Things to know about a delica !

[Belette]

Hi guys !

I'm planning to get a L300 delica to cross Africa from SA to Egypt via the eastern route, and I really need some advice, since I don't know anything about mitsubishis.
So how good or bad is that van ? :D more seriously, I'm looking for specific parts to check when buying the vehicle, mechanical stuff to look closely, and when on the road; what s the usual maintenance, what's bulletproof, what's weak and will need more attention. Also is there any website like TOYODIY to get part numbers and diagrams for the van ?

Thanks !

[Lapprentis]

This is the place to start !

http://dinoevo.de

lapprentis

[FalcoColumbarius]

Once you've paged through the DinoEvo site (awesome site), here are two more links worth looking at: Around The World In Ten Years (+HST) and Inuvik or bust by expedition Delica. The former link is about the adventures of La Cucaracha Libre, includes Africa and also has a very informative book of Pablo & Anna's experiences that goes with it. The latter is about the adventures of the Erebus on her expedition into the Arctic Circle.
They are both very good reads.

Also, although not an expedition, per se: Mystery Machine to the rescue. Then there is always YouTube.

Falco.

[Belette]

thanks for these precious links ! I'll spend some time reading all of it :)

[motorang]

Hi there to France,
a bit of a write-up can be found here as well:
http://www.delicaclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=40930

How good is your German?
I have a FAQ online: http://www.motorang.com/L300/index.htm#faq
And something about buying an L300: http://www.motorang.com/L300/L300_kaufen.htm

Andy

[motorang]

Thomas and Sarah went East with a L300 2.4 petrol 4WD van and made it to Malaysia (German blog but you can ask questions in English):
http://90kmh.de/
They have a repair statistic online which basically states that they had to replace suspension front and rear while on their way, both of them broke. So it may be worth thinking about that. For the rear leaf springs there should be replacements around worldwide, but the front torsion bars are specific to only some Mitsubishi and Hyundai models.
Other problems were starter relais (replaced), shock absorber mounts, exhaust, viscious fan, clutch.
But the van was 290.000 km old when they started, now holding at 330.000 km.

Thomas and Andrea rode their Diesel L300 4WD from Switzerland to South Africa, their blog is both German and English.
That said stravel starts here: https://milestorideblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/

Kathi and Martin did the Americas in their 2WD Diesel L300, made a film, and wrote a book about L300 2WD preparations (German):
http://herrlehmanns-weltreise.de/die-reisenden/
Here is the free PDF book: http://herrlehmanns-weltreise.de/der-l3 ... -handbuch/ and their videos pages: http://herrlehmanns-weltreise.de/category/videos/

Andy

[Belette]

thanks for this !
Just saw your message, for some reason I didn't receive anything to tell me there was more messages :p