Dr Mark's Tardis

Another job that's been on the to do list for ages. I've bought an Iveco cable 93813075 to connect the carburetor to the"choke" lever in the cab. This allows me to increase the revs when using the winch or compressor. It could be useful at other times too. A simple job in principle, but awkward to get behind the choke lever in the dashboard and a rather awkward route for the cable in the engine bay. It's much stiffer than I'd like, but it only needs to move a fraction of an inch.

Just had a pair of deadlocks fitted to the cab, thanks to Ed from Ed-locks http://ed-lock.com

On sale on the forum and then on ebay

As posted on the Iveco daily forum. £25

Camping at Stratford " Adventure Overland Show ". In a large group of expedition vehicles, organised by Neil and Pat of the Overland see group. And we were introduced to Overland Sphere And Karen finds a cake shop

New logo on the front. Tardiis name and Iveco font. Rather hard to access, so I did it while the cab and camper were split. Used automotive vinyl wrap.

Only three years since I put the new hoses in. Note that the new hose a very different outer texture more like a hydraulic hose. Let's hope it lasts longer. Note 2.7m from tank to engine 

While bleeding the brakes, pressure vanished and I found fluid squiring out on the front nearside tyre. A solid brake hose had sprung a leak. Odd because I had not done anything to it. On investigation it turned out to be an original steel pipe that had rusted through and fortunately burst in the drive. I had thought it was copper with a mess of underseal on it. Wrong: it was steel pitted with corrosion. I found one other steel pipe in the engine compartment in rather better condition, and replaced both. At 23 years old original steel pipes are an accident waiting to happen.

Scary. If the belt fails the engine is wrecked So I booked it in with the Iveco dealer. It was one job that I was prepared to pay for. I dropped the vehicle off, and went to wait in the library. Guest trucks rang to give a quote of £780. Wow! I went back to collect it and research how to do the job myself. Well it needs bumper, front grille and radiator removed. Physically big but not too challenging. Lots of photos of the engine as I went in case I forgot how it went back together. Alignment of crank, cam and injector pulleys is crucial. The marks on the top cam pulley is clear. A fine notch in the pulley and mark on the crankcase. The injector pulley has a hole for a 5mm drill bit that locks it in place. The crankshaft  is more puzzling, with conflicting advice. There is no mark on the crankshaft pulley. The crankshaft itself had a wide notch that seemed to line up with TDC. However I also found a notch on the flywheel, looking through the clutch housing, because the flywhe...

The handbrake was a rather loose so I tightened it, right? Wrong! Well it is manual adjustment so it seemed sensible to adjust the cable. A week later it was loose again. This time I thought more about it. Plus an overheating smell from the rear brake drums that Karen noticed. The point is that the handbrake should only need adjusting to take up gradual wear of the brake shoes - but that is gradual and quite minor. So really there is a problem to be solved. The handbrake cable was in good condition, as it should be at only a couple of years old. One brake drum showed deterioration of the linings and a brake cylinder that did not retract. But it was not seized opening the bleed nipple sent a shot of fluid and the cylinder retracted as it should. There was a blockage preventing the brake fluid going back to the master cylinder. One of the flexible brake hoses was blocked. The middle one between the cab and chassis: others are between the cab and each front wheel and chassis and rea...

MOT Passed just one issue with a cut in one of the ex-MOD used tyres. Swapped with the spare for now. rather a deep cut over 25mm long rear rack as intended (Tyre on its way to the tip) 2015 things to do went rather well and as usual a few extras cropped up. Here is my list for 2016 Find and fix Wet patch front LHS (maybe new window fixed it) Aluminium Locker done, just needs finishing off Move LBs (done) Crawl through (done, with polythene ) change flexible front mount. (postponed ) Awnings (parts ready for the first one) More warm LED lights (done) refix sun visors (done) Sand and paint the frame. (Imminent ) clean and paint the camper  Add another TARDIS logo (done) reversing camera  Deadlocks on doors (done November) Get air suspension seats working fully., not urgent Wire up Mifi (done, but no external aerial ) Cam belt at Iveco garage. (Done myself) And what I did not anticipate: 17. New large Seitz window 18. Replaced all...