
Re: Belgian built 1969 AK350 'Hetty'
Having had an extremely comfortable night in the van I realised two things. Firstly, in the morning it was extremely bright. Secondly, in the evening it was extremely dark.
Mummy Fieldhouse, buoyed by the success of the mattresses, kindly made some curtains



There'll be one to cover the windscreen too I believe.
I meanwhile sorted some lights. I found a constant live wire in the back that is clearly meant for an interior light so will use that as the feed. I've mounted some (ex 240v) halogen spots on the rear woodwork that supports the cupboards at the back.

These have been converted to 12V and I've ordered LED cluster bulbs to save power.
I'm rather pleased with the implementation of these lights. I've mounted them onto a hinge, which I recessed into the mount using a belt sander. If you've never used a belt sander BUY ONE they're so useful and so much fun!
The hinge allows the lights to flip down. They're held in place with a catch.

This means that they can either light the cabin, or when dining behind the van, flip down to illuminate outside.

Onto problems!
I've stopped the oil leaking from the gasket between the crank case and the oil filler, but its still flicking up over the right hand side from somewhere, although I'm hoping this is just 'left overs.'
Apart from the fact the drivers door handle fell off last night, and since being re-connected refuses to lock, the main issue was high beam just not working (it did last week!).
It was pointed out to me that this could be caused by over charging. So I duly checked the charge rate - which turned out to be 16v when revving!!!
I tried 2 voltage regulators but neither made a difference. After a few calls to Daras Rich I installed an olde style curly wire twin terminal voltage regulator (the type that you can adjust). This worked a treat and we 'tuned' it down so when revving it's now charging at 14v - much safer!

Incidentally it turns out the alternator is a very rare type unique to 350s only fitted between '66 and '67 so I'm glad its not at fault!
After changing (and testing) the light bulbs high beam still didnt work, but a little fiddling with connectors in the headlight loom and...

... it quite literally came off in my hand
So out with the crimps and electrical tape. Ideally it need a new headlamp loom.

The trials and tribulations of an old 2cv!