Bongo Fury

OK, I have a leisure battery and split charge circuit on my bongo but dont know what it powers?

I disconnected the main battery tonight to see what works, and nothing works, no lights, radio, roof or 12 volt sockets so what is my LB supposed to do ?

If your split charge kit is a Willinton kit and it's been patched in correctly it should power,electric blinds if you have them,front and rear cigarette lighters,stereo,interior lights.

Maybe a silly question, but did it all work before you disconnected? could be the LB is flat or a fuse/s gone?

Does your Bongo have a conversion? When I got mine the LB was only connected up to the sink (water pump) and coolbox - I have since connected up the interior lights and stereo, but will shortly be getting the Willinton kit to do the job properly.

No idea if its ever worked, only got the Bongo a couple of weeks ago and I am slowly going through it checking stuff.

The LB is charging fine but just doesnt appear to power anything in the van, upon closer inspection it appears to be just linked in tandem with the standard battery ?

I think I may just disconnect the LB completley and start again so I know whats what !

If it's linked in tandem, chances are it's a colder climate twin starter battery system, does yours have a switch with a pic of an engine on it by your right knee? It can be used as an LB if you modify the charging side & putsome fused outputs to power what you need - or just get the willinton kit to do the job - much simpler.
Did you get your temp gauge & coolant issues sorted ok?

Nope, no switch there, I think the simplest thing is to start again with the LB then I know whats what.

I poped over to Wheelquick on saturday so they could check the leaky hose (i had simply pushed it further onto the pipe and moved the clamp) he said that it was fine like that and to poss change it when Adrian does the service, He also suspects that there is no thermostat present and this is causing the temp gauge problem but is fine to use, just keep a close eye on the coolant level

Wheelquick also spent a good 30 mins looking over my bongo and said it looks to be in good shape with just a couple of minor patches needing welding at some point, I also bought a full size spare wheel rim from them and he only charged me £8 for the inspection and rim !! fantastic service !!

Just glad I live within a couple of miles of two Bongo specialists !

Which makes me wonder why there is no thermostat.......
Re the second battery, if it is connected with heavy gauge cabling basically in parallel & not powering anything independantly, I'd say it's a second starter battery, if you lift the passy seat & look underneath is there a load of gubbins on the exhaust like this? http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html - could be someone has disconnected/removed the operating switch as they tend to malfunction & cause runnnig issues.

Well here goes the reason from the guy I bought it from!!

The guy i bought it off had loads of problems with it overheating 12 months ago, he had the garage change the rad, some hoses and it still overheated, they then removed the thermostsat and it ran cool, all fixed he thought

He then sold it and it kept overheating again for the new owner so he took the bongo back from them and gave them their money back (not many private sellers that are like that)

He had it back in the garage again they found the head to be faulty and replaced it ( I suspect they either forgot to replace the thermostat or decided not to replace it due to previous problems) anyway this solved all the problems and he decided to sell again,to recoupe the cash he spent, which came to around £2000 in 12 months , I have bills to prove.

So my bongo now comes with new rad, new head, new alternator, new discs and pads all round, some welding done I got it at what I think to be a bargain price of £2500 with full MOT and Tax so even if any extreme work is needed I should still have a great bongo at a great price

I felt even better after Wheelquick had taken a look and now just need to get it fully serviced in a couple of weeks.

At least you know the history of its woes (did you find that out before you parted with your cash?) & got it for a decent price, needs looking at properly & getting a stat back in to run up to temp properly & address any issues that may be preventing that.

Yep, got the full lowdown on it before giving any cash over, but def agree with giving it a good service and sort out the stat with a bongo specialist, all being done in 2 weeks time

I am quite handy at most day to day car repairs but the coolant system on a bongo is very different from anything else I have owned i think i will give only give the coolent system a go at bleeding once I have seen it done !

If you'd have said all that at the start, would have been a lot easier to give you answers with your cooling system issues

oops ! I was just testing