Volkswagen Caravelle C T25 1985

[msabbasi]

Initially I was not planning to record my activities with the VW van here. This was mainly due to the new layout and format of Pakwheels DIY forum. I find it un-user friendly and cumbersome.

Anyhow I have now decided to give it a try and see how my experience will be. If it is a chore I will just stop or delete this thread.

So here we go. ..

What possessed me to get a Volkswagen van or minibus? Here we have to introduce my better half as she initiated this mad action. She is an artist by profession and paints landscapes. She had complained to me a few times that when she is out painting, random men come and surround her out of curiosity and provide unsolicited advice. To me this, though harmless, can be potentially dangerous. Up until a few years ago we had a Kia Spectra that we bought specifically for its large rear opening hatch and factory CNG. It was cheap to run and easily swallowed up my wife’s painting canvases, easel plus other art paraphernalia. That car served us for almost 200,000km. Eventually we had to let it go to serve another family.

In response to my wife’s problem I thought it would be better for her to be able to paint while in the security of her car rather than sit out in the open. I shared this idea with her and she suggested to buy an old VW van. So began the search for a suitable van. I travelled to Lahore and Karachi looking for one and finally found one right here in Islamabad. And to top it off, it has an Islamabad private registration. Though I was looking for a vintage bus, I settled for this relatively “new” T25 version (also called a T3). What attracted me to this particular van were two things: 1) it had factory a/c and 2) it was rust free. Now to the specs of this van; it is a 7 seater Transporter with a water cooled 1.9L engine mated to a 5 speed manual transmission. Sadly it is not the Syncro (all wheel drive) version. This limits it’s off road capabilities severely. Hence there is a limitation to the places my wife can go in the wilderness in search of that perfect spot to do a painting.

The T3 was in production from 1979 through to 2002 (South Africa). Some purists turn their nose up at this model. Frankly speaking I can see reason why. The older versions are much too charming by comparison. They had rounded lines making them appear cheerful, while this one is very angular and box like making it look mean and purposeful.

Here are a picture of it in as found condition:

Exterior: Although from a distance it looks nice in this picture but up close, the paint is cracked and pitted. The front grill is a Suzuki Bolan item artfully adapted to this van. The rear lights were from a VW Bay Window van cut and altered to suit. The rear view mirrors are also from a Suzuki Bolan. The back of the van seems to have been involved in an accident. Not too bad but enough to bend the rear chrome bumper and right rear quarter panel. All other panels had dents both small and large.

Interior: The interior was complete with the exception of seat belts and a few wrong trim items. Mainly it was very filthy. The headlining though original was badly stained and the overhead a/c unit was discoloured with missing a few vent grills. Instrumentation was not all working. Non working items include the oil pressure light, clock, speedometer, (After I got the speedo working I found the odometer also not working). Pictures to follow.

[farrukhzeeshan]

interior pics plz...

[nnabeel]

subscribed

[msabbasi]

Pictures of the interior. Some are of poor quality as I took these off a video I took of the interior. The light is very poor. Apologies.

Front

Center seat

Rear Seat

Luggage area card

Front door card somewhat warped due to water damage

Headlining and a/c evaporator. note the stains on the lining

History: Before I talk about the engine and gearbox condition, I have to talk about the van’s history. As I tell the history, the situation of the mechanicals will come to light. The registration book lists the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Recourses, Directorate of Renewable Energy as the first owner in 1996. It makes no sense that the Pak govt. imported a 11 year old van for its use, So my guess is that a team of foreign consultants was hired for some project or the other, they brought this van into Pakistan and upon their departure in1996 the Ministry took ownership of the van and hence it was registered in their name in 1996. Eventually the van was laid up in a yard and as with all obsolete govt. vehicles, this too ended up in an auction. It was bought by someone who tried to reactivate it and found that it was over heating and after much experimentation (I spoke to the mechanic who worked on it) sold it on the third owner. The third owner also tried to fix the overheating problem without much success. When I got in touch with him he was only too relieved to sell it to me. My guess is that the heating problem might have begun when the van was in the use of the Ministry which might have been the cause of laying it up.

