• It would be foolish to pretend that, when launched,
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the Ford Cargo was without teething troubles; it had its fair share. These, coupled with a certain degree of operator uncer tainty over the merger between the truck side of Ford and Iveco, affected sales. But the teething troubles were overcome, mostly un der warranty. Firm statements of intent backed by action from the newly formed Iveco Ford Trucks reestablished the Cargo on the market, and sales started to climb again.
From the workshop point of view, the Cargo has always been regarded as a good truck to work on. Despite some quite advanced features in some of its components, servicing calls for little, if anything, in the way of special tools. Much of the service schedule is taken up with "check" or "inspect" items, but there are a few traps for the unwary, or indeed for fitters unfamiliar with the Cargo, as we found when we went to Iveco Ford distributor Invicta Trucks in Sturry Road, Canterbury, in Kent, to follow the servicing of a 1615 (16 tons, 112kW (150hp) turbo engine).
A few of these, like trying to trace an elusive squeak from somewhere under the cab, search ing for the cold start relay, or wondering why the front grille refuses to come free when you've undone all the visible screws, are just annoying time wasters.
Others, like offering up a new heater motor and finding that the de sign has changed and the latest type doesn't seem to fit, or neglecting to mark the gearchange linkage before undoing it, and then spending hours trying to set it up by trial and error, can be even more trying on time and temper. And a few, like acci dentally dropping dirt into the power-steering fluid reservoir (its filler cap is rather masked under the gearchange linkage), can lead to costly and unnecessary overhauls.
Our thanks are due to the service staff at lnvicta Trucks who took time out to point out these quirks.
• by Peter Wallage