900 Autumn Miles in a 1975 Sherpa Autosleeper

Edinburgh-Egham(Surrey)-Chiddingfold(Surrey)-Edinburgh
Saturday-Sunday-Monday

Vehicle: 1975 Leyland (Sherpa) Autosleeper
Fuel Used: 120 ltrs
Distance driven: 960 Miles

Well, here was the mission: we would like you to be our son’s Godfather, you live in Edinburgh, we live in Egham, this is 3 weeks notice, England are playing the All Blacks at Twickers on the Saturday so every Kiwi pulling a pint and everything else in Edinburgh will be flying or training to London that weekend and therefore there aren’t any seats on any planes nor are there any on the trains and all the cheap tickets have gone. In addition, we know that you are not travelling to the south for work anymore so this trip will be out of your usual routine. We have no room at the inn and because we live near Heathrow there are no cheap rooms available.

Well, challenging indeed. How to get there and what to do when I got there – eureka! That is what a classic camper van is for. Now, a few of you might have read my threads in August when I collected the said vehicle and drove him (he’s called Horace) up to Scotland so it was with some trepidation that I set out on the journey.

The army have a saying – piss poor preparation = piss poor fuck up or something like that I forget. Anyway a quick trip to the motor factors – Pentland Auto Parts – 3 branches in Edinburgh huge stock – and I was delighted to be able to buy over the counter spare: sealed beam 7” Lucas Headlight, points, condenser, fan belt, rotor, dizzy cap all for the B series engine. I stocked the van with these parts, a feather king size duvet, arctic sleeping bag, pillows, an 800W halogen heater. Van filled and in pissing rain I was off, A702 via Biggar M74 Carlisle in 2 hours by 1900 I was at the M6 Toll. First signs something was amiss – the engine started to misfire under load – loss of power at the top end of the revs – I pushed on and the van struggled up the hills on the M40 dropping to 40mph in places – I also noticed that the van was running a bit hot. Nevertheless I pushed on and eventually got to Egham around 2100 9 hours after leaving Edinburgh..

Sunday morning before church I had a look at the van – sure enough, dizzy contacts were pretty pitted – I changed both. The rotor arm was in a bit of a state and looked like old/new stock. Messing with the dizzy on a Sherpa is a nightmare, the dizzy is towards the rear off side of the engine at the bottom of the block, angled in such a way as to make accessing the components very difficult as there is a bulkhead that gets in the way of all but the smallest screw drivers and grazes all but the smallest of knuckles. Then – guess what, I couldn’t get it started- anyway church and vows and lunch intervened and by 1500 I thought I had better call the AA out. Turned out of course that I had fitted the dizzy 180 degrees out – all was fixed and the van started no porbs – took her out for a spin and seemed to work no problem. So, 1800 I set off to drive the 30 miles to Chiddingfold. 3 miles into the journey and I knew something was amiss – pulling into the middle lane to negotiate the M25/M3 junction the van lost power under load again – and again I noticed it was running hot. I pulled over and due to the dangerous nature of the M25 I called the AA – they towed me to a garage near Heathrow where a contractor and I spent the next hour and a half changing the points and the condenser. Back on the road, the contrator was kind enough to follow me – just as well because by the M4/M25 junction the van lost power again – under load – driving up a hill. This time I noticed how hot the van was running and I also noticed that under load the fan belt was screeching away like billyoh! Anyway, this time I noticed a leak at the top of the radiator so we filled the van with water to the gunwales – let it cool down again and we were back in business – however, I noticed that every time the van hit a hill or I had to pus the revs up 2 things happened – the temp went up and the power dropped. My sister’s house at Chiddingfold has a serious hill on the huge drive (she’s married to a hedge fund manager) – it took 1st gear and full revs and choke to get the van up. It is probably worth pointing out that the 1.8 Sherpa has a hell of a lot of low end torque – you can rip tree stumps out with it – to lack this sort of torqu means something is up.

