Bongo Fury

Me and my wife just bought our first Bongo ( it was parked round the corner on Saturday with a 4 sale sign) made the dreaded call, discussed the price (which to my amazement my wife agreed ) and bingo the bongo is now ours. Now the short lived honeymoon is over ! The charming young lady who sold it to us has had it for 5 years and driven about 50k miles with I think very little or no servicing . No cambelt change and now I find out amounst other things the fuel guage dont work. I think however the new arrival is amazing, my wife loves it and my daughter has just commandeered it for some festival's so basically I'm happy and if a plonker is the price payable then so be it ! Anyway Ive got to change the cambelt and get the fuel guauge working first. ( Its a 4 wd 2.6 diesel 1998 )Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

Bongo13 welcome, fuel gauge should be an easy fix see link and cam belt not much problem if you can swing a spanner

plenty on this site just use the search top right

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 6&start=15

Welcome to the madhouse Have a read of this http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=29471 - local help is often available and we can then recommend local garages
Loads on here about the fuel gauge - just have a search and you'll be reading for hours It's usually just a bad earth wire on the fuel tank.

Welcome to the fold Bongo13.

As Max says, fuel guage is a fairly common complaint/easy fix.

Workshop manuals are available from club shop via the Members area on THIS LINK

Welcome to the forum, factsheets in the members area for both those jobs, the manual won't tell you how to fix the fuel gauge for free - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=33920

Did my fuel gauge last weekend and apart from the (very minor) trauma of lifting the carpet and getting back snug under the panel trims afterwards, it was a cinch to do. Personally I'd let a Bongo specialist do the cambelt unless you are used to that kind of thing. And get a new tensioner fitted as well as a new belt. Its not that bad on labour charges for a garage that knows Bongos.

Put your rough location in your profile so we can advise who may be nearby.

Oh and welcome - nothing nuts about buying a Bongo but best to see them as a pet that likes a little love, attention and money invested in looking after it properly. Fit a low coolant alarm if it doesn't have one - essential for peace of mind. And happy Bongoing

Cambelts arent particularly difficult on these vehicles, its gettin to them thats the pain! the fuel guage is a simple fix, lay under drivers side,just behind drivers door,you'l see the bank above your head, there is a large 'lip' that runs around the tank from the 2 halves being joind, simply drill/screw a connection into the lip and fix the other end to the body work,i use the 10mm that holds piping etc takes 5 mins to do.
Julian

thanks very much to everyone for the knowledge/advice on the fuel guauge. havent attempted it yet but with all i'm sure with all the info given there wont be a problem. With reference to the cambelt change it might sound stupid but I need to start right at the beginning i.e. how do I get to the front of the engine to access the cambelt cover and ultimately the cambelt ? I,m guessing after tipping back the seats I then unbolt the center van panel which sits above the cylinder head and then I'm also guessing that there will be enough room for me to get round to the front of the engine from there ! Like i said I've only had the van a couple of days and out of that Ive probably only been able to spend a couple of hours looking at it. I have searched the site but somehow I havn't been able to access the cambelt info and everytime I click on what I think is going to be the factsheet the site wont let me in because its saying I got the wrong user name/password and then eventually shuts me down, so any basic, basic help on this one would be great. I wont have a problem with changing the actual belt its just getting at it or am I totally barking up the wrong tree ?

321Away wrote:Cambelts arent particularly difficult on these vehicles, its gettin to them thats the pain! the fuel guage is a simple fix, lay under drivers side,just behind drivers door,you'l see the bank above your head, there is a large 'lip' that runs around the tank from the 2 halves being joind, simply drill/screw a connection into the lip and fix the other end to the body work,i use the 10mm that holds piping etc takes 5 mins to do.
Julian

Unless you are happy you will leave everything aligned correctly, cambelt change - for reasons given by 321 - shoud not be too heavy on labour, and they will be familiar with the job. There's a factsheet i nthe members area if you want ot DIY it.

