'69 Savannah Deluxe continued.....

[markevo30]

Hi all,

Only had the bus a couple of months but we've already had a few trips away, which was the reason we bought a finished one instead of a project. I had my last project early bay for nine years and it was never going to get done. We got 'Gertie' from another EB member so if anyone's interested they can see the build thread by searching for 'grand rapids' and it'll be there somewhere.

As the bus is pretty good already i've no major plans but you've got to put your own stamp on it haven't you? So watch this space.

We've just come back from Weston Park which was holding the Dub Mania and Retro Mania shows this weekend. It's dead local to us but we still camped to try out the new tent. Here's some photo's

 

[leon]

Nice buy. :mrgreen: Always loved this bus, but never had an opportunity to see it in the metal. Now it's in Staffs I may get the chance.
If you're anywhere near Stafford in it soon then give us a shout, would love to have a nosey. 8)

 

[markevo30]

Leon, it would be nice to meet up with a few local lads. Are there any meets/clubs anywhere local to Stafford? I'm in Wheaton Aston (Where?!) so Stafford, Telford, Wolves and the 'nock are all within striking distance.

I'm also going to be at most of the local shows, and some further afield, so maybe catch you at one.

 

[markevo30]

Did a bit of work today. After some advice from the tech section i replaced all the gear shift bushes I could without removing the 'box as well as the fork connector. Bit of a bugger getting the front shuttlecock bush back in but it was worth the effort. It's made a HUGE difference. I reckon it's reduced the throw by about a half. If you've not got round to doing this on your bus yet I would recommend you get it done.

 

[markevo30]

I've been getting my hands dirty again this week. This time trying to find out why my front suspension appeared to have no travel, or at least why the minimal travel it did have was so stiff. I'm running a 4"narrowed K&L beam with the adjusters set to their highest setting(!) and dropped and flipped spindles. With this setup i know the ride is going to be compromised, not least because of the shortened torsion leaves, but having seen other vans with similar kit i knew something wasn't quite right. I've attached a video, this was for me to see if there was any movement at all other than the tyre deforming. I was jumping up and down like an idiot to try and get some movement. :lol: I think it's just about visible.


The first thing i checked was that the shocks weren't bottoming out so took them off and measured them and they were spot on with plenty of travel either way from the van's resting height. Whilst taking off the shocks i realised that the lower trailing arms haven't been modified to accommodate the narrower beam and are making the shocks taper in at the bottom. Although not ideal this wasn't the cause of the stiffness either. I'm now looking at getting the arms modified with the help of Alex at Transporterhaus.

Wonky shock


Next i noticed that there aren't any grease nipples in the beam so i thought i'd strip off the hubs etc to see if the arms were binding in the beam. When stripping the king and link pins apart a couple of them were dry so they have been cleaned up and re-greased. Once all that had been removed i loosened the adjusters off and tried to move the trailing arms up and down........no chance, they were rock solid. It took a fair tap with a lump hammer to get them to move at all. That'll be why the ride's so crap then! :shock:

Dry pins



One down one to go



Off with the beam next to have a proper look at what was going on. This was a little more involved than when i last removed a beam 25 years ago on my old '64 bug as the gear linkage, handbrake cables and clutch cables all go through the middle of the two beam tubes. It's a good job i've got long arms as i had to undo the clutch cable wingnut at the gearbox end with one hand from in front of the rear wheel with the van sat on it's ass. Anyway, the beam came off so i could now see what was going on. The binding could have been caused by one or two things i reckon, either the grease that had been used (copper and multipurpose) has caused the Delrin bushes to swell or the bushes weren't reamed during the original install. I bought an adjustable reamer capable of going up to the required 43.3 ish mm and had a crack at reaming the bushes out last night. Apart from the reamer 'biting' into the bushes a bit it was a success and now all four trailing arms move smoothly within the beam needed only a little force to get them to move.

A bit of reamage



Now, just time to bolt all back together again. I've bought some 'red grease' after some help from the tech forum as this doesn't react with rubber/nylon like petroleum based greases do. Hopefully this will help keep things smooth and wont make the bushes swell.