The van would drive about 5-8 km when the temp needle would just shoot up into the red and the water could be heard boiling away. The third owner and the then mechanic working on it jointly drove the van from G-8 to my place in F-11. Sale agreement drawn up and money was exchanged. All taxes were paid up and all papers were in order. On the trip to my place the starter packed up and it became a push start van. So the van just sat there immovable for a few months as I got to grips with all the parts and work needed to get it going.

[msabbasi]

The plan was obviously to start with the starter problem. Once that got sorted, I’d drive the van and see what other problems were there in addition to the overheating. The starter was removed and tested. I thought that the starter solenoid was bad but it checked out fine. The problem was traced to inadequate voltage at the terminals of the starter solenoid. Battery voltage at the terminals was 12.5V while it was 10V at the solenoid. The battery is located in the engine bay and the power goes to the ignition switch and then back to the engine bay where the starter is. I believe that the switch is old and there is a voltage drop across it plus the wiring is old too. The solution to the problem was suggested by one of the old VW electricians. Provide a “helper” relay in the engine bay right next to the starter. That makes the power path from the battery to the starter relay very short. I sourced a suitable relay; an ABS relay is big enough to stand the high power that the starter needed to crank the engine without burning out.

The relay worked out just great and now the engine cranks very strong. But I find that the engine does not want to fire up easily. I drove the van about and sure enough the overheating problem was there along with the bad starting.

Engine: First on the list of things to do was obviously the engine. So before I could begin, I had to educate myself about the engine. This was done by getting the Haynes Workshop Manual, reading up on the van on the net and watching as many technical videos on YouTube.

As already mentioned, this is a water cooled engine. The motor sits in the back while the radiator is at the front. This means that there is a lot of quantity of water of coolant in the system – 15 litres. Also I learned that there was a special procedure to get all the air out of the system or it will get air locked and the circulation of water to the radiator and back will not happen. I wondered if this could be the reason for overheating. Over the next two days, I worked on getting the system properly filled by following the procedure laid down in the book. But unfortunately that did not work. I was able to go about 10km before it overheated.

I decided to investigate further. I pulled the pump, thermostat, Carburetor and distributor, air filter (as it is huge and takes up a lot of room in the engine bay).

Marked all connections to the carb before removal

Distributor had mangled cut wires with many joints from the magnetic pick up to the engine computer

All components out on the work bench (L to R: water pump/thermostat assy, carb,, starter and instrument binnacle

[msabbasi]

Carburetor: First we have to understand how the Pierburg carb 2E works in order to know that is wrong. The carburetor has and automatic choke. The design has a spring like bimetallic strip connected to the choke flap. When the engine is cold, the bimetallic spring has the choke closed. The bimetallic spring is located within a housing through which water from the engine passes. After the engine starts, the water in the engine begins to warm up also warming the bimetallic spring via circulation through the spring housing. As the bimetallic spring warms up it begins to open the choke. A stepped cam is located on throttle butterfly shaft which is influenced via a link connected to the choke. This mechanism allows the engine to run at fast idle during the warm up period. Blipping the throttle deactivates the fast idle feature. In addition to all this there is also two other items of note. There is an accelerator pump and a second barrel opens at more than half accelerator. The accelerator pump squirts fuel in the first barrel when the accelerator pedal is pumped. The second barrel opens to allow double the fuel air mixture in the engine at about 75% accelerator opening.

What I found was (a) The choke flap had been forced open. (b) The choke linkage was broken. (c) The accelerator pump was not working. (d) The diaphragm operating the second barrel butterfly was not working. That pretty much explains the poor starting in the cold and poor acceleration. I was able to get a carb rebuild kit from UK. The kit contained all the required o-rings, gaskets, pump diaphragm etc. for the proper functioning of the carb. For the broken choke (plastic) linkage, I was able to fabricate it from steel. In this way the carb functionality was returned to the way it was supposed to work. A replacement second barrel diaphragm returned the proper operation of the second barrel.

Water pump/thermostat assembly: Again here too we need to understand how this system works before knowing what is wrong. When the engine is cold, the thermostat is obviously closed. In this state certain water ports are open and certain ports are closed while certain ports are always open. The “always open” ports are (a) the flow to the carb bimetallic spring housing discussed earlier and (b) the cabin heater. In cold condition the ports that the thermostat valve keeps open allows the water to do what is called short circulation, i.e. circulation just within the engine block. When the water reaches 82 degrees, the thermostat opens and water is no longer allowed to do short circulation and directed to the radiator also obviously called long circulation.