Interesting take on fixing the fuel gauge earth - not heard of it being done that way before. The factsheet, and all tales on here, involved lifting the carpet and doing it that way. I preferred doing it that way as I could then run a fresh earth wire from the sender contact itself to the floor pan, just in case the electrical connection between connector block and sender unit was dodgy etc. Have I misunderstood how it all works, or do I just not understand how your method works Paul? Either way, fuel gauge seems to work great now and carpet went back OK with a bit of effort. Your method would be v. uiseful for those with conversions obstructing things though

Second time I've heard of the "earth the tank method", as you say Mike useful for those with a conversion unable to lift the floor, & it does work if it's the earth.

Just made an earth link underneath from the tank to the chasis (no need to drill the tank as there are various holes around the perimiter where the 2 halves join just do a little scraping to enable good connection) as you say about 10 min and presto the gauge is reading okay. Thanks 4 that , what a simple idea !

Still need some really basic info on how do I get proper access to the cambelt cover ?

As I said above, factsheet in the members area on changing the cambelt, only about £13 a year to join if you haven't already.

mikeonb4c wrote:

321Away wrote:Cambelts arent particularly difficult on these vehicles, its gettin to them thats the pain! the fuel guage is a simple fix, lay under drivers side,just behind drivers door,you'l see the bank above your head, there is a large 'lip' that runs around the tank from the 2 halves being joind, simply drill/screw a connection into the lip and fix the other end to the body work,i use the 10mm that holds piping etc takes 5 mins to do.
Julian

Unless you are happy you will leave everything aligned correctly, cambelt change - for reasons given by 321 - shoud not be too heavy on labour, and they will be familiar with the job. There's a factsheet i nthe members area if you want ot DIY it.

Interesting take on fixing the fuel gauge earth - not heard of it being done that way before. The factsheet, and all tales on here, involved lifting the carpet and doing it that way. I preferred doing it that way as I could then run a fresh earth wire from the sender contact itself to the floor pan, just in case the electrical connection between connector block and sender unit was dodgy etc. Have I misunderstood how it all works, or do I just not understand how your method works Paul? Either way, fuel gauge seems to work great now and carpet went back OK with a bit of effort. Your method would be v. uiseful for those with conversions obstructing things though

The fuel gauge thing makes sense to me! Making sure the tank has a solid earth to the chassis?

jaylee wrote:

mikeonb4c wrote:

321Away wrote:Cambelts arent particularly difficult on these vehicles, its gettin to them thats the pain! the fuel guage is a simple fix, lay under drivers side,just behind drivers door,you'l see the bank above your head, there is a large 'lip' that runs around the tank from the 2 halves being joind, simply drill/screw a connection into the lip and fix the other end to the body work,i use the 10mm that holds piping etc takes 5 mins to do.
Julian

Unless you are happy you will leave everything aligned correctly, cambelt change - for reasons given by 321 - shoud not be too heavy on labour, and they will be familiar with the job. There's a factsheet i nthe members area if you want ot DIY it.

Interesting take on fixing the fuel gauge earth - not heard of it being done that way before. The factsheet, and all tales on here, involved lifting the carpet and doing it that way. I preferred doing it that way as I could then run a fresh earth wire from the sender contact itself to the floor pan, just in case the electrical connection between connector block and sender unit was dodgy etc. Have I misunderstood how it all works, or do I just not understand how your method works Paul? Either way, fuel gauge seems to work great now and carpet went back OK with a bit of effort. Your method would be v. uiseful for those with conversions obstructing things though

The fuel gauge thing makes sense to me! Making sure the tank has a solid earth to the chassis?

The only problem is if the sender connector block is not making a good connection to the tank (which the factsheet seems to say can be the problem as that is how it starts the connection to vehicle earth). In that situation, I guess the underbody technique wouldn't help, unless I've misunderstood something. Anyhows, I now have a wire from the connector block to the chassis, which I hope will cover all eventualities.

mikeonb4c wrote:
The only problem is if the sender connector block is not making a good connection to the tank (which the factsheet seems to say can be the problem as that is how it starts the connection to vehicle earth). In that situation, I guess the underbody technique wouldn't help, unless I've misunderstood something. Anyhows, I now have a wire from the connector block to the chassis, which I hope will cover all eventualities.

It will! The general consensus is earth through the screws on the tank cover.. But what if the tank don't ground properly?? All you did was cut out the middle man... Unless i'm wrong about the tank!?