VW Type 2 Devon Camper Van Devon conversion specific Technical Items

Rebuild Devon sink unit

Rebuild the sink unit - the covers to the sink and the water container were hanging on by a couple of screws, victims of damp and old age. To get at the hinges, I had to take the sink out.

I built up a coffer dam of masking tape around the edge of the cover where the screws went and soaked it in epoxy resin. This both reinforces the chipboard which has a thick melamine coating on both sides, and also stops any more water soaking in in future.
I filled the old screw holes with plugs of softwood and when the epoxy had cured, I refitted the hinges with new screws. While I was there, I had a look behind the sink unit which is held in with two screws and gravity. I found the end of a wire and realised this was the missing power for the sink water pump which had just a couple of hanging wires. I rewired the pump after checking its DC resistance was less than infinity and more than a short circuit - in other words probably functional.

Power to sink water pump

I decided to resolve the problem that no power came out of the wire to the sink unit . I traced it by colour back to behind the fuse box behind the dashboard and checked it for continuity - it was good. I then found it went off to a core of a two core cable which ended up behind a switch on the dashboard with a spade connector with nothing connected to it. I realised then that the fact that the screen wash switch had a picture of a tap on it was a clue -it was a retro-fit electric conversion and they had borrowed the domestic water pump switch for the electric screen wash pump. Confusion resolved.

For now , I have wired the power to the pump so it is always live via a little push switch on the back side of the sink unit. Not too good. I think I will convert the little water valve in the windscreen wiper switch to a microswitch with a pin poking in where the actuating pin on the valve went, to power the screen wash, and revert the switch on the dash to being a pump supply on/off switch.

So we now have electric pumped water.

Pop Top leaks

Apart from the usual holes in the old concertina fabric, I noticed the pop-top didnt stay down. The catches kept popping and the rain would tend to get back under the edges of the lid. I decided to fix it