I have personal experience of this and waggled one of mine every 20-30 miles for 200 to get home. Greased up and it was good to go and still fine years later when I sold the bus. I didn't let it clank for long though, stopping as soon as I could to waggle. If it's been driven a lot with the noise it may well be more damaged than mine were.
Mhm,interesting! Pressing the clutch pedal takes any load off the driveshafts,therefore making them quiet!
Let us know if you need help! not much I can do. On the ship in the port of Ijmuiden. Been searching on thesamba but found nothing......
@zed you are a star. The noise suddenly stopped as we rounded a bend under power to enter the garage so I guess the load shifted as you suggested above. Fortunately we only had to travel about 1/2 a mile or so & most of that was coasting downhill. I actually carry a spare CV joint in the spares kit so will use the grease pouch etc to re-pack the joint before we leave the camping. Not today though! We are nursing rather stunning hangovers. Thanks @Clive Neilands , @Top Banana Racing , @pkrboo and @Dicky for your help as always. I will try & remember to post in the right bit of the forum Dicky.. Will try & get some pics up as well but it's a real faff.
Job done... My workshop today Essential tools Seriously though, I didn't have a 6mm hex drive in the tool box (just a couple of Allen keys) so during a trawl around the town yesterday we bought the little socket set as I couldn't buy just the hex socket. It is 1/4 inch drive which TBH is a bit weedy. Some of the bolts were FT!! I'm not sure if a 3/8 would have fitted as grovelling around in the sand doesn't allow much leverage or offer much clearance around the boots. Due to the dusty workshop!, I decided not to fully remove the drive shafts. The disadvantage is that you cannot fully inspect the joints but TBH what you can't see, can't offend. Working from the gearbox end I loosened the six hex bolts but didn't fully remove them. Using the tip of a large screwdriver it's possible to pry the end caps of the boots off. Then you can fully loosen the bolts, allowing access to both sides of the CV joint. I'd cable tied the axle shaft to stop it dropping fully. Loads of moly grease (we got a tub as I'd decided to do all 4) applied with the spares lolly stick and fingers. Here's the last one, on the n/s hub opened. The old grease is like toffee. Working was a nightmare but I kept it as clean as possible and removed as much of the old stuff as carefully as possible so as not to allow the joint to fully separate. From under the boot I properly squeezed the grease into the cage and around the steel balls with my fingers. The finished job. I treated the hard brake lines to a smear of grease as well! Thanks again @zed for the heads up. All we need now is for you to give us a neat, clean and cheap solution to the dull regular knock that's coming from the LHS of the engine
Ha, that's just the breakfast beverages The knock.... noticed it a few days ago (less that 30 miles ago with all the hammering malarky due to the driveshafts recently). I've done the screwdriver-in-the-ear thing & it's deep, regular to RPM and only on the LHS of the crankcase (3 & 4). We're now pretty pragmatic towards it. Nothing I can do except be as gentle as possible whilst driving and to enjoy our time. It may be OK until we get back. If it gets significantly worse we'll bring in the insurance company as I don't really want to wreck the case.... Doing the driveshafts has taken my mind off it, we're lucky to be doing what we are so no worries.
cant recall whether yours is hydraulic or not. Possibly its been there for a while and as your searching noises out you've noticed it!
Maybe an oil change is a good idea,look for iron shavings or particles. Im elbows deep into my motor at the moment,its not too bad! Hopefully yours is ok! Positive thoughts for you guys,if it all goes pear shaped its part of the adventure.
Thanks Andy & sorry for delay in my reply...(internet access is frustrating) All well, so far. We leave the campsite next week to take our chances travelling north towards Athens. The ferry to Ancona is booked for Sept 8th so we'll take it steady until then. We've done a few shopping runs and the bus is running good. I've been busying myself doing a tune up and sorting the brakes in anticipation for a trouble-free trip home! You know, "plan for the worst, expect the best" type of thing. I'll keep you posted...................
