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Anon
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Betty the Bedford, the story so far

I thought I would contribute to this thread with the story of our camper so far.

We bought the 1980 CF1 with a coach built Adventura body at the end of April this year. My parents has owned an aircooled VW Combi camper when I was newly married and they lent it to my new wife and I for two weeks holiday. It was wonderful to carry all your home around with you and this sparked my interest for the future.

So, the camper was bought and was in apparently in good condition (39000 miles) having been a virtual one owner vehicle all its life and had been stored in the dry in a barn when not in use.

The van seems almost completely standard and solid and I think I was lucky to find her.

The plan is to drive the camper to Scotland from the Isle of Man to visit my partners newborn grandson so in order to prepare I had my friend, the local mechanic have a look at it to give it the 'once over' and give it a service. This was where things went downhill a bit....

He found an oil leak from the rear crankshaft oil seal and suggested he replace the seal, this meant taking the engine - and gearbox, out of the van. While the engine was out and sump off he suggested a quick peek at the bearings, this revealed a little wear on some of the bearings and a showing of copper so he suggested a new set of standard bearings.

Those of you who have been through this will know that these bearings are hard to find at standard but Adrian Bailey was able to help though they were very expensive but as I hope we will keep the van fro a long period I felt the investment was worth it.

There had also been a little clunking noise in first gear rather like a chipped tooth so we decided to strip the gearbox down. The internals were good and there was no damage to any of the gears but reverse which had some chunks taken out of the edge of the gear. We did find the tail bearing was rather pitted so an alternative bearing was bought and the inner race ground out a bit to fit the tail shaft and the whole re-assembled.

Various additional things were done such as changing the rear axle oil and stripping and checking the brakes etc.

When my friend had the whole thing back together he fired it up and it seemed to start beautifully so he drove it back to me. Having stopped it outside the house, when he restarted it the oil light took about 20 seconds to go out. Alarm bells began to ring and worry began.

To cut a long story short he has now changed the engine oil from 10/40 to Castrol GTX 20/50, twice changed the oil filter and are likely to change it again as I have now found an OEM filter on Ebay with the non return valve in (we weren't certain that the first two had the non return valve), an O ring/gasket kit for the oil pump and finally a replacement oil pump from Gryphon Design & Manufacturing in Maldon, all in the hope of curing the long delay before the oil pressure comes up.

The new pump should arrive in the post today (fingers crossed) and that will finally sort the problem out, hopefully we haven't already knackered £250 worth of new shell bearings and hopefully I will get my partner up to Oban to meet her new grandson for the first time. Wish us luck...

Mike

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Tue 16 Jun 2015 @ 14:52 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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The good news is that the new oil pump completely fixed the delay in oil pressure build up and the engine is now as sweet and quiet as a nut.
Sat 20 Jun 2015 @ 08:01 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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oil pump

Hi Mike,you have done a real job on your van with all the new parts it should last a life time.I have the delay on the oil as you had.I have tried 5 second hand pumps but they all are nacked.Where did you get your new one from and how much did it cost?If you don't mind saying.Cheers+Beers,Jim.

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Sun 21 Jun 2015 @ 20:55 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi Jim

Below is the business card of the chap at Gryphon Engineering that I bought the pump from, there was a link to him in the boards here. He apparently reconditions them as small sideline.

I gather the problem is that unusually, on this engine, the oil pump is high up on the block beneath the distributor so oil has to be sucked out of the sump rather than the pump, as is normal, being immersed in oil in the sump.

Because the pump has to suck the oil up then any wear that allows air to pass the rotor in the pump so it will suck air for a bit longer. The replacement pump fixed the problem perfectly and Steven was a lovely chap to deal with so I can recommend him.

Hope this helps.

Mike
Mon 22 Jun 2015 @ 14:20 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Oil pump

Thanks Mike,I will contact them this week,Cheers,Jim.

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Mon 22 Jun 2015 @ 20:34 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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I am delighted to say that after all the stress and uncertainty Betty got us from the Isle of Man to Oban and back without incident. She was surprisingly comfortable to drive albeit slow (45 - 50mph by satnav), the speedo reads about 8%fast.

