1978 Mk2 Ford Transit Autosleeper Campervan

Haha cheers mate I love it... What's the worse that can happen? I get loads of people chatting to me about it. Things like I use to have one as a work vanetc... The other day someone followed me and asked if they could buy it. It's great that a lot of people including yourself have positive memories about them.



Lovely part of the world. Really chilled out and not to far from home. I'll definitely be exploring the area more in the future




Haha yeah got a load of Waxoil. I've got a capri and an mk4 escort so rust is a familiar foe. Underneath has a load of welds as testiment to how it rusts. Won't be going diesel though as I live in LEZ and currently get good mileage (25mpg on a run) and if I want to I can hit 70mph (although mpg drops considerably!). The engines a high comp engine with 32/36 weber so has a bit more poke than standard... and I can swap it with the engine in my capri if I really need to!

Cheers

Josh

Diesel is the fuel of the devil - steer well clear, I think there is enough pollution and noise in the UK already.

Ah Westy i never knew you had a mk2 transit. Now I'm Jealous !

Any plans to bring it to Classic Ford?

My plans eventually is to get a mk2 transit recovery truck or van/camper

Small update after the weekend:
After parking up for a couple of  weeks after the new year the starter battery was flat despite having a solar trickle charger. I think the cold weather finally killed it after it had gone flat a couple of times after I left the lights on and as a result of  the alternator failing. So I took the battery out and brought it indoors to charge it. After leaving it for a day on charge I tested it and it read 12.6 volts I then did nothing to the battery and left it until the end of the day and it was 12.2 volts then it had dropped further to 11.9v, By this time I’d condemned it and  ordered a new battery which was the biggest capacity I could buy for under £50.



I needed the van working, not to go away but to transport a quarter of a Capri to repair my capri..



Its bloomin useful to have as I can transport all sorts of stuff in the back… the joys of a van and it sure beats my old v70
On the way back from dropping the quarter off at the repair shop I picked up a PCV valve and grommit from Burton power to help with oil cap issue. Had a half hearted attempt at fitting but gave up after I couldn’t get the flame trap out and it started raining. I also thought I’d be better off reading a haynes manual first rather than forcing it.
I did however manage to try out my new 3ton jack and stands from SGS engineering. I’ve got the 2.5 ton low profile jack already and the transit had fallen off once (as above) so invested in this as has a wider lifting point. Its seems well made like my other one so happy with it.




What I wanted to check when I jacked it up was there is a creaking noise coming from the drivers side suspension that is getting worse. I wanted to make sure leafs weren’t about to drop off… which they aren’t. The rubbers in the springs look pretty knackered so reckon it is that. I’ll look out for a bush kit and do a refresh of both sides or check the spare leafs I’ve got in the garage and swap them in.
As it had started to rain I retreated indoors and took the old stereo out. (Old archive pic)



I then took the stereo that I had removed a couple of weeks ago from here:
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/188023/1989-ford-xr3i?page=2
And fitted it back to here




Happy days - much better sound and also tunes into radio stations considerably easier.
As it was still raining I went into the back and noticed the lights didn’t come on…. Ahhh curse word the 2nd battery was flat…
I removed it from the rear cupboard which was easy as its not secured down. It was the first time I’d had a good look at it and after googling it it seems to originate from a mobility scooter. It seems a good brand and although the date says 2008 I’m hopeful. I’ve left it on charge since yesterday  - currently sat at around 12.5v. I’ll leave it until tomorrow morning on charge then remove the charger to track any voltage loss over the day,


Whilst I had the battery out I thought I’d test the circuit for charging. Theres a black box in the engine bay that I assumed would be a relay that switched to charge with ignition on. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case and with the engine running and a healthy voltage being produced nothign was reaching the battery. So I’m going to redo the elements of the wiring so I know whats going on and add a voltage sensitve relay. I suspect that if theres no way of charging the battery the last time the battery saw charge was when on shore power in whitsable at the end of november and was probably killed as I suspect I left a light on
The rest of the wiring in the rear cupboard looks like this - this shows the 240v fuse box and 12v fuse box



Overall not to bad I did do a bit of tidying up by shortening some overly long wires and will swap out the 12v fuse board to take blade type fuses. The next step on this is to wait for some ebay packages including a battery tray to relocate the battery to under the bonnet and win back some storage space.
I’m quite looking forward to sorting the wiring out as its strangely satisfying. I will change some of the feeds from being off the car battery to the leisure battery - the stereo is the obvious one as want to be able to leave it on when onsite without fear. I may also do the same to the courtesy light and an accessory 12v socket. I’ll also add a battery voltage meter so I can keep an eye out on the state of the charge.

Thanks for reading

Cheers
Josh

Haha great stuff have you a thread on your 3i? Definitely get a transit camper I love it

Cheers

Josh

It looks good. I think that its great even better being in use daily! Where did you mount the catch can. Thinking of doing this to mine

Hi,

Update on Pugwall…

In preparation for the first outing of the year next weekend been doing some bits that I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

Firstly the leisure battery was knackered and wouldn’t hold charge so I had to get a new one. The new one was not a sealed unit and didn’t really want to secure it in the cupboard when really I wanted it up front. This was the kick I needed to finally relocate it to the engine bay. So with an ebay battery tray and some brackets from Wickes I fitted it to the engine bay. Excuse the state of the engine bay - Oil explosion and  water pump leak didn't help as well as my slap dash approach to painting the holes I drilled







Then fitted the battery the VSR to replace the simple switched relay which would come on with the engine… except it never did as didn’t have a fuse… that would be why the leisure battery went flat then! I also hooked up the feed to a fusebox. I used 110amp cable as a safeguard. I am currently only using 1 of the 6 fuse positions to feed the rear cupboard fuse box, but put all the possible wiring in and through the grommet so I have future positions to tap off as needed.







I had fun tracing wires to make sure I had the right feed to the rear cupboard. Theres still a wire that I’m dubious about that goes back to front then down under the van.. Its either the reverse light feed or its the feed to fridge and lighting on the passenger side of the van taking the long way around. As I was a bit hungover today didn’t fancy figuring it out until my head was a bit clearer.

Bonus that as I sorted the wiring out this red light came on, and the light above now works. The red light is for the fridge and the fridge started gurgling so may of inadvertently fixed that



Cupboard is a bit of a mess still



So plan to install some shelves - picked up some cheap wood from B&Q today. Will likey hang the shelves off the top of the cupboard and use the blue box things as drawers. I want to keep the chairs in the cupboard so will keep it full height on that side. Other bits for the cupboard are to fit a blade type fuse box in the rear cupboard, Install the battery charge monitor that I was going to put in the dash but can’t find anywhere suitable and fit a 12v socket to charge phones etc.. off of. When I do the 12 v socket will also run a new wire down the van to carry the charge.

I'm taking him to work tomorrow as the front spring creaks like a goodun. Haven’t got the time to get under the van myself so dropping it round a garage round the corner from work for them to look at. I’ve got some bushes so if it needs it it will have them

Cheers

Josh

because of this and VW 's Bedford thread I have, in the last couple of months nearly purchased three Leyland/Freight Rover autosleepers, only falling through by sale/given the wrong location and a bit of an oddball/way too much rot. Today I started looking at Renault/Talbot Eriba-cars. Things are only getting more expensive the closer we get to summer. Sigh.

Anyway great to keep checking in on this, have a couple of piccies of my latest flights of fancy.

That's just a random pick, if that were the one and I could afford it I wouldn't have hesitated for a moment.