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Anon
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WHY BEDFORD??
WHY 5x6PCD???
Been searching all the American sites for some wheels. I can get five stud wheels in every displacement up to 5.5", then there's a gap until 6.5", and it continues upwards.
Must have checked about 20 retailers, wheel specialists, everyone. Been looking at some really amazing smoothie wheels... would look great on my beat up junker... everybody's PCD goes up to 5.5", then skips 6", and goes on to 6.5"
WWWHHHYYYYYY????
* Sobs in the dirt.
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 Tue 05 Apr 2011 @ 22:14
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Anon
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Yup.. the infamous pcd size... your not going to find any wheel in the US that will fit.
However, if you have the cash, there are plenty of custom wheel makers that can make you wheels with the bedford pcd.
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Wed 06 Apr 2011 @ 11:56
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Anon
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Item number: 350403138346 on fleebay Might be a chance the rear quarter is up for grabs ,.,. Thats if you havnt got one yet 
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Wed 20 Apr 2011 @ 09:09
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Anon
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Cheers Shaun,
Truth is, now I've painted my van grey... I've come to love the battered left hand side. It looks mean and ratty. I don't think I want to replace it now. I'd be tempted to try and beat the right hand side up a bit to match, as that side is now my least favourite because it all looks a bit nice and polite. I'm tempted... but I wont, that would be sacrilege.
Maybe someone will veer into me some time and pummel the bodywork. Then we'll both pull over, I'll leap down from my seat and rush at the perpetrator... they'll brace themselves for the angry shouting and potential for violence, and be utterly thrown by my beaming gratitude and hand shakes.
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Wed 20 Apr 2011 @ 19:27
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Anon
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Latest.
Recently I started reading up on the Weber 34ICT to see if I could have a go at fixing it myself. It seems to be at the heart of the remaining trifling worries of my van's general performance.
I ended up having a look at the choke mechanism, whilst in situ, and did a very simple bit of 'work' on that (essentially just a bit of cleaning, tweaking, and spraying WD40 onto the mechanism) and it made a really positive difference to my van. It now doesn't require choke almost permanently. It used to need a lot of choke for a long long time, and then would still need it to be out a few millimetres thereafter. That way though, it used to die; usually decelerating whilst freewheeling briefly to slow and change gears approaching red lights.. Now it requires a brief bit of choke when starting, but after a few mintues, the choke can be pushed home and she'll not cut out.
But... she still idles very fast after she's warmed up. Almost revvy, and there is a slight degree of wavering in the idle speed if we sit for a long period. It goes up high, and then drops again, then up again etc.
And more worryingly, there is often a really strong smell of petrol in the cab. Really strong. I took my little girl out yesterday along the coast, through Brighton, which was packed out, and on to Saltdean Lido. We had to sit in traffic for ages to get through Brighton, and then as we hit the free road beyond it, I swear we may as well have been sitting in a sealed barrel of petrol... we had both windows open as well, and the smell was incredible.
On the way back it wasn't so bad, but there's clearly an issue somewhere waiting to be solved. I think it must be the carburetor. I'm worried that my mechanic who I use may not be quite interested enough to do a proper job of checking the carb, and getting it all set up right.
I have a spare 34ICT that came with the van. Looks in quite poor shape, but I'm thinking of sending it off to a carburetor specialist that advertises in Classic Car Magazine.
Anyone ehre have any alternative suggestions as to what else might be a problem?
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Sat 23 Apr 2011 @ 17:52
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Anon
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My windscreen washers stopped working recently. I saw a universal motor on Halfords website so decided to go and spend a morning on Halfords car park tinkering. We have a vast car park, and at one end is Halfords, at the other is a B&Q, and in the middle is a bacon buttie hut... so its a great place to settle down in for some general maintenance.
Job one was to get my rear number plate lights working again. I unscrewed the two covers expecting to find no bulbs, no wires, no bodywork behind them. Got a surprise though. The bulbs were still there, and were dutifully working away. The problem was that they had clearly not been replaced in a very very long time, and the entire light fittings were completely filled with christmas tree pine needles, berries, dried out old leaves, bits of fluff, dead caterpillars etc etc. So job one was easy... cleaned them out and screwed them back on again.
Job two was the suss out the lack of windscreen washers. pulled the blade fuse out, cleaned the connectors, no good, switched a couple of fuses round, still no good. Must be the motor then. Went into Halfords, found the almost identical motor except that the pull pipe was borader and had a thread on it. It was only 12 quid so I bought it and went for the bodge option. Found some narrow gauge flexi hose under one of my seats and fashioned a connector from that to restore water to my windscreen.
Topped up the radiator, had a bit of a fiddle about with entirely non-essential components, purely to create the impression that I was an expert grease monkey, then climbed aboard, and turned the key.
Nothing. Ignition, starter motor, but absolutely nothing else. Tried again. Nothing. Kept trying. My van has never, ever done this to me before. Always starts second time every time. I could hear the battery was starting to lose potency after a while so I called Rachel and asked her to dig out the recovery service details that I got with my classic insurance. She called me back... I didn't take out the recovery service option. All this time I've been driving round feeling like if anything went wrong I could casually pick up the mobile telephone and dial some a classic car rescue service, who would arrive within minutes in an immaculate coach-painted Bedford Jo to tow me home.
