Van - a big accessory!

[Dutchgit]

A friend and his girlfriend travelled up to the lake district in their Vivaro,with their Kwak w800 in the back. Clutch problem on the way up. Van towed to a local garage for repair,while they continued on bike. Turned out the clutch slave cylinder give way. It's situated in the gearbox bell housing! Advised to fit new clutch whilst apart...£800 to fix! :S

a Lot of modern day vans have this set-up. It's a cheaper way of producing I suppose.

Seen it on some Transits as well as most French and Italian vans. If it goes it's often time for a new clutch anyway.
That's the thing, if there's a problem with something, people will be all over the internet with it. If there's no problem you don't hear about it generally.

[AlanHolt]

A lot of vans simply aren't maintained correctly. The Vivaro/Trafic/Primastar should have the slave cylinder bled every year and nobody does it, or doesn't do it correctly. They should also have the gearbox oil changed every 3 years or so, and it either isn't changed and the gearbox fails, they change it but put normal gearbox oil in and the gearbox fails (they use a particular type of transmission oil), or they fill it level with the hole instead of 20mm below, and the gearbox fails. The gearchange cables also stretch and need adjusting/replacing, and people say the gearbox is knackered. My old Vivaro is now nudging 200,000 miles, original gearbox, original slave cylinder, original clutch.

[threepot]

So you have to remove the gearbox every year to bleed the system?? :huh:
And normally,the oil fill holes are positioned so when oil starts to 'run out' from the hole,it's at the right level? So how do you measure 20mm under? That's the French for you!

[AlanHolt]

So you have to remove the gearbox every year to bleed the system?? :huh:

Of course not, theres a conveniently located bleed nipple outside the bell housing.

And normally,the oil fill holes are positioned so when oil starts to 'run out' from the hole,it's at the right level? So how do you measure 20mm under? That's the French for you!

Thats the assumption everyone makes, but there is a 'special tool' which you can buy from the main dealers for the pricely sum of £9 which is shaped and marked to enable mechanics to correctly fill the gearbox.

[threepot]

The Vivaro I had was a bloody good van! With the exception of the gear linkage issue,I had no other issues in the 150k miles!

[Peirre]

So you have to remove the gearbox every year to bleed the system?? :huh:

Of course not, theres a conveniently located bleed nipple outside the bell housing.

In that case it's probably a 10 minute job to change/flush the whole hydraulic fluid out if you have a brake pressure/vacumn bleeder, which ain't that expensive to buy

[Mike54]

A friend and his girlfriend travelled up to the lake district in their Vivaro,with their Kwak w800 in the back. Clutch problem on the way up. Van towed to a local garage for repair,while they continued on bike. Turned out the clutch slave cylinder give way. It's situated in the gearbox bell housing! Advised to fit new clutch whilst apart...£800 to fix! :S

a Lot of modern day vans have this set-up. It's a cheaper way of producing I suppose.

Seen it on some Transits as well as most French and Italian vans. If it goes it's often time for a new clutch anyway.
That's the thing, if there's a problem with something, people will be all over the internet with it. If there's no problem you don't hear about it generally.

Newer defenders have this too. Massive cost to look at the slave. Who the fuck thought putting in the bell housing was a good idea

[Dutchgit]

A friend and his girlfriend travelled up to the lake district in their Vivaro,with their Kwak w800 in the back. Clutch problem on the way up. Van towed to a local garage for repair,while they continued on bike. Turned out the clutch slave cylinder give way. It's situated in the gearbox bell housing! Advised to fit new clutch whilst apart...£800 to fix! :S

a Lot of modern day vans have this set-up. It's a cheaper way of producing I suppose.

Seen it on some Transits as well as most French and Italian vans. If it goes it's often time for a new clutch anyway.
That's the thing, if there's a problem with something, people will be all over the internet with it. If there's no problem you don't hear about it generally.

Newer defenders have this too. Massive cost to look at the slave. Who the fuck thought putting in the bell housing was a good idea

The Finance department :silly: :sick:

Newer Defender have a Transit engine. The bulge in the bonnet is so the engine fits under there as Ford didn't want to change the sump. (Another little bit of useless knowledge :laugh: )

[SteveW]

I buy my vans new and sell them at the end of the warranty period.
So all this goes over my head :laugh:
I've just ordered a new Transit L4H3 (jumbo) 170bhp.....tell me there's a better van on the planet :whistle:

[Putbinoot]

Also been looking at vans until my head hurts, been jumping back and forth between vivaro lwb crew and lwb van, think i am going for the van so i can add my own seats to make it easier to get a couple of mx bikes in plus have this mad idea of having it as a van/bike transport/camper so we will see but think like garlic bread they are the future.