What I found was that the mechanics in their attempt to “fix” the overheating problem, remove the thermostat and weld shut the short circulation port. Also I was informed by one of the mechanics who worked on this van that the pump had been found to have corroded impeller, and that it had been rebuilt with a Toyota impeller. I have to say that certainly the impeller job was well executed. But the port welding job basically ruined the pump. My plan was to restore all the original function of the carb/engine cooling system. So a new pump and thermostat was imported from UK. Oh BTW they also made the electric radiator cooling fan direct with ignition switch (another popular local overheating fix). Now with the Choke system operational, it is essential that the thermostat be working or the choke will remain "on" for longer than necessary. This is certainly not desirable at all.

Distributor: The distributor is of a breaker less design there is a magnetic pickup that sends a signal to the engine computer. Quite simple.

What I found was that the four wires had broken or got cut pretty close to the pickup element inside the distributor housing. Then on the way to the computer there were many joints in these four wires. At the computer end of these four wires there is a connector which looked pretty bad to me. I decided to replace the pickup assembly with a new one. There is a company in the UK that offers the pickup complete with base plate. This was imported and fitted. Hence now I can be assured that the spark will be reliable.

I reassembled all these parts back to see if there was any improvement.

There is mixed news to be reported. The starting issue is completely resolved. The car starts first time from dead cold, runs on fast idle till it warms up. While on the road the acceleration is quite good for a van. In fact I was very surprised that it just shoots ahead on pressing the accelerator. However the overheating problem became worse than before. Very disappointing. I felt very dejected that all my work on the cooling system has gone to waste. I was at my wits end and decided to let this be for the time being until I do more research to get to the bottom of the overheating issue.

In the mean time I decided to strip the van completely. It had to go for a full re-spray so the exterior and interior trim had to be removed. Also it was time to get busy with ordering new parts from overseas. Here are pictures of what happened next:

[msabbasi]

Exterior trim removal was pretty easy and straight forward. Van is being prepped for its visit to the paint shop

Interior was a bit of a challenge. Dash had to be removed to get to the cabin blower and more importantly the relays and wiring etc. More about that in the write up

The rear of the bus is a temporary parts storage area :). The explanation of what the bricks and jack is doing here will also be explained in the write up.

Front carpet before cleaning

Same carpet after cleaning. The white spots are where the brake fluid leaked on the carpet and bleached the color

[msabbasi]

In this time as I have been working on the van, I have been busy ordering required parts for the van. Here are just a few of them. The total ordered amount to some 120 various items big and small. Here are just a few.

Correct new grill for this model.

New rear bumper

Other misc. items that I ordered.

[msabbasi]

Gear Sift: While driving the van I noticed that the gear change was terrible. It was hard to find first and second gears. The problem was identified as worn linkage bushes. The gear lever is in the front of the van while the gear box is in the rear. A long rod supported with buses goes from the lever to the transmission transmitting the lever’s movement to the box. Any play in the rod bushes can cause difficulty in finding gears. The jack and bricks were used to raise and support the van while replaced the bushes of the rod.

In this picture the gear lever has been removed in order to replace the nylon ball joint at its base. Also there is a box at the base of the gear lever just below the van that has to have two guides within it replaced, Function of the guides is the ensure correct front and back movement of the gear lever

After fixing all new parts for the gear lever and linkage rod, the gear change is now totally transformed. I cannot stress enough how important it is to use correct parts for any project one undertakes. Sure it is expensive but the satisfaction of a properly working/looking project soon makes one forget the initial cost.

[msabbasi]

Overheating: As it can be noticed that I let the driver’s seat in place allowing me to drive the van about. While still trying to battle the overheating issue, I have been reading and researching the problem. I made some interesting observations a few days after I had taken the interior out. One day I drove the bus a short distance to the nearby market. On the way back I noticed that the temp was a bit high, I parked the van at home and thought I should check the water level to see if it had not dropped. Since the van was hot I decided not to open the radiator as it would be under pressure. I opted to leave the engine to cool off before opening the radiator. Next morning with the van stone cold I opened the radiator. I was expecting zero pressure but I was very surprised to observe that the cooling system was under high pressure and as soon as I opened the radiator cap water and gas gushed out. Interesting to note was that the gas that came out smelt like exhaust.