There was a gang of Harley bikers sat nearby watching me, hence me pretending earlier to know exactly what I was doing under the bonnet and I started to feel a bit of a prat. For some reason, and I don't know why I did this, I decided that what a proper mechanic would do under such circumstances would be to hunker down in the footwell with the door open, and retry the ignition whilst gently pressing the accelerator with his hand. So I did that, the battery hardly had enough left to go more than twice... and blow me... she sputtered reluctantly back into life. I stayed down there in the footwell, gently caressing that accelerator with my hand and coaxing her back into full fettle.
Eventually I got the revs up, yanked the choke out to keep her there and went to get up to run round and shut the bonnet. Stood right behind me watchign was one of the bikers... "Bloody hell mate how d'you do that?" he asked "I was just comin' over to see if I could help..."
"Oh, its an old trick with these Bedfords" I said "You have to wobble the fuse box and press the pedal gently with your hand... excuse me please, I have to get in and drive her off before she dies".
He just stood there looking confused. I ran round, shut the bonnet, jumped in, stuck her into first gear, and shot backwards about 20ft, narrowly missing a Hyundai Accent.
I always get confused between first and reverse after I've been forced to drive the family car.
Anyway, made it home, and she's started up no problem twice since then.
Odd.
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Mon 25 Apr 2011 @ 00:29
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Anon
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Classic blog better than reading the daily star for laughs 
just think spookytim IF you ever got the beddie to A1, then what ? you'd be bored...
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Mon 25 Apr 2011 @ 20:18
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Anon
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just think spookytim IF you ever got the beddie to A1, then what ? you'd be bored...
You're probably right... its the longest A-road in Britain. Anyone would get bored once they were on that.
;D
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Mon 25 Apr 2011 @ 20:34
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Anon
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Chuffed.
Just won some original Weller wheels on ebay. Get some fatter tyres on those, stick my '!hot rod!' style hubcaps on 'em....
Jobzagoodun.
;]
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Tue 03 May 2011 @ 20:29
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Anon
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1. Ebay windscreens
Just won one for 99p, and lost another which went for £50-something. One was NOS and in a Vauxhall plastic bag, the 99p one was a used item and has some garden mould on it. Despite those differences, if both are the same item, there's a hell of a discrepancy between 99p and £50-something.
2. My van is in for its MOT. Its last MOT had an advisory on the brake lines being corroded. I looked up copper corrosion at the time as I was a little non-plussed but it seems copper can corrode. I took the van to a garage in Brighton and they replaced the front brake lines, but they couldn't do that back ones as they said they were so badly corroded at the join to the cylinders that they'd prefer to have some spare cylinders just in case. That was last year.
As the MOT is due I tried to book it back in with them (plus newly purchased spare cylinders) but they're a man down and booked out... so I have been looking round. Took it to one backstreet place in Southwick and they had a look and said "Yep, they're pretty badly corroded alright... we can replace those for you", however I didn't go there because the two blokes in there were very young and they didn't even know how to get the bonnet up. Also when I told them my alternator belt was loose they said "We can put a new one on" when in fact all that needs to happen is for the alternator to get shifted along half an inch (its a newish belt). So I decided they probably weren't best choice for working on a van that's older than their parents.
So... I took it to a place right near me. A big place, lots of grease monkeys, well established, a bit grimy... but staffed by old boys who stand a chance of knowing about older vans.
They called me about an hour ago and said "We're looking at these rear brake lines and there's nothing wrong with them. They're absolutely fine"...I explained about the previous MOT advisory, and the other garage saying they needed doing, and he said "There's nothing at all wrong with them. Copper goes green, that's all that's happened. We would not fail this van for the state of the rear brakes because they're in perfect working order". So now, my brakes DON'T need doing after a year of believing they do. I'm happy to go with their estimation though. If its just a bit of natural colouration that's all good by me.
Funny old world, int it.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and Ripley that she gets through okay!
;]
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Mon 16 May 2011 @ 13:43
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Anon
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You could always give them a once over with wire wool then slap a bit of gunk on them. By gunk, I mean a suitable barrier to stop them going green. A bit of green hammerite for example.
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Mon 16 May 2011 @ 18:35
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Anon
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MOT update....
Needs 3 lots of welding... not sure where yet as they called me when I was on the seafront in a strong wind and couldn't hear a bloody thing, but wheel arch or arches were mentioned. They said £100 worth of welding. Will go in tomorrow to see what they say.
Horn doesn't work (it does, but granted its laughably quiet).
Passenger seat belt pre-tensioner doesn't work. Again, it actually does, but you do have to get down there and flick a little nylon doo-dad with your fingernail to get the seatbelt to unwind from the coil. Works fine in every other respect though. Not sure if I can get that going well enough to satisfy, but if not, my van is in trouble unless I can find a replacement.
