of London and had to be at work at 8am, we were in sussex about an hour from our flat in south London, which I had to stop at to get a change of clothes. It was then another 1hr and 30 from my work so the alarm was set for 4.30am to get up and set off. I reattached the battery and we set off at sunrise and we did the drive back to London just on battery power, when we got home I got changed and jumped into my XR3i and got to work on time. Unfortunately I’ve been knackered all week as a result of it so below is what else I wanted to share.

I realised today that the image I’d been using to show a few mates at work of what a mk2 transit camper looks like is my van. It links back into the transit forum so will go on there soon to see if I can find some more history as currently is lacking.



These are some pics of pictures taken by the previous owner when he got it in 2007 which show the yellow over blue stripe.







And then the extent of the history…






Open it up and this is inside



Which has this great marketing material with more facts on the features it would of come with new..



Its also a pratical family car…



And flip over the leaflet and this is on the back…


Received 27 May 1978.
I love this kind of stuff.

So to solve the issues I’ve got an uprated 75amp alternator on order so hope to fit it tomorrow night or Saturday morning. Really could do with the transit to get to work as I had an object destroy a tyre on my XR3i so will be running sans spare until I get it sorted.

Other items I’ve got this week which will look to use
- Fan belt
- Ignition leads
- Oil Filter
- Oil

Items that I want to do in short term that generally involve making sure its reliable long term by replacing anything that looks suspicious and to check the camping gear works so we can use it for the rest of the summer.
- Give the mechanicals a once over
- Make a list and buy some tools to keep in the van.
- Get Fridge and Stove working – was told they are but want to test them before I use
- Drain and clean the water tank
- Convert to electronic ignition (need to check it first as may already be)
- Fit Electric Fan
- Relocate Leisure battery to void in engine bay as takes up so much space in the cupboard
- Check the gear lever bushes – its pretty bad on gear change – its an old transit but it shouldn’t be as hard as it is to get into reverse!

Also did the most important addition today…


Cheers for reading

Josh

Took the transit back to my parents to see the capri




Was followed into the drive by a local taxi driver who said the rear wheel was wobbling. I had a nice chat with him about it and had the now standard conversation i have with all my vehicles "you don't see many of them around". It was late and i was knackered from work so assumed bearings or something else without thinking to check the rim its self. It turned out it had buckled and considering I'd not hit anything that hard it must of been like it since I picked it up. So garage has swapped it over and I've picked up a new rim for a fiver.
Also at the weekend did an ikea trip to kit it out and had a little play with the fridge to see if it would work. I was unsuccessful on starting it on gas or electric. Anyone have any experience with these fridges and can give any in site into how it works. It's an electrolux 200
There is also this little switch which I assume has something to do with it but I have no idea. When flicked to as per the green arrow it has 6volts on both terminals.  When flicked as per orange it has 10 volts at one terminal only.



First camping trio away at the weekend. I can't wait.

Cheers


Josh

Nice mate. Id love something like that. But no more room.

Haha you mean this...


It is my favourite thing. It's a Pelco Product Autoglide.

I love that I only have 1. I also like I can mock the passenger who has to use a windup window. I like the way it simply attaches to the spindle.





Thanks Guz had a look but no joy on the fridge

Cheers mate

I don't think it has got a late front end by looking at the autosleeper booklet it shows the same front end. I thought that it was an option on early vans as some are round lights and some are square lights. I assume they made it a square standard by the end of production.

However someone has massacred the wiring in the rear lights so probably changed from early type (as per mk 1) to the later rear lights and based on that contradicing what I'm saying above, someone may of also "modernised" the front.

Interesting and hopefully someone with more transit knowledge can shed some insight.

Cheers

Josh