Bergers Van

[Worty]

Found the problem   When I put the driver's side cv joint on, the circlip that holds it on should be loose-ish, but this was quite tight.  As a result, it's not seated properly, come loose and slid down the splines.  When corner is turned, the joint was so close to the end off the drive shaft, it ended up slipping round and has shredded splines on the cv joint and drive shaft.

So, with no further ado, I ordered a complete new shaft for both sides (£123 for both with free delivery from GBay {'G' stands for Greedy, in case you wanted to know} - and we all know what the 'B' is for).  Should have trusted my instincts on the circlip and just put the old one back on.  As it stands, driver's side shaft is off, courtesy of some very good mole grips on the spline bolts (no chance with a spline bit).  I may leave the nearside as it's working fine - I'll still have a spare if it goes mopsy.

Cheers for your help guys, as always!!  Good luck Bergs

[berger]

worty i couldn't get the nearside drive shaft out of mine because of a circlip problem i had to pry bar the swine out when i took the plate off to drain the oil, no drain plug but 11 bolts all 11mm whats that about? and one hidden by the back engine mount so that had to come off as well, and the top bolt for that needed the starter motor off , never rate i will ask the garage to plug it into some 3 phase and blow it up

[Worty]

For the outer cv joint, the long hub nut can be used as an extractor if you add a spacer.  Taking the bugger off was easy, but making sure the cv joint is lined up with the splines and is straight before giving it a crack is a bit of hit and miss, or hit and hope that the snap ring/circlip will end up where it should be.  When I put it on, I got hold of it and pulled as hard as I could but it wouldn't come off, so I assumed it had located properly.  Maybe it was secured enough for me not to get it off, but not under normal load.

If manufacturers made vehicles with owners in mind, they'd be far easier to work on.  The only thing they think about owners is how may units they can sell them.

[berger]

yippeee and not so much yippee, the plug in on the van resulted in the EGR valve being the problem. the big problem about this is even the mechanic said he will not do the work on this particular van , if it was the 1.7 engine it is far easier but as he knows and i know the work involved on this bitch is so intense and time consuming to do ANYTHING!!. 

[Worty]

yippeee and not so much yippee, the plug in on the van resulted in the EGR valve being the problem. the big problem about this is even the mechanic said he will not do the work on this particular van , if it was the 1.7 engine it is far easier but as he knows and i know the work involved on this bitch is so intense and time consuming to do ANYTHING!!. 

Jeez, did the previous owner know something you didn't mate?  They sound like and absolute bugger to work with.  What was the model again??

[berger]

fiat / alfa / whatever badged up vauxhall combo 1.3 tdi , stay away from them , the 1. 7 is an easier animal to work on.

[Worty]

fiat / alfa / whatever badged up vauxhall combo 1.3 tdi , stay away from them , the 1. 7 is an easier animal to work on.

Added to my 'Never Go Near It' notebook.

[RDfella]

EGR valves are nowt but trouble. Try running it on the rev limiter for a mile or so - used to clear my vauxhall pile of dung for a week until the next time.

[dave55]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZDsdM571_M           This any good to help?

[berger]

might be worth a try or blank it off and get rid of the light, the intake into the head is probably full of crap as well and that IS a mare to get off

[Worty]

Just to let y'all know that I've finished putting the new driveshafts on the Octy and all seems well after a bit of a battle trying to torque up the inner joint allen bolts without stripping the hex head (did strip one just after torque was reached).  

NOW - back to the bikes - need to check gauze, whip tank off and replace padding, then check those pesky forks to see if there's any oil left in the l/h/s.

Next - wait until it's less cold and rainy before my next ride.

[berger]

there is a film about a car that is possessed and has it's own mind, that car is called Christine, my van is now called Christine. after putting it back together after the clutch slave cylinder and other assorted problems it has now decided to put dash board lights on whenever it chooses and not at all whenever it chooses even when it goes into limp mode the lights stay out. the air bag light came on today and then disappeared again , the service light appeared a few days ago never to be seen again. the radio came on all by itself and the heater variable speed fan has packed up, it just does a Cristine all or nothing thing. i managed to get the resistor out today after fighting with Christine for 4 hours . there are many more things Christine throws at me but i won't bore you anymore and it would take me all day to type up Christine's antics , have a nice day 

[Bsareg]

But surely, didn't Christine repaired herself ?

[RDfella]

Not as bad as your's, Bergs, but my daily driver Focus) had been misbehaving for ages - usually the ABS light would come on. Then it'd go off and other odd dashboard things would happen. Then, a few months ago, the dash went crazy - speedo & rev counters dropped to zero and a dozen warning lights came on. Then it'd work again, but not wishing to break down somewhere (the dash and ICU speak to each other) thought I'd better do something.
Searching the web, apparently it's not unusual on Focus's, so sent the dash off to a firm that specialise in fixing them. Not cheap, but then there's a zillion soldered connections on what is basically a large printed circuit board. Everything fine now.
Yours being a Vauxhall reminds me of my previous DD, a Corsa. Had to fit a clutch......  what a caper. Apparently one is supposed to remove the engine, but I opted to drop the box - if only one could. Eventually cut a bit of the 'chassis' away so I could get the box far enough from the flywheel (no way could the box be got out) to fit a new clutch by poking about in the bell-housing. Those cars weren't designed, just bolted together. 

[Greybeard]

When I worked at a back street motor garage/shop we had to change the clutch on an E-type Jag. We were advised that the correct way to do it is to take the engine out but we didn't want to do that did we. A large lump hammer was used, (not wielded by me) to redesign the foot well so the gearbox could clear the bodywork. After the clutch was done the same precision tool was used to get the footwell floor more or less back to normal, (just don't look under the carpet).