Anyway, it was by now pissing with rain – the Saturday storm was hitting Surrey big time. No room at their house – at the moment their house is a small barn conversion whilst the big house is gutted and rebuilt. So, after a carbonara and a bottle of claret I hooked up the mains power and settled down to have a kip. The Sherpa Autosleeper in 1975 came in 2 formats – you could have: 2 roller bunks in the roof and 2 bench seats facing each other which convert into a double bed. Or, you can have the roller bunks and 2 bench seats that convert into 2 forward facing seats and 2 single beds. Now I’m no stranger to pastry so the bunk beds are probably out – 80 kilos is the stated limit and although they could probably support me I decided not to test it out. So a single bed was the option. Halogen heater on, wooden pop top up, curtains drawn, sleeping bag in, duvet deployed land of not awaits – however, the storm had now taken hold and the wind howled and the rain came down – oh yes! Plastic roof, claret took effect but I moved the cushions onto the van floor to sleep before I went to sleep I did notice that the leisure battery was playing up – hardly any charge in it – odd as it charges off a split circuit off the alternator. A fitful nights sleep but eventually woke around 6 as those of us with young kids tend to you know- back to sleep and by about 0900 I thought I had better get up – still pissing with rain.

Coffee with my sister where she tried to talk me out of driving the van home and instead to catch the express train. Tempting indeed but us autoshitters don’t give up so easily! So at 1100 I hit the road. The poor performance under load is still causing issues so I pull into the service station on the A3 – the one just south of the M25, a bottle of Rad Weld and a fill up and an oil check and off I went into the storm. The van started to behave but there was still the power issue under load – 40 mph over the M40 Hills – I thought about the M6 summit of Shap and the even nastier M74 summit at Beattock with trepidation! By Channock Chase on the M6 Toll I was 160 miles into the journey and the van was still going. I filled up and noted the racket the timing belt was making as I pulled away. M6 delight followed stop start 40 mph – traffic jams, accidents – the storm persisted and I slogged up to Charnock Richard. I was by now exhausted- I had been on the road since 11 and it was now 1700. A top up and a KFC 3 bit meal, 2 x 30/500 Cocodamol and I felt a lot better (might be worth mentioning that due to an issue with my gall bladder and a rather long NHS waiting list I am effectively addicted to prescription painkillers – fortunately, the codine has no effect on my reactions so inured am I to it now and I have had my reactions verified by my insurance company). The hills awaited and sure enough the van had a hell of a time in the lakes getting over the mountains. I stopped at Tebay and checked the tyre pressures and topped up again. The van did get over the rest of the hills and I crossed the border at 2000hrs at this rate I would be home by 2200. The summit of Beattock loomed and 40mph – low power under revs we got there eventually through a snow blizzard. As I approached Abingdon and the turn off for the 702 the stereo stopped working, and then the components one by one started to fail the indicators, the wipers and finally the lights – Hamilton services on the M74 I pulled in and had a look – the battery was dead – yes a charge enough to keep the ignition going but no juice to crank the engine.

The AA were called again – 30 mins later a contractor turns up with a recovery vehicle – its now 2130 – I explained the problem and stressed that I didn’t want recovery – I also pointed out the fan belt squeak – we had a quick tinkle with the alternator and then had jumped the van – it burst into life (new battery afterall) we ran it on idle for 15 mins and I pulled off with a freshly charged battery. Then, within 8 miles the components die, one at a time, again – this time I am on the M8 – in a blizzard in the cold – an hour wait for the AA when another contractor turned up and we flat bedded the van the last 30 miles to Edinburgh. We dumped the van half a mile from my house as the flat bet would toil to get down my street. I got to bed at 0100 wondering why the hell I do these things.

Anyway, I had a long think about this – symptoms – lack of power under load, overheating under load, poor charge but only under load – fine round town. Fan belt this morning I jumped the van off the 240 and drove it round to my house – bonnet up – fan belt not very loose but I took it off to check it – the underside was very badly worn – missing teeth but even worse the V was less than 1/3rd what it should be. Even though the tension was ok at high revs the belt wasn’t gripping at all. I suspect that the route of all these issues has been the fan belt slipping at high revs – it explains the inefficient cooling – the water pump hasn’t been activating and the lack of power – overheating and the lack of charge – this only manifests itself after dark when you put the battery under load and also explains the lack of juice in the leisure battery which will only charge after the main battery reaches full charge.

A new fan belt is on now at the correct tension – we will see if this has solved the problem!