Carburetor needs replacing. Not, as far as I know, MOT territory but I asked them to check the running and find out why she's often crabby, and they said the carb is beyond redemption (my words not there's), so I need to find a recon 34ICT.
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Mon 16 May 2011 @ 20:10
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Anon
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Garage
Can I have the name of the garage you used? I am hoping to get mine in for one over the next week and yours might be a bit closer!
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Mon 16 May 2011 @ 20:29
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Anon
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Pm
:D
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Mon 16 May 2011 @ 21:12
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Anon
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Chatted to the garage this morning. Van failed MOT on...
1. 3 points of welding, all wheel arch related (ie structural points in close proximity to wheel arches, not the actual wheel arches). Cost estimated at £100.
2. Passenger seat belt not working. But that's been fixed I hope as it only occasionally refuses to extend.
3. Horn not working. New horn being fitted.
4. Exhaust blowing at join between new stainless steel job and incredibly rusty old down pipe.
They're going to have a go at rebuilding my carburetor for now, using the spare one I got with it as parts. Ultimately I need a new 34ICT apparently, so if anyone has one...
;D
I'm moments away from putting some kind of livery on my van, and I think I'm going to go with this one...
Symbol for rear OS door...
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Tue 17 May 2011 @ 13:55
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Anon
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Got my Beddie back with a nice crisp new MOT pass certificate this evening. Only one advisory too, which is to fix up the downpipe (or replace it, I guess).
She drives like a Rolls Royce now. That's my first MOT out of the way with hardly any trauma at all.
;D
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Tue 17 May 2011 @ 19:41
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Anon
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Well don, Tim, you can get to meets now!
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Tue 17 May 2011 @ 21:11
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Anon
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Aye, the Marlowe Regatta meet is now looking very promising.
:D
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Tue 17 May 2011 @ 22:12
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Anon
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I got behind the wheel at 8.30am this morning, filled her up and set off to collect my 99p windscreen from Ash in Canterbury. Its a 102 one way mile journey according to my TomTom. It took £50 to fill my tank back up, with maybe £20 already in there.
Two+ hours later I remembered the words of the old boy who had just serviced my carb. He said he'd done what he could with it but it was really not right and would need to be replaced. He said the engine had no power and it was no surprise because there was hardly any fuel getting through. He did say that on the positive side it didn't have any trouble with the emissions test on its MOT and will be frugal on the fuel as a result of this.
So I checked my fuel gauge.
This is by far the longest journey I have undertaken in the van since I got it. The furthest I'd been before that was to Beachy Head before its service and MOT. Beachy head and back would take almost a full tank of petrol. I was 20 minutes from my destination on the far side of Kent after two and a bit hours of solid driving, and my fuel gauge still read "Full".
Only one thing for it, the fuel gauge must have stopped working. I went and picked up my windscreen (and some chrome windscreen wipers) which had been left on the seller's front garden, then turned and headed for home. An hour later, the fuel gauge still said pretty much "full", maybe heading for the 3/4s mark now though, so I pulled in to a petrol station expecting to put another £50.00, thus proving the gauge had stopped working.
I could fit £20.00's worth in. I've come all the way home again. A round trip of over 200 miles and I still have a near-full tank of petrol.
Going on what I've heard about CFs... that's pretty frugal consumption I think.
Since the carb was serviced the van is definitely more stable... she never cuts out when idling or when slowing to a stop... she doesn't hardly need the choke for more than a minute when cold. But she is also less aggressive. She doesn't accelerate as rapidly and she doesn't do more than 80mph now whereas in her crabby condition she could touch 90mph and would get there quickly, sucking the tank dry as she went.
The only other notable point on my journey was when I decided to pull in to a layby after reading a sign that said "Dunkin Donuts". "Mmmmm", I thought, "Dunkin' Donuts. Just what I need". I turned off.
It turned out it wasn't a layby at all, it was a feeder lane... and the sign didn't say "Dunkin' Donuts" it said "Dunkirk Burgoyne".
Got a packet of Jaffa Cakes instead.
;D
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Sun 22 May 2011 @ 17:26
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Anon
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Its bloody hard work trying to make progress when you are working blindfold. Everything I'm trying to do with my van to improve it seems to be unfolding into a whole host of more things, requiring more time, more expense, more work.
I've got wheels that I can't find tyres for, and even if I can find the tyres I've discovered that the wheels might not even hold the air due to patch corrosion. And now I've got a brand spanking new carburetor that has been thoroughly recommended by two sources (both of whom, I guess, stand to make a small profit from the sale of said carb) which I now discover is going to require a significant modification to my van to get it to work.
I feel like giving up at this point It just seems to be impossible to make an informed decision about anything. Even when double and triple checking before making any decisions I seem to blunder into a whole new set of problems rather than the one simple solution I was aiming for.
Potentially a van for sale soon then, with many many many spare parts of varying degrees of compatibility. I've just hit a point of despair. I really honestly thought I was treading with enough caution now that things would stop being this problematic.
* is a bit downhearted *
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Wed 25 May 2011 @ 23:54
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