 

[le catweasel]

Very nice bus 8)

Im not far from stafford either, in market drayton

 

[Grazy]

Good work man , Love this bus

 

[markevo30]

Very nice bus 8)

Im not far from stafford either, in market drayton

Thanks

Yeah, not far at all. We were camping in your neck of the woods a few weeks ago at The Wharf Tavern. Nice spot. Did a bit of fishin' on the cut too.

 

[markevo30]

Good work man , Love this bus

Cheers, Just trying to get the oily bits sorted before I can start on the bits you can actually see 8)

 

[StuF]

Awesome bus and great work going on with getting your hands dirty!
You will have it sorted in no time I am sure Very 8) 8)

 

[markevo30]

Awesome bus and great work going on with getting your hands dirty!
You will have it sorted in no time I am sure Very 8) 8)

Thanks Stu. Getting your hands dirty is all part of the fun. I think.

Need to get it sorted as the summer is slipping by............... 8)

 

[le catweasel]

Very nice bus 8)

Im not far from stafford either, in market drayton

Thanks

Yeah, not far at all. We were camping in your neck of the woods a few weeks ago at The Wharf Tavern. Nice spot. Did a bit of fishin' on the cut too.

Yeah its a nice place there 8)

If youre ever stuck id be happy to lend a hand

 

[markevo30]

Very nice bus 8)

Im not far from stafford either, in market drayton

Thanks

Yeah, not far at all. We were camping in your neck of the woods a few weeks ago at The Wharf Tavern. Nice spot. Did a bit of fishin' on the cut too.

Yeah its a nice place there 8)

If youre ever stuck id be happy to lend a hand

Thanks for the offer of help, you may live to regret it though!

I had a sneaky peak :msn4: at your thread, cool bus, love the colour.

 

[le catweasel]

Cheers dude though it needs a bit of love at the moment :lol:

Helps not an issue if i can anyway haha just pm me on here

 

[markevo30]

Well i got the beam rebuilt and put back on and now i have front suspension!!! arty0003:

Quite chuffed with the result, it'll never ride like a Rolls Royce but it's loads better.

After getting covered in my oily hand prints i treated her to a bubble bath.





Whilst on a bit of a roll i've moved onto upgrading the split charge system in readiness for the arrival of a solar panel. I'm also including a couple of 12v outlets, a dual USB point and a voltmeter for the leisure battery. Nothing from the leisure battery is fused at the moment so i'm addressing that too.



Current arrangement





New bits and bobs (and dodgy circuit diagram!)




I'm off to Bala camping on Friday so i'm hoping to get it all done by then. Three days to go....

 

[lemur]

Lovely bus dude
and great work you're doing there, I've just used that same relay myself, good bit of kit too..
link to my effort :msn4: =
http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58865&start=120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

enjoy your weekend way!

Liam

 

[markevo30]

Lovely bus dude
and great work you're doing there, I've just used that same relay myself, good bit of kit too..
link to my effort :msn4: =
http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58865&start=120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

enjoy your weekend way!

Liam

Thanks Liam,

I've just looked at your link, bloody hell that's a clean engine bay! Nice quality install too.

 

[markevo30]

I managed to get the new electrical install in with a day to spare before my weekend away.

The panel i knocked up for the engine bay has got the new split charge relay, a 12V outlet and an 8 way fuse board which supplies the stereo, interior lighting, 12V engine bay socket, an inverter and also the new panel mounted in the cupboard. The cupboard panel has another 12V socket, 2 usb charging outlets and a DVM monitoring the leisure battery voltage.

Engine bay panel under construction



Engine bay panel installed



Interior panel













And this has arrived. 100W Bosch jobbie



Should get a good test this weekend, i'll report back on how it performs. As long as i've got cold beer all weekend i'll be happy.

 

[leon]

Nice work.
Saw your bus at camper jam, but missed meeting you. Rain stopped play. :roll:

 

[lemur]

Tidy looking install! like the detail in the covered panel

Also can you post a link to that funky tent/awning in your first pic?, likey!

Cheers,
Liam.