Ten thousand tiny jobs are needed and arising on the van pre-camper build. Fortunately the camper-build component was already relegated 'till after March, but despite that, I'm barely going to squeeze in all the tiny repairs.
This destroyed wire is for the glow plugs. Supposedly it's a fusible link (which I discovered after repairs), and nobody can give a clear explanation as to why it exists. Everyone's van appears to work fine without... Apparently everyone's is blown!
I doubled-down on some 20amp house wire to replace the corroded glow wire. I ended up having to use Jana's tiny lpg torch to get enough heat in there to solder it on. That heavy terminal wire wasn't going to warm up.
The thermostat housing overflow return stem broke off. Plastic of course. The housing contains embedded springs and mechanisms, not just the thermostat. It's an overly-complicated under-engineered part that cost me too much money. Had to import an after market part from the U.K because Transit's aren't really a thing here in Australia, and vans don't end up at wreckers like regular cars. Buying parts from Ford is restricted to Doctors and Lawyers, nobody else can afford it.
The Exhaust Gas Return vacuum solenoid is physically broken. Its true function is not entirely clear as the EGR can operate without it. In theory it allows the EGR valve spring to actuate, however this is more of a theoretical dream than a reality. The pressure from the exhaust against the EGR valve spring is VASTLY more than the tiny vacuum actuator arm could ever hope to limit or control. If it were a hydraulic or geared actuator then perhaps it would be functional, however a tiny air-filled diaphragm on the EGR doesn't really cut it... Stranger still, being a solenoid implies full open/closed actuation, so who knows what the intent was.
Pixie is a constant helper, and likes to remind me that I haven't dealt with the rust on the drivers floor yet.
The plug for the Airflow Sensor (MAF) has been repaired before, but not well enough. The wires are barely maintaining continuity. I had to work right on the edge of the remaining usable wire to re-solder this.
There's lots of spot-rust from being an old vehicle that's done lots of work. I am torn between spot-paint and roller-brushing the whole vehicle. Being cheap, I chose to spot-paint. It'll have visible paint-patches here and there, but cost me a few hundred dollars less.
I stripped to bare metal and rust-treated the problem spots.
The new paint is visible in real life, but overall isn't nearly as eye-catching as the large rust blemishes.
There are about six or seven spots on the van that need rust and paint attention like this. I'm almost done, and overall the van does look better. I'll polish the tape-edges back after the paint has had time to cure in a week or so.
This particular spot is underneath some trim at the edge of the windscreen so nobody will ever see it. There's another spot above the windscreen that I've had to epoxy-fill because the panel was in bad shape due to rust. I've filled (file with a tool!) it back since, and it'll get some paint in the next few days.
Enough parts arrived in the mail that I could start the van again. I've re-positioned it in the yard 90 degrees.
It's much nicer to work on when approaching from the workshop in this position, and gives me a larger workspace in the basketball court again. It did take me about thirty shuffles back and forth to turn it though!!! There's barely over a meter space at the end of the vehicle. Getting it up against the fence took many many many tiny "drives".