I immediately realized that the cooling system was being pressurized by the exhaust gasses and once there was enough gas in the cooling system it prevented water circulation similar to being air locked. Finding this out was a huge relief. At least now I knew what the problem was – leaking head gasket. I am surprised that none of the previous owners were able to trouble shoot this problem. Next thing I had to order was the engine rebuild kit that includes all the necessary seals, gaskets, o-rings and very special sealing compounds. There is a very special way that these engines are assembled. No short cuts are allowed.

For this job, the engine had to come out. I do not have the required jacks etc to pull the engine so I decided to entrust the “engine re-seal” job to the VW guru in Isloo/Pindi area, Mr. Khalid. Upon explaining the problem to Khalid, he initially did not believe me and asked me to let him do what he thought was the problem. I thought rather than arguing with him, better to let do what he wanted in the end he will arrive at the same conclusion I did. After a week of undoing all my work, removing thermostat, plugging the short circulation etc. etc. and getting nowhere, I asked him to listen to me and do what I wanted. He complied. At this time I replaced the rings and wrist pins. Liners and pistons were good. New oil and filer was added, after the engine went back in. We tested the engine and I am happy to report that the engine no longer overheats no matter how far the van is driven. Test trip was from Islamabad to Pindi and back. I hope the Mr. Khalid learned that customers sometime know a thing or two about engines.

I have to apologize that there are no pictures of the engine job because back then I was not planning to do this thread hence took none.

[hellodadyhi]

Subscribed.

[farrukhzeeshan]

Please share from where you sourced the parts, are they new, and geniune,

[omersiddiqui5482]

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[msabbasi]

Certainly. It is my pleasure. All parts are brand new. After all 1985 is not that old :). I will share the links of the stores I used to get the parts. 95% of the parts are from UK. a few from France and USA.

Stores list:

(UK) Just Kampers https://www.justkampers.com/
(UK) Brickwerks https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/
(UK) VW Heritage https://www.vwheritage.com/
(UK) Custom and Commercial https://www.customandcommercial.com/
(UK) AH Scofield https://www.alanhschofield.com/

(FRANCE) Mecatechnic https://www.mecatechnic.com/en-GB/

(USA) Go Westy https://www.gowesty.com/

It has to be said that these parts were not cheap. I had to pay not only the part price but also the postage and custom duty on the landed price.

[msabbasi]

On the subject of the engine I forgot to mention something very important. All owners of the water cooled flat four engine also called the "water boxer" have to be aware that in these engines ONLY and ONLY VW approved coolant MUST be used. No other is acceptable. The reason for this strict message is to counter a design flaw in the engine. This engine is the same air cooled one we all love and respect found in VW bugs etc. When USA started tightening emissions regulations, the old Air cooled engine could not comply so to improve the emissions from this engine it was decided to water cool the old air cooled one. A water jacket was cast around the engine liners and a water passage cast in the heads. In doing so 4 studs on each bank of cylinders are in contact with the coolant - these are the studs that hold the head in place. In all there are 16 studs, 8 on each cylinder bank. On my van, a few were broken and the previous mechanic had just used silicone and glued the nuts in place. So the heads were never properly torqued to the cylinder liners!! During the head opening process each and every stud immersed in coolant snapped off. After the heads were lifted I was shocked to see that the 10mm thick studs had rotted away to just 3-4mm in places. That is the result of using just water or wrong type of coolant. I can bet if the right coolant was used these studs would not have rotted away and the correct tension on the head would have been maintained and the overheating issue would never have happened.

This is one of the youtube videos I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIQmqVRx23M

From this video you can see the engine construction. Basically that is the job I did on the engine to reseal the it. Of course new studs and nuts were used on reassembly. A good friend loaned me his torque wrench to set the head bolts to the correct specs. Head bolts are tightened in three steps with a little wait period between each step.

