I hope this is in the right place. Ford Transit Vans are equipment after all aren't they?
Has anyone got or had a Ford Transit Diesel 2.5 litre engine? Have you fiddled about with one? It's driving me nuts.
A week ago I fired it up no bother at work and drove home, but stopping first at Tesco for some juice. I put 20 quid in, about 4 gallons, definitely of diesel, no question of that. I've still got the receipt, and have since had fuel pipes loosened and smelled and felt and yes - eventually tasted what's in the system. It's diesel no question. Derv, Heavy Oil, horrible stuff.
Leaving Tesco no problem I proceeded the qtr mile to home. As I approached the main street in town and giving way at the War Memorial junction, I went to brake and found the brake pedal solid at the top! Strength of ten men needed on the pedal, and tiny amount of brake effort at the wheels - I could sense that. Luckily I was only going 10 or 15 mph and the handbrake is a cracker, so I stopped no problem. A bit hairy like but I coped. Trundled home slowly, continually testing the brake but with no change. I'd already determined by the time I got home that the brake-vacuum-servo unit must have failed, more likely the vacuum pipe split or loose. Never known a servo failure in 25 years, never seen a pipe split either, they aren't a stressed component really. Anyway, cos it was dark, I parked up and left it till the morning. Engine ran fine all the way home, only problem was the brakes.
In the morn, I popped the bonnet and traced the vacuum pipe (back to the inlet manifold I thought) and found myself at a vacuum-pump unit. New one on me, the servo pipe always goes to the manifold in my experience. Anyway, this vacuum-pump is bolted to the back of the alternator and driven by an extension of the alternator shaft. Immediately I notice that there's no belt (fan belt) on the alternator pulley. So the alternator isn't being driven, so the vacuum unit isn't driven, so there's no vacuum at the servo main unit. So the brakes all but fail. So - Eureka - the fan belt's snapped, is all. Further quick check - yes, no belt on the water-pump pulley or the fan pulley. No belt anywhere, it's obviously somewhere between home and Tesco, chewed up on the road.
How daft is this though? - if your fan-belt snaps on a Tranny - your brakes fail. :shock: Your alternator or dynamo (remember them?) doesn't turn, so no charge to the battery - annoying. Your water pump doesn't turn so the cooling system fails and much more than a few miles can be fatal to the engine. More than annoying. This I haven't done. I have NOT cooked the engine, I did 1/4 mile at most, and everything ran fine. The Temp gauge works and was ok. No steam or creaking & cracking from under the bonnet. The fan stops turning too, possibly adding to the cooling problem, so again annoying. But your brakes failing - outright dangerous. What are they thinking of?
Never mind, I got a new fan-belt and fitted it, tensioned ok on the adjustor. Jumps in and turns it over and it wouldn't fire. Perservered till the battery ran down. Damn. Off comes the battery and goes on charge and I forget the van all weekend, and use the car. Freezing cold anyway so conveniently no chance of going digging on the plot, so don't need the van anyway.
Monday morning I puts the battery back on and had the engine spinning over like hell, eventually supplemented by jump leads off the running car engine. Diesel is at the injector pipes and it will not fire. I was a bit naughty eventually and had the air intake pipe off the manifold and gave it a squirt of Laughing Gas (Easy Start). Starts immediately off the laughing gas and instantly dies. I've had pipes off at the primary diesel pump bolted to the side of the block - fuel is there. I've had pipes off at the fuel filter cartridge - fuel is there. I've loosened the injector pipes at the cyl head and fuel is spurting out there. There's half a tankful of juice in the vehicle.
Yesterday in despair I bought a new fuel filter despite the one fitted only being about 3 months old. Fitted the filter ok, no leaks. Back on with a yet again revitalised battery, jump leads and car standing by, and had the thing cranking over again at speed with fuel at the end of the injector pipes as they go into the cyl head. No way will it fire.
I've checked and they are a self-bleed system. There is no hand-operated lift-pump anywhere. There is no bleed screw at the injector pump or anywhere else. Still, I've had injector pipes at the head loosened and there's diesel spurting out, so any air should be purged by now. I've tried with all the injector pipes tight, with one, 2, or 3 loose, I've tried everything.
It's driving me bananas. I've stunk of diesel now for days, I can taste it cos it's somehow made its way into every coffee cup (as it does) and it won't be long afore the bed and all the covers smell of diesel too, it has that insidious way of invading your whole life.
Who's out there who can advise me? It's summat or nothing or it's mega-serious. All I can think is that the fuel pump timing is lost (but how, and the toothed drive belt for that is still on, there's an inspection cutaway of the plastic cover at 6 o'clock by the crankshaft pulley). Or I've lost compression altogether, but that's unlikely and it would still at least try to fire or cough and splutter, or run on 3 pots. It won't even cough or vaguely try to fire. The only other thing is injector pressure right down. Again, I can't see that. The last time it ran, it started and ran perfectly and all that has happened since is a snapped fan-belt, whereupon it was driven for qtr mile maximum.
Help.
