Astravan Epic!

[Johnthesparky]

Passed the MOT


had advisories for the lower ball joints they are only 25000 old!
But otherwise all good, got complimented on the brakes being really good.
Went through emissions with no issues, and last year I had to make sacrifices to the gods of mots with the low blow

I did have a slight issue, in that I thought I should fit the cat that I bought back in April to replace the bit of pipe fitted when the decat fairies had visited


And I’d bought a cav td one instead having sat on it for 6 months and needing it done ASAPI made it fit


But now it knocks on the hangers when you start it, so will have to tweak it a bit more

other than that, it turned 25000 miles on my watch this week.

 

[Kevin Hughes]

Well done. That's great to see.

 

[John459]

Passed the MOT

View attachment 25530
had advisories for the lower ball joints they are only 25000 old!
But otherwise all good, got complimented on the brakes being really good.
Went through emissions with no issues, and last year I had to make sacrifices to the gods of mots with the low blow

I did have a slight issue, in that I thought I should fit the cat that I bought back in April to replace the bit of pipe fitted when the decat fairies had visited

View attachment 25528
And I’d bought a cav td one instead having sat on it for 6 months and needing it done ASAPI made it fit

View attachment 25529
But now it knocks on the hangers when you start it, so will have to tweak it a bit more

other than that, it turned 25000 miles on my watch this week.

I am glad she passed her mot, I like the shade of red, certainly a better colour than my flame red ls!

 

[Johnthesparky]

Not done too much, van desperately needs a clean but was too busy running up to Xmas.

today did a job for customer with a 2 poster, so fixed a sheared bolt on alternator bracket







But as that had a different sheared bolt, some drilling and heat persuaded the snapped bolt out and reused the original bracket




So much easier on a lift

also fitted a pricing bulb to the diesel line as I still think I have a low pressure air leak

and swapped the glowplugs

Which look a bit sooty to me, but not sure what to do about it.

did have some assistance at home through, from Betsy


Vans done just over 29k since I’ve owned it, and about 13500 with the Isuzu fitted. So will need a service soon

other than that, there is a rust bleb on the n/a arch which I’ll need to look at soon, at least to stop it getting much worse

Other than that it’s chugging along nicely

 

[harvey]

Was Betsy wearing gloves when getting stuck in after the initial situation review as she looks way to clean to have worked on a mk3 lol. I'd love to have a smidge more room down the side of my house to squeeze a twin poster in, would make life so much easier. Keep up the great work and nice fix on the alternator bracket, it's the small things that take ages to fix.

 

[DavebGsi]

NIce!

 

[Johnthesparky]

Van has been performing well, I swapped the lower ball joints that made it quieter and made the steering so much lighter! It was an advisory in October, but I was a bit miffed as they were new moog arms fitted 18months earlier, so I can say they lasted 2 years now

gave it another oil service as it has done 10k since the last.

so since it’s been trouble free I took on another project.


Was up for sale just into the new year, was on eBay and seller got messed about and it didn’t sell. So I brought it home yesterday.
Didn’t go quite as well as it should, started pretty well with a bit of churning over but the clutch is dead and since it’s been in a paddock for a few months the brakes are binding… so didn’t want to pull itself out. Moved after a push though, but managed to reverse into an open gate which was obscured by the vinyl covering on the back window… so now that’s gone, visibility is vastly improved

Got it home, and fitted a rusty old spare, is kept it for the spare glass (phew) so may get the glass swapped, or possibly just fit the white spare tailgate up the farm for now…

And once I’d sorted it out, parked it up

need to do some welding, sort the clutch and check it over and see if I can get an MOT before plans….

 

[Johnthesparky]

So, plans….

me and my lad
built a UVA fugitive over the last 6 years.
It’s got a bored and stroked aircooled motor and we took it drag racing

Off the back of that Toms about to turn 16, so we’ve got him a licence and he’s going to race a lupo in VW sportman in the VWDRC

So plans for the van, and apologies if this offends anyone… but since redtop are so expensive I can’t afford to do that anyway!
But images of Pete Digweeds van keep popping into my head


I’ve used my van to collect a few Lupos on the a-frame

So since Tom is competing in VWDRC and I’ll be there, if I fit a 20vt engine from a VW/Audi I. An compete too… and can use it to carry stuff to the track and tow Toms lupo until he can drive. So depending on engine, I should have between 150-225 standard and a mk3 van is only about 100kg heavier than a lupo, so should be able to run a 12s quarter hopefully

 

[Kevin Hughes]

Good stuff John. My old van's still looking good thanks to you.

 

[Johnthesparky]

Well the white van got welded

swapped the steering rack to a manual one, swapped brakes to the old ones off of the red van.
fitted flywheel and clutch from my old low blow.. because the red low blow had the potted flywheel and the white one was flat

 

[Johnthesparky]

Fitted a Momo wheel instead of the original (that was sticky )

sorted suspension, fronts with some spare bilsten dampers and lowering springs I’d tried on the red van and swapped. Rears I’ve only swapped springs for now, but have replacement dampers to fit later

Sorted some tyres for the 16” irmshcer alloys

and then got an MOT, few bits to sort. Had a look underneath and some bits needed to maintain it, but they’ll probably be ok for a year or so.

and then on the way home the brake servo gave up and the brakes were sticking… it’s just under a kilometer but by stopping and letting the servo release we got back

 

[Johnthesparky]

Also I’d drained the tank and swapped the fuel filter to get rid of the 8 year old fuel.

put a gallon of fresh fuel in and some cleaner additive

That got it through the test, but it must have sucked some nasty stuff up as it laid down a big smoke screen for a minute on the way home, then cleared again..

but it passed the MOT just waiting for some bits now

 

[DavebGsi]

Cor 8 year old fuel, surprised it didn't come out like jelly!

 

[Johnthesparky]

Van got a service last weekend

and then another MOT yesterday


Which it passed

few bubbles of rust coming through on sills and rear arches. Once the other van is running I intend giving it some love to slow the entropy down a bit if I can

but, 37k miles on my watch

 

[Kevin Hughes]

Well done. Great to see it in such good condition
.

 

[Johnthesparky]

I swapped the aux belt as it would squeal for the first few miles in the morning.

Had a failure with the screen washer motor, but fitted a spare from the estate

and have fitted some ‚cross climate‘ tyres for the winter. Fitted to Corsa Sport 3 spokes


It’s being a bit of a pain cold starting in the morning now it’s really cold, but working through that at the minute

 

[Todd100]

Really like the 3 spokes,

When your brake servo went on the white one did you manage to find a replacement? I've been trying to find a good one for my Gsi for ages, would love to get brand new but doubt I will.....

 

[Johnthesparky]

I bought a secondhand one from someone on the mk3 faceache page.

know what you mean, but needed to get it running again, it worked, so guess its ok

 

[Kevin Hughes]

Hello John. Found all this from the old tailgate on P204. Any use to you? A gift if you pay me the postage.

 

[Todd100]

I bought a secondhand one from someone on the mk3 faceache page.

know what you mean, but needed to get it running again, it worked, so guess its ok

I tried that and the second hand one from a reputable seller was worse than the one I had, the spring had relaxed and vacuum was always pulling the brakes on