A trip from UK to Mongolia in an ex Postie LDV Pilot van!

A good watch with this documentary about a trip from UK to Mongolia in an ex Postie LDV Pilot van! Enjoy! May it inspire you and make you laugh.

A procedure to help you fault find your gearbox & manual transmission problem(s)

Gearstick stiff? Gears Not engaging? Soft clutch pedal?

If your clutch pedal is down or soft it could be a lack of pressure in the hydraulic system (hydraulic system=fluid reservoir+slave cylinder+pipe+master cylinder ). 

But this would be guessing an guessing with mechanic repairs is waste of time, energy and money.

1/ check the clutch fluid level in the reservoir > If level is low there might be a leak

2/ check for leaks around all connections of the hydraulic system. Clean up everywhere and give it another chance to leak (time or a little ride?) so it becomes visible.

 If you find a leak there might be air in the system > This make the clutch hard to operate.

3/ Bleed the air from the system (it’s an easy task and this potential fault will be either fixed or ruled out).

For bleeding there are 2 ways : 

1/pumping the clutch pedal method

2/using a one-man-bleeding kit

(google these or I can send you links on how to do this)

If bleeding doesn’t sort the problem out, it can be due to either the slave cylinder (at gearbox bell housing level) or the master cylinder (fluid reservoir level) or both. Although these 2 are strong and don’t usual fail. Mechanics often replace both. (BUT for us LDVers it can prove difficult to find the right part - but not impossible). Check out http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk (they stock rover parts which is what we have on our pilots SD1rover gearbox LT77 or R380 - check the manuals on LDV files).

If you need replacing parts you will first need to identify your gearbox (a ref number is stamped on it and you can cross reference it with manuals)

This is the easiest bits to do. As in where you don’t need to take the gearbox down to replace parts inside (although this is not very hard to do but more work).

The next easy is to check and replace the selector shaft yoke (although this is hard to find new).

If the cylinders are ok, it can be the nylon bush in the selector shaft yoke (nylon wears off but you need replace the whole yoke as what Im holding on photo).

you might as well check the levels of AND replace the gearbox oil (with the correct one). I have a good link for a video on how to do this and which oil to use assuming your gearbox is a R380.

If none of these work out, It can also be  the clutch arm pivot, the fork, or even the clutch disc that need replacement.  All these are inside the gearbox.

That's a near enough diagram of your hydraulic system so you get an idea (I assume your Pilot is similar to mine from your photo).

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note: I try the best I can to follow professional experienced mechanic guidance and advices but I'm NOT a qualified mechanic, this is what I figure out as I work on my vehicle using all available help around me, real people, written manuals, online videos etc)

Toolbox of Land Rover videos for LDV vans owners

I have found this youtube channel (below) very useful and informative:
Land Rover Toolbox Videos
The videos are professionally made, clear and to the point and have lots of tips.
It has  helped me find out about my gearbox and steering so far.

Here is a video that show how to refill your R380 gearbox oil:

and one about steering check basics:

Check it out!

As Darren from Club LDV often reminds us (!!!), LDVs has lots in common with the Rover SD1
(they share British Leyland group heritage) - Rover SD1 infos and more infos

Although they know little about LDVs they do have corresponding parts (at cheaper cost) so you might want to take a look at the Rimmer bros online shop that sells SD1 parts.
(Note: This is NOT advertising, just sharing knowledge).

LDV Pilot van - Hardknott Pass video!

Watch this for a nervous laugh but a good one!

LDV vans forum - Alive and quicking!

About 3 years ago when I got my Pilot I used to look up two forums set up by LDV vans, sherpas etc owners and lovers. These were the only forums available online and were very useful.
Unfortunately soon after I joined they all disappeared. I took up the task to set them back up and archive some of the best tips and most useful conversations on the then newly set up fb LDV groups.
My archiving was slow as it takes a lot of time to search on the fb group page for posts that keep disappearing in the scrolling down system (*#@%$?!!!).
However few admins from the ex-sites took over and slowly but surely new members registered.