Need to finish off this thread, so now we've done a shakedown on the resto, here goes...in sections. 1) gas instal. The Gas-it system is mint. In 5 months we topped up twice and used about 12 euros worth. Money well spent and I may consider an external gas point for a bbq in the future as our Camping Gaz party grill is great for outside cooking but expensive on canisters. 2) solar panels and charge controller. We used 7 camp sites in the 145 days so they allowed freedom. The main current draw always was going to be the old westy fridge and it's not ideal. It gets hot and we have to use the propex fan to cool down the element on exceptionally hot days of 45'c plus. Other than that, we would have had no issues parking indefinately without hook-up. Maximum input we measured was 12.6 amp hours and the average daily input was 40 to 50 amps. Worked best in Austrian alps where I guess thin air and high sun were the key. Fantastic the further south we went in any case. The down side is that they are heavy, even at 15kg and make the roof hard to pop. Gas struts are on the cards as an upgrade when we do the canvass next. They do get hot, and this heat is transferred through the fibreglass top. Not really an issue during the day as you're outside... The charge controller worked as advertised and will get the batteries onto float with the MPPT algorithm. 3)propex. Works like clockwork. Stat kicks in when needed and relatively quiet. Works when travelling as a supplement to std heating. Using it all the time at the moment coz we're whimps. When it's hot, the fan function can be used to move the air round in the van and keeps the element in the fridge box cool as we planned. 4)Durite VSR split charge relay. Top kit, a bit expensive but did what we needed. Works two ways, allowing solar/charger input to leisure battery and starter battery thus keeping both conditioned. 5) ctek mxs 10 battery charger. worth every penny of the 90 quid or so it cost. When hooked up it can provide constant voltage. If the leisure had had a hammering, I flicked it onto recondition charge and it soon forced all possible amps into battery. I though I had actually killed the battery in the early stages of the trip as it wouldn't hold a charge for more than 2 days. It simply wasn't getting enough from the split relay and poor solar to keep up with demand. Once it was reconditioned, the battery has been fine despite taking it below 11v on several occasions. The connection options allow the charger to reach the starter battery as well. On the recondition charge setting the charger bangs out low amps at a high voltage in order to overcome the batteries resistance and force the final few amps into the battery. This high voltage pops the overload protection on the Propex, giving a red 2 second flashing fault code on the Propex control panel. I now isolate the Propex if conditioning the batteries and the fault is rectified by turning the heater on/off dial from on, to off and back to on again within 2 seconds. A note here, these type of intelligent chargers that read battery voltage always place a small parasitic drain on batteries. If they are not connected to power, disconnect them from the battery as this parasitic drain can flatten the battery. Ask me how I know...when we got back to the boat, our RCD had tripped the shore power connection to our on-board charger which had in turn flattened the house batteries. Our 240amp DC bank was reading less than 0.6V! 6) interior fit. Worked as we'd planned. No breakages or hinges falling off and just about enough storage. We will take less next time, honest! The most disappointing products have been the reproduction Westy handles from Schofields. All of them have split, in various random places. The plastic material is too soft and not durable. Hopefully they will sort this for us, I'll keep you posted. The bed was superb, so really worth fitting the Continental hinges for the extra thickness. The future: Gas struts for the pop as above. Front seats refurbed as they're now well used and lumpy. When we can afford it, I'm going to fit a Waeco fridge kit. I'll use the Westy fridge box but utilise the danfoss compressor, evaporator plate and live with the fan noise. The old fridge sadly doesn't cut it when free camping with no hook-up in high ambient temperatures. And that's about it for now folks. We fitted some Firestone Vanhawks all round a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of the change in weather. Standard size 185r14c at £70 quid each. Pricey compared to the budget Westlakes we've been running but the difference is worth it. Smooth, quiet, stable they have transformed the ride and handling. Mrs Monkey asked why I didn't do it before we went away...coz I'm tight! Thanks for all your support, advice and encouragement over the last 12 months or so. Next trip to the Peaks and Sheffield next weekend for my next significant birthday. Bring on the cold weather.......
Got to reply to this as I've read it all and not only is it amazing, but exactly how I want to use my bus! Space saving and off the grid camping. Not sure where to begin with questions as I have a million so I'll just log how impressed and jealous I am.
The bits & bobs are arriving for the next part of the saga. Shamefully I've not done the fuel tank pipes. The breathers and lines, filter etc is all good but the firewall has never been out & I suspect the filler needs attention. Techenders at the end of September should provide some motivation but I could do with some advice. Ive got the filler neck rubbery thing as below, but what pipe do I need at the tank end. There seem to be 2 sorts. The bus is the same as @pkrboo 's & I think you've done yours Matt haven't you? What do I need to complete the job? Some recent arrivals: Caliper kit Fuel neck rubbery thingy Something to start with
I used a straight bit if pipe bit at a bit of an angle. I might still have some actually. Will have a look
