Knocking noise ......

Since we've had Nina, there has been a knocking noise coming from the passenger side front. As she has been through two MOTs and neither had thrown anything dangerous up in that area, I wasn't overly worried. That was until we went to Devon. As we drove through Tanyas estate, the knocking sounded worse than ever. I even had a good look underneath to make sure nothing was falling off !

The knocking was consistent with a worn driveshaft, a problem we had once before with our small Ambulance. I had been looking at driveshafts on eBay for a couple of weeks, and had contacted one seller about a used one that was being sold via a breakers. It was from a similar aged Vauxhall Movano, with the same body and engine, so would have been exactly the same. It was advertised for £35 plus £12 postage but had a Best Offer too. I offered £30 and that was accepted, so with postage it cost me £42. To buy a new one where I would have to exchange my old driveshaft, so that it could be reconditioned and sold again, was £119.99 plus VAT, so a lot more.

I could have done this myself, but I really don't have a love for mechanics anymore, despite being a mechanic for around 5 years, so I gave the job to Jon and Malcolm at Bedford Street Motors. Whilst they had Nina, I asked them to fit the Brake Valve Compensator that I had removed from one of the vans in Trowbridge. To do this they had to make a bracket for the valve and weld it to the chassis just forward of the rear axle.


This is the valve and linkage (unit with spring middle right, and rod to bottom left bolted to axle) just before I removed it from the Trowbridge van....


And this is the same valve and linkage fitted to Nina with the newly fashioned bracket welded to the right side chassis. It's also had a clean up and a coat of protecting paint against rust.

I hadn't thought the driveshaft had cured the problem during the drive from town to home, I could swear that I felt it knocking still, but driving it since, I think it is cured, and what I was hearing was something else :S.

The new brake compensator valve works just fine, as it was before with the quick fix, the reason I wanted it done was so that next year, it wouldn't be a problem on the MOT again, and I also wanted it put back to original as much as possible.

So all in all it was a good visit to the boys at Bedford Street, and a couple of jobs less to be done :).

She's getting there !


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Location:Devon / Gloucester