I was delighted today to see that it's well alive and quicking!

LDV lovers, Join up our forum!
http://ldvsherpauk.prophpbb.com

The advantages over fb is that you can look up the infos without having to scroll down for ghost-posts (I'm gonna call them that), it's always there for you. The search option is much easier to use than fbook.

Thanks again to the admins who are taking care of the forum.

LDV vans Sherpa Pilot Convoy - No MOT etc - Don't scrap them!

Yet another post on our dear Club LDV social network group from Matt who writes:
"Going to the scrap yard in the sky on Saturday its a shame other than the rust not much else wrong with it but cant afford to keep it on the road any more 😢 "

Please! Dont scrap!

Save the parts for us! We ll make them last another half century!!

And surely you'll make more than this ridiculous amount of money due to the crash of metal s worth itself due to speculative (capitalist) fuckers in power all around the world. Scrapping means sending this good steel to China so it comes back in the form of utterly useless items of miserable quality (otherwise called shite).
Come on! Make a few quids, bypass "supporting already rich fuckers" and recycle the good things for the people who take care of it, make it last and therefore make our planet and life sustainable! (uff I needed to say that).

Come join the Club LDV group and get recycling!

Posts and comments for advices on LDV vehicles

Dear readers!

Many thanks for your praises and comments. I have to apologise for not being able to answer all your questions. I'd love to be able to keep up with them but I have neither time nor expertise for it.

I direct you once more to the excellent and ultra friendly social network groups I turn to for advice. I recommend these two for the best advice, banter and learning together:

Club LDV
and
Club LDV/Freight Rover Convoy/Sherpa/Maxus/Pilot/Cub, Van/Camper/Day van 

You take care
Enjoy the LDV beast,

Yours faithfully.

LDV Pilot campers - project and how to build on a modest budget

Check out this LDV camper website
A useful article to start with me:
"

BASE VEHICLES

When choosing a base vehicle, many factors have to be considered, how do you want your camper to look, to function, costs and your own handiness with tools and materials.
Seeing as this site is about LDV'S, i should list the variants most often used;
Leyland Daf sherpa / 200, these were updated versions of the Morris j4 and retained most of the body pressings,the widened version was called the 400.these were later given a facelift and became the pilot and convoy.
While these are not the most comfortable or best equiped vans on the road, they are robust,long lived and reliable and many are still seen on the roads today. The pilot was voted "best commercial van of the year" a year after production ended.

• The Pilot has one length and height ; L 4.75m..H 2.07. W 1.72m
• (internally, L 2.59. H 1.43. W 1.42 .approx load space)
• The Convoy has three lengths and 3 heights;
• The swb is 5.05m in length ( 2.79m internal from back of front seats)
• The lwb is 5.55m in length (3.28m internal)
• The xlwb is (no information available at this time)
• Heights are; 2.19m for the low roof (1.46m internal)
•                     2.59m for the high roof (1.85m internal)
•                      2.77m for the extra high roof (2.03m internal)

Both the Pilot and the Convoy come in; Minibus with windows along the full length,
Crewbus with windows in the front half and vans with windows only in the front doors.
some converters choose the ambulance version of the convoy with the 3.5ltr Rover V8, fuel costs might be prohibitive unless you convert to lpg.
there are also luton vans and pickups, but these do not lend themselves to conversion.
ENGINES; the Pilot has only the peugeot scourced 1.9 diesel with 72hp.
The convoy comes with;

• 2.5 diesel from peugeot in either turbo or normally aspirated developing 70hp and 55hp respectivly
• 2.5 diesel with Banana intakes from ford in either turbo or normally aspirated developing 100hp and 76hp respectivly
• 2.5 diesel with normal intakes in either turbo or normally aspiratd developing 85hp and 70hp respectivly
• and the 2.4 diesel from ford, turbo only but in 3 outputs,75hp,90hp and 110hp.

• there is also a 2ltr petrol/petrol,lpg engine or the powerfull 3.5ltr V8."

Photos on the website