Of course I have the correct coolant in the van now. BTW the coolant cost Rs. 15,000/-

[msabbasi]

Instrument panel: Earlier I had mentioned that not all the instruments were in working order. The problems were traced to a faulty circuit film that is provides power to the LEDs, lights etc. On my van the circuit film has become brittle and cracked in many places. I thought rather than try to repair it and end up with a component that will continue to give trouble from time to time I should go for an upgraded item. Picture below are of the circuit film and the upgraded circuit developed by Go Westy. Pictures taken from the net:

The blue circuit film is what comes from the factory. This is OK for European cool climate but here in our country it is subjected to immense heat when the van stands in the sun with closed windows. Years of such heat makes the film brittle and crack. Eventually the currant carrying pathways are broken and the film becomes useless

A very well engineered upgrade offered by Go Westy is a bit expensive but super good

Replacing the circuit board made the all the non working LEDs light up and also the instrument back lighting work.

The speedometer cable was replaced which made the needle show the speed but I found that the odometer was not working. The speedo was removed and the gear mechanism that registers kms extracted. I found that the problem was quite simple. The plastic main drive gear had slipped along the shaft and was no longer in contact with the other gear it was supposed to drive. I just pushed the gear back into it correct position and secured it with a drop of Elfy.

Next fix was the clock. This van has a VDO clock that was fitted to all German vehicles of the time. The good friend who loaned me his torque wrench happens to be a MB master mechanic advised me to first have look a the two capacitors in the clock before doing any thing else. So out came the two old capacitors which I replaced with new ones bought from a local electronics shop for Rs 20/- each. The clock now works and keeps excellent time. This was the cheapest repair of the entire project

[abdul_basit007]

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[TM]

Beautifully written and explained... to the extend I can feel and smell the things
Brought back memories of owning a VW Golf years ago - including a couple of visits to Khalid bhai's den and meeting interesting nutshell people in love with their VWs

@msabbasi! Would love to see your van someday... Good luck with the project and I hope it serves bhabi well.

[msabbasi]

Rear screen wiper/washer: The next fix was somewhat simple but it made me scratch my head a bit. The rear wiper/wash system. There is a washer fluid reservoir in the back of the van and it has a small water pump just as we have in our regular cars. BTW the front screen has its own reservoir located in the front of the bus. What I could not figure out was how the rear wiper worked. There is only one wiper stalk on the steering column. No matter what I did with the stalk I was able to operate just the front wipe/wash system. The stalk could be moved up/down and pulled or pushed. Pulling made the front screen washer work but pushing it did nothing. Could it be that pushing it operated the rear washer?

So I went about studying the wiring diagrams in the Manual, found no youtube vids and poked around in the relay panel/fuse box. After replacing a blown fuse, I got some success. On pushing the wiper stalk I could hear the rear washer pump. So I proceeded to fill the reservoir with water and operated the washer. Instead of seeing a spray on the rear screen, I was greeted by water pouring inside the van from the headlining!! I pulled back the headlining and found the plastic tube carrying the water to the rear screen passes behind the headlining and exits near the rear hatch hinge and ends up at the rear screen spray nozzle. Mice had been eating away at the washer tube. This was an easy fix. Now next question is how to get the rear wiper to work. A bit more of poking around made me find a relay sitting alone on the right side of the steering (all other relays are on the left side of the van behind the glove box). I found out that this is a very special relay, it has a small timer circuit plus a bunch of other stuff in it. see pic below.

This is the illusive rear wiper relay. It is VW relay No. 72

When the wiper stalk is pushed and held the washer pump works and the wiper works as long as the stalk is kept pushed. To get just the rear wiper to wipe one quick push/release of the stalk is needed for normal wipe. Another quick push/release puts it in the intermittent mode and the third quick push/release stops it. All these functions reside in the above relay. Pretty clever stuff i think. I was able to get a new relay from UK and that fixed the rear wiper function.

[msabbasi]

@TM Thank you for your visit to this thread. In'Sha Allah I am hoping that the van will be what it is intended to be. Khaild Sb. is a nice enough guy but is easily distracted from the work in hand. He is the only knowledgeable guy around for things VW. Other mechanics are cowboys by comparison.