Would offer to help but sadly I'm based in Bristol... Deffo agree that if you don't feel confident, then hold off. Nothing to do with these vans is more important than our health so props to you for keeping real on that one!
Thanks Joe and everybody. I've almost come round to working out how I can do this more safely. I did it last time with a combination of ramps, jacks and axle stands. I now have a much better jack and stands than before and have converted my old jack to something similar to a transmission jack by bolting a flat steel plate to it. I looked at a bike jack but it didn't seem much of an advantage. Key is to get lots of measurements beforehand and avoiding numerous tiny adjustments.
Interestingly I was doing some experiments with jacking up. Both front wheels had bricks back and front, but as I took the bus up with the jack on the left hand rear axle I realised that left hand front wheel (as well as the back) was in the air and the bricks were doing nothing on that side. Not only that but I could push down gently on the left front end and raise the back right wheel, so the bus was resting only on the jack and one wheel. It's all down to the weight of the engine. You can see how things might get out of hand.
Yes i had it on ramps and axle stands , i cannot explain how it rolled back, The trolley jack was still under also but not taking the weight. A mistry to me what happened ,but the wife has checked the life insurance policy since
I jack the rear where the gearbox fork meets the rear torsion tube, then the whole rear lifts together and you don't get the rocking that you had.
I used to have a chunk of 6" x 3" that spanned the jacking points for that. One side at a time is very awkward with the jack moving the van sideways isn't it.
Yes I do it that way if I want both back wheels off the ground, but I quite often do minor jobs just jacking one side (with a jack stand). There's a point where it becomes unstable and I've even had something similar happen with the VW screw jack. With that there's only the option of jacking from the side.
