Bongo Fury

just when you think your in the clear and running fine something goes wrong again iam at my wits end the problem is ....start up fine .....move off fine... give it some gas and nothing no power just black smoke ......i thought it could be a clogged fuel filter ....i cleaned the strainer (banjo) new fuel filter this morning and initially i thought it picked up better... but then reverted to a crawl and black smoke recently(a week ago) blanked the egr .......checked the atf it may be lowish and its not red as advised tis a light brown thinking about it it does feel like im revving in neutral? thats the only way i can explain the lack of power.......its an auto btw .....could it be the gearbox????? iam fearing the worse ...whatever that is any help advise greatly received

Sounds like a lack of air to the engine. Check your air filter, and that the ducting under the bonnet is clear..

cheers franco ...yeah have checked the ducting under bonnet nothing obvious there.....air filters like 4months old ....had it out and back in ...nowt wrong there ..maybe there is an oibstuction further down the ducting???? am really scratching my head here

Have you tried running it with the air filter and cover removed? - that should let you know if the ducting is blocked.

aaah good idea john....take out the air filter and start her up right / or actually drive her without ?

Good idea franco I checked the airfilter the other day, collected quite a collection of insects, sadly not them bl**dy midges that take delight in biting me

flippa wrote:aaah good idea john....take out the air filter and start her up right / or actually drive her without ?

Yeah, but not too far - don't want to suck loads of c**p into it

poor midges pete cheers john will give it ago early morn when its only me and the milkman

Just had another thought - if you've got the winterised version, with two starter batteries, there may be a valve in your exhaust. This is operated by a switch, to the right of the steering wheel, with a picture of an engine on it. If this has been pushed, it will give symptoms similar to what you describe.

john you are a genius you have just describ ed excactly what i have done .....i have the two batteries with the button on the dash ...the other morning i had a bit of a splutter on start up (veg oil) and stupidly thought what if i press this first get it heated up anyway it started up fine and lo and behold i forgot to depress the button yesterday whilst sitting in the bongo scratching my head i noticed the button still on and duly switched it off what dya think i have done (damage)

mmm interesting john....done a search on this and found a member who had similar problem....baffle valve in the exhaust jammed in the closed position.....looks like i have to find this valve and try and force it open
dear oh dear why did i press that switch

flippa wrote: dear oh dear why did i press that switch

I don't think you'll have done any harm to your beloved.
I have the twin battery set-up but, fortunately, my button doesn't seem to do anything
I'm afraid I have no idea where the valve is although I'm pretty sure there was a picture in a previous thread on the subject. If you've turned the switch off, there's always the hope that it will vibrate it's way open again.
Good luck - at least it looks as if your problem is nothing blowing up in your engine and won't cost a fortune to fix:D

massive thanks francopfile(john) for pointing me in the right direction....like i said i had pressed this switch and found another thread on the subject( member name of saw) who had excatly the same symtoms .....i found the said exhaust valve on the parts finder ....and went out and had a look earlier......there are two 10mm nuts top and bottom undo these ...will reveal the gubbins inside....scratching my head at what to do next i just started to fiddle with it and it started to move so i moved it the whole way ....put trhe cover back on and hey presto i got my van back .... it got rid of a bit of black smoke but once it cleared its throat picked up super and i think its fixed again .......its such a simple job to do i can,t beleive it.....i,m really chuffed john thanks again saved me a few quid in garage bills no doubt just goes to show the power of this forum THANKS JOHN

Well done franco+++ - you played a blinder there mate. Thats one happy dolphin back in his Bongo
Tell you what though, you find some strange pics on google images