AstraVan clonk from nearside?

Anti-roll bar bushes/droplinks, bottom balljoint, wishbone bushes, strut top mounts?

broken a/r link is the most likely/common

Just fitted a new pair of drop links and no difference. However I went for a longer test drive round the country lanes and noticed the steering wallows about quite a lot. Seems to want extra turning of the wheel to get round sharp bends and going over rough ground it feels like the nearside wheel wanting to pull into the kerb. Does this sound more like a bottom ball joint - although I can't feel play when jacked up, but I'll have another look.

bottom ball joint is not common on those, but quite possible, levering may be needed to show play. If you disconnect the bottom ball joint then it is often easier to feel the play directly at the pin, as the supension can often hold the balljoint in tension which masks the play.

vauxhalls can have serious rust problems where the rack attaches to the body. The body work then cracks and movement starts, get an assistant to yank the steering around while you watch under the bonnet for odd movements

It's cunningly hidden behind the sound damping so the 1st indication ois when the rack starts moving.

Ok cheers I'll have a look at the rack tomorrow. I've tried levering the ball joint and had it jacked in various positions to ease pressure off the joint but I can't find any movement in the ball joint. And no matter what I do when it's stationery I can't replicate the clonk noise. When driving I also noticed that if I put full right hand lock on, it feels like it wants to push the wheel and carry straight on instead of turning!

Did you reset the tracking after changing the track rod ends?

This sounds like it could be a problem with the diff?!

Tim..

Finaly cracked it. I'm kicking myself for not spotting it earlier but it was one of the wishbone rubber mounts that had worn. Fitted a new one (which included a new ball joint) but now the fekking van refuses to start. There's definitely diesel in the tank but undoing the injector pipes and there's no diesel coming through. It's always started first turn of the key, even after sitting unused for 2 years!!

is the shut off valve clicking as it should? has the cam belt snapped?

cambelts ok but the only click I can hear is from one of the relays located near the battery when ign is turned on. I got someone turning on & off ign while I had a good listen all around but can't hear any other clicks or noises from anywhere else. I'm guessing the shut off valve is the one mounted on top of the fuel filter with the 2 main fuel pipes bolted on. There is a two wire connector plugged into it and they look fairly thick gauge wires to carry heavy current but using a DVM there is no voltage showing when the ign is on or while it was cranking. Also checked fuses and are ok.

that sounds more like a fuel heater. the fuel cut off solenoid is generally (always afaik) on the injection pump itself, generally tubular about an inch and a bit long, three quarters across with a single wire going to the end

It is.

If that's got voltage OPen one of the injector unions, spray a bit of easystart in the air filter & spin it over, the easistart should spin it fast enough to prime the pump.

Thanks guys, Took the airbox off for better access. I can see a multiplug with 3 wires that connect to a small black plastic box on the side of the pump. The middle wire has voltage with ign on. The only other wire I can see going to the pump is a fairly thick single wire but I think this is an earth cable as it fastens around a nut.

I removed an injection pipe and with the airbox removed I squirted easystart into the inlet and it started. Had it running for about half a minute on the easystart but still no fuel came out the pipe. Really got me stumped as it was running perfect prior to fitting the new wishbone. It's not as though I could have disturbed something as there's nothing to disturb in that area.

Check the lift pump is delivering fuel to the pump when the ignitions on, otherwise it sounds like the fuel cut off solenoid has stuck & needs removing/replacing.

Lift pump is built into the injection pump. The fuel cut-off solenoid is located underneath the security sheild on the back of the pump. If you look at where the 4 injector pipes go onto it, the solenoid valve sits vertically just in front of them (in injection pump terms, the front of the pump is the sprocket/pulley end). The security sheild covers it, and is usally held on with shear bolts.

Ok thanks, Looks a bit awkward to get at things in situ so I think the best thing will be to remove the pump complete and see if there's someone local who can test it. Is it straight forward removing the pump and does it come away from the pulley without needing to remove the cam sprocket or disturb the timing belt? cheers.

Can you see if the solenoid is puliing any current 1st?

Will check the current tomorrow when I get hold of a decent DMM as I blew that function on mine after connecting it across battery terminals and forgetting to switch it from the amp setting! The 3 wires going into the pump; one is earth, the middle shows battery voltage and the other shows fluctuating voltage. (When the immobiliser LED is flashing there is no voltage going to the pump).

To check if it was getting fuel from the tank I filled a bottle with diesel and placed the pump feed pipe into it and spinning the engine over it sucked fuel from the bottle but none got to the injector pipes. I guess is was pumping it back to the tank through the return pipe. So at least we know it's actually sucking fuel into the pump but not squirting it to the injectors! Do you think this is sounding like the a problem with the shut-off solenoid?