Hi guys n girls,, I joined a while back while looking for my own bus read some threads and got great pointers on what to look for ,,, I've finally found one (what I hope is a keeper), totally missed out on , gus bus which I soooo would have bought but anyway , body work and interior are great underneath is solid and any problems have been cut out and replaced, after driving her home from Rochdale to Doncaster I have a couple of niggles,, the gear box now I know some of it is just me having to get used to the old girl but can I flip hit second when changing down, also she has (what I'm told is ) the original engine,,,, great!!! But she's seriously under powered ,and I mean anything other than flat and I'm dropping to 30/25 mph, any advice or ideas would be much appreciated!!
Welcome - yours behaves pretty much as mine does with the original basic 1600 T1 engine. Quite happy trundling along at 50ish but definitely doesn't like hills.
Thanks guys ,I will post some more pics tomoro ,, not noticed any smells I did pull the dipstick but can't say it was overly hot will check next time out ,, no idea on the revs as I've no rev counter and cunny44 she sits at between 45 and 50 Great but I didn't want to push her hard on a long drive on my first day and kill her lol
Get the timing, ignition tappets and carb right and you should be in a better position to judge the performance. Have a look in mech n tech and read the posts relating to carbs, timing, tappets and ignition it’s amazing how poorly maintained some of these van engines are, a good refresh and tune up works wonders. As an aside, The issue you have with the so72 conversion is weight although the best original interior ever imo. Welcome along.
Welcome to the forum! You should have messaged me regarding Gusbus, he was up for sale for quite a while however he is being loved and constantly used down High Wycombe & the new owners are very pleased!
MorkC68 ,I didn't see the posts until it had sold otherwise I defo would have messaged , glad it's gone to a good home, ,,,,, as for my bus I'm going to follow , poptop2s advice and give the engine a good going over
After you have given it a good service it’s probably a case of leaning a different driving style to modern stuff as You have to drive these old vans. Lots of work in anticipating the road ahead and being in the right gear before you need it also being air cooled the engine it’s noisy so often people don’t give it enough revs you will get a feel for when the power drops off. But most importantly chill and enjoy the drive .
You have a nice looking bus so enjoy & there is some sound advice / hints / tips to be gleaned off here if ever you need help..which I hope you don’t!
Hi, I'll agree with give it a general tuning. Learn to drive it with respect to what it is.... A 50ish year old bus. Anticipating the road ahead is a must.
Welcome from Sunny Devon. That's a lovely looking bus you have. All your gears should have a sweet spot you just don't always find it!
All I can think of now is Return of the Living Dead…… I want to pick your braaaaaains https://tenor.com/vNFr.gif Hello and welcome from the New Forest, by the way. Good looking bus
Hello and welcome to T2 ownership. We had a 1600 in our Viking and after replacing it once we ended up having a 1776 built that had the casing tapped for a remote oil cooler along with Dual Kadron carburettors. Certainly has more pulling power but we still drive it at 55mph as we don't want to push it. We had it tuned on a rolling road by John Sleath at Conisbrough and it certainly improved things. http://www.john-sleath.com/
Hi, welcome to the Late Bay. Despite what people think, even a 1600 bus should just about be able to overtake trucks doing 55 on the flat.. And not go all over the place while doing it. But it will be happier at up to 55mph. A lot of issues are just leaks and adjustments. Please check and replace old petrol pipes first, then do timing and tappet adjustments. Gear changing problems can often be solved by replacing fairly cheap parts under the bus before going off into expensive repairs. The power band is around 2000 to 4000 rpm, and this can seem quite high revving and noisy unless you are used to driving some stupid little 1.0L car.
Yes, they are, particularly 1600's. Or maybe it's all those other cars and vans that are over-powered. Back in the 70's there were a lot of slow cars and almost all vans were slow too by today's standards so there's nothing really wrong with it - traffic has just got a lot faster.
Just as an up date , after looking through posts and buying a haynes manual I've slackened the gear stick off got her in second and pushed it left as far as it would go , re tightened and now ,, she's a total different bus every gear easy and spot on