She returned 20mpg over the trip which is about what we expected but was such a great convenience to travel in.

Some points I would like to raise and hope that one or two of you might take the time to comment on them:

1. The cab was pretty noisy - (engine and road noise). There is underlay beneath the rubber mat that has become compressed over the years. Can she be made quiet?

2. The fuel tank squirts out at the end of EVERY fill up, is this normal or do I have a bad un?

3. I used quite a bit of the Miller octane enhancer/lead replacement jollop, when I ran out I found a Castrol equivalent that looked more economical to use, has anyone any experience?

4. The engine is a bit sluggish on the uptake, I was wondering if the carb accelerator pump diaphragm might be at fault?

All in all though she was brilliant to drive and wonderful to live in. I foresee many happy years with her.

Mike
Mon 29 Jun 2015 @ 15:50 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Running points

Hi Mike,I will try to help.(1)20 mpg is good for these vans,you may get an improvement as time goes by.As the engine loosens up.(2)The cabs are well noisy.New under lay will help.Road noise depends on the sort of tyers you have.i:e Pickup type radial as I have make for good mialige but are noisy.(3)Fuel squirting back on fill up is a blocked breather pipe.(4)To stop using lead replacement you will have to have hardend valve seat fitted.(5) sluggish Should improve as you improve the engine.It would not hurt to service the carb.Sorry for miss spellings.I hope this is of some help.Cheers+Beers,Jim.

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Tue 30 Jun 2015 @ 21:31 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Oil pump

Hi Mike ,I have sent Steve my pump and am awaiting the recone.Thanks again for your help.If you do not mind I will add Steves info to our net.Cheers,Jim.

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Tue 30 Jun 2015 @ 21:39 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Many thanks Jim, advice much appreciated.

Absolutely, add Steve's details wherever you like, happy to advertise him. Unfortunately I havent posted my old pump back yet so that may be why you have to wait, sorry.

Mike
Wed 01 Jul 2015 @ 09:15 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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oil pump

Hi Mike,not to worry.Thanks again.Chees+Beers,Jim.

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Wed 01 Jul 2015 @ 20:34 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi Jim

Has the pump been fitted yet? and if it has has it made the difference you were hoping for?

Mike
Tue 21 Jul 2015 @ 10:38 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Betty's engine saga continues. A while ago I noticed an unevenness in the beat of the engine and myself and my pal the mechanic did a compression test and discovered compression on all cylinders was low but especially No 4 which was 30PSI.

I went back to Steve at Gryphon and was able to get a set of 4 +20 pistons at a good price together with a full engine gasket set.

The engine was pulled out and stripped a few days ago and what we found was interesting.

On number 2 cylinder one of the compression rings was broken but on number 4 cylinder both were broken. All of the compression rings were exceptionally badly worn in the grooves, possibly 25 thou of slop in the piston grooves. The wierd thing is that there was very little lipping on the top of the bores so not a great deal of bore wear so what caused the rings to wear so badly I cannot imagine. It looks as thought the rings were broken for a very long time.

An additional irritation was that when we pulled the engine apart to get the pistons out we found that the big ends were quite badly damaged while we were trying to get to the bottom of the long delay in building up oil pressure, eventually cured by the reconditioned oil pump from Gryphon Engineering.

I have decided fit yet another set of big ends and grind the big end journals to -10 thou in the hope that I will never have to do anything major to the engine again. It does smart though that I managed to write off about £140 worth of big end bearings in 1500 miles grrr.

On the upside, with car pistons (higher compression than the van ones) and full combustion pressure on all cylinders she should be a completely different vehicle to drive with much more go about her and better economy too.

I will post a few more photos of our adventures too for those that are interested.

Mike
Fri 21 Aug 2015 @ 11:07 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Blast, I don't know how these photos got duplicated, sorry about that.
Fri 21 Aug 2015 @ 11:52 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Waitress service.

I Mike.

My campervan is the double of yours just a wee bit scruffier but you have something on your van I don't have a "waitress" and chef, I must one as soon as I can.

doujoy

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Fri 21 Aug 2015 @ 19:01 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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She is a very good addition to the equipment list doujoy :)
Sat 22 Aug 2015 @ 00:34 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
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