STAFF CAR SAGAS
Danny gets right to the end of his camper van tether
My 1985 Mercedes 207D Auto-Trail Sioux camper… named ‘Siouxsie’ for obvious reasons, is an enigma, but now she is trying my patience.
As with any classic camper it’s a work in progress with ongoing tweaks, or should I say, ongoing disasters. A T1 camper van, with the first generation 2404cc OM616 diesel engine should be bulletproof. The 65hp version of the legendary diesel is under the bonnet, mated to a dog-leg five-speed box – good for 500k, right?
Well, wrong actually. But I’ll start with the MOT failure, which was extensive, with welding required to a spring hanger and the chassis around it. The rear brakes needed freeing up, rear lights required rewiring, new track rod ends were on the list and a headlight beam adjustment was overdue. A week was then spent working through the list. The welding was tricky but essential, thanks Clive, and while the van’s bottom was in the air, I also rewired the rear lights. Two days in I realised the track rod ends were at either end of a track bar that ran the width of the front axle. Expensive. Or not.
One of the bizarre anomalies about owning a very rare vehicle that was once very common is the fact that, where some parts simply don’t exist anymore, others are piled high seeking homes. So, £40 delivered for my new track bar. Then I broke the inner workings of the headlight while trying to fit a bulb. This resulted in a four-hour trial of extraction, followed by an afternoon deconstruction, superglueing the brittle plastic mounts and adjusters and then the reverse engineering of the whole lot.
Pretty much a day of pain thanks to my sheer cack-handedness.
MOT secured anyway, so ready for the festivals! The van would be primed for Wilderness and then Beaulieu Autojumble, plus other jaunts and perhaps even use as a temporary home while I waited to exchange on my new house. I set off for Wilderness with the diesel chugging away merrily beneath my feet.
Top speed in Siouxsie is 55mph and 50 is the cruising velocity, so I took the country route with a friend shadowing me in the Volvo C70, which we needed to use to go off site during the festival.
As we skirted Bicester I tried to change down from fifth gear on the dogleg box. The shift was stiff. Then it wasn’t stiff at all. And I was still in fifth gear. I immediately went into ‘riding the clutch mode’ with the knowledge that the linkage had probably broken. I made it round the roundabout and onto the next section of road. Long straight, no hills. Good.
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