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Old 29th June 2008, 22:24   #16
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Oh, I remember the Matador & Standard 20 like yesterday - used to travel extensively in them when we were kids as these (one of each) were used at the factory campus for school shuttles, company excursions, long trips, etc. We kids loved (or rather, had high regard for) the Matador simply 'coz our driver used to push the vehicle to touch speeds of 90-100kmph when he got a chance - I do remember the Matador being comparatively smooth and more 'peppy' as compared to the S-20.

As a result we kids believed only few vehicles had Govt. approval to touch 100km - the Mercedes Benz, Matador vans and the Kerala SRTC Express buses! We were inconclusive about one more 'vehicle' being part of this esteemed list - the Enfield Bullet!

Silly us!
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Old 29th June 2008, 22:35   #17
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We owned a F307 max pickup for nealy 15 yrs Had clocked over 1.5 lac kilometers with the engine overhauled once. Was a quite good vehicle very easy to maintain and low running cost. The diff between 305 and the 307 was the engine. The 305 can carry a load of 1.5ton whereas the 307 was a 2tonner. R307 was a rear axle one with leaf sring in the front whereas the 307 came with a torsion bar. This one was 2.5 tonne. The last generation of this vans Before the excel was lauched was the RA307 the only thing I knew of this one was that it was 3 tonner. The only scary thing of these vehicle was their brakes. Had to pump it in order to get a better effect. And the second thing was as pointed out earlier was the front hub dislocating. But this was taken car of in the max version Hence we never faced the problem. All in all we have very good memories of our lovely Matador.
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Old 30th June 2008, 08:48   #18
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The Matador Tempo's were actually Hanomag F20's. They had the Hanomag roundface grille with circular lights before resorting to the straight grille ones which after takeover from Mercedes Benz was christened the Mercedes 206D
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Old 30th June 2008, 08:53   #19
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Quote:
The diff between 305 and the 307 was the engine.

So that means F305 came in long wheelbase too and F307 came in short wheelbase too ?


Quote:
The only scary thing of these vehicle was their brakes. Had to pump it in order to get a better effect.

Was this a problem with the Matador design or badly maintained hydraulic brakes ?

I have also noticed that sometimes when the engine switches off itself,it will be started with a lot of struggle(by the driver) and then the driver will open the engine cover to manually push up and down,a small lever till the idling stabilized(?).This was knowning as "pumping" in driver's slang.

The Matador also had this one as a part of its switchgear - a small cup like thing (shiny as stainless steel) with lot of holes on it.It was near the heater switch and it was certainly not a button that can be pressed !
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Old 30th June 2008, 09:15   #20
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That shiny thing was the heater indicator. The driver would press the heater switch till the indicator glowed red hot. Then he would crank the engine. The shiny cover was to ensure that nobody touched the coil inside.
yes, the 305 and 307 came in both wheelbases, though the 307 also came with an ultra long wheel base model. That definitely looked like a tube.
The push thing on the engine was the diesel priming pump. It was part of the diesel pump itself. You needed to pump it when an airlock happened in the fuel lines.

Last edited by jyobeb : 30th June 2008 at 09:17.
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Old 30th June 2008, 09:21   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashwanth View Post
The Matador also had this one as a part of its switchgear - a small cup like thing (shiny as stainless steel) with lot of holes on it.It was near the heater switch and it was certainly not a button that can be pressed !
Yep even i have seen it. Is it an agarbati stand.. lol Coz i have a seen agarbati's inserted in them holes!

Edit: Ok i got the answer from jyobeb's post

Last edited by Sankar : 30th June 2008 at 09:22.
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Old 30th June 2008, 10:29   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashwanth View Post
I have also noticed that sometimes when the engine switches off itself,it will be started with a lot of struggle(by the driver) and then the driver will open the engine cover to manually push up and down,a small lever till the idling stabilized(?).This was knowning as "pumping" in driver's slang.

Priming?? Air entered the fuel circuit?

Diesel injection pumps have/had a small "pre-filter" piggy backing on the fuel pump.

@joybeb - yes, it may be a bit due to absence of other vehicles; but it could also be due to my ignorance!!!
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Old 30th June 2008, 10:38   #23
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Originally Posted by Steeroid View Post
This was the ONLY vehicle I've seen where the driver had to open the door if he wanted to look outside while reversing. The windows were too small and there was no way you could put your head out - something that Bajaj Tempo could've easily rectified if they wanted to in the few decades that they spent selling this LCV. It was the Ambassador of the Commercial Vehicles industry - refusing the change over several decades.
i think it was an intentionally designed that way because many user surveys the company did showed that drivers want the window sill to be high enough for them to comfortably rest their right hand !! , so the glass area had to be reduced
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Old 30th June 2008, 21:11   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jyobeb View Post
That shiny thing was the heater indicator. The driver would press the heater switch till the indicator glowed red hot. Then he would crank the engine. The shiny cover was to ensure that nobody touched the coil inside.
yes, the 305 and 307 came in both wheelbases, though the 307 also came with an ultra long wheel base model. That definitely looked like a tube.
The push thing on the engine was the diesel priming pump. It was part of the diesel pump itself. You needed to pump it when an airlock happened in the fuel lines.
Spot onseems like u know a lot about them. I feel the brakes were weak cause they didn't have a booster or may be the drums were small. Specially the 307 felt more scary cause it was slightly more powerful.
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Old 30th June 2008, 22:18   #25
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I have a tempo traveller that uses pretty much the same engine and heater etc.!!!
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Old 30th June 2008, 23:14   #26
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[quote=ashwanth;885181]So that means F305 came in long wheelbase too and F307 came in short wheelbase too ?
Sorry to miss out your question pal. Yes the 305 did come in long wheel base and the 307 in short But this was only in the van the pickups came in long only.
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Old 1st July 2008, 15:38   #27
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Bajaj Tempo Viking

Hi,

Might be off topic!

Before the Matador (or was it along with), they had a petrol engined model called 'Viking'. More than 30 years back, I have driven a commercial van model a couple of times. It was a 3 cylinder air cooled petrol unit.
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Old 1st July 2008, 18:45   #28
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Quote:
Before the Matador (or was it along with), they had a petrol engined model called 'Viking'.
The force motors website (Check the company history / milestones) says the Viking was replaced and the 'matador series' was born.
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Old 5th July 2008, 19:07   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trrk View Post
Hi,

Might be off topic!

Before the Matador (or was it along with), they had a petrol engined model called 'Viking'. More than 30 years back, I have driven a commercial van model a couple of times. It was a 3 cylinder air cooled petrol unit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ashwanth View Post
The force motors website (Check the company history / milestones) says the Viking was replaced and the 'matador series' was born.
I think even the petrol version was called Matador. It had a two stroke engine which produced a cute and funny sound. It had round headlights and an oval grille. The same engine also appeared in their three-wheeler tempo called HANSEAT.

IIRC, the diesel engine appeared in Matador in 1975 but the front end shape remained the same. After some time, they introduced the F-305 model with rectangular headlights and Mercedes-like grille design. The Hanseat got a crude single cylinder diesel.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR View Post
The matadors once had a fight with Tatas over design of the steering wheel - the two spoke ones were very similar to ones Tatas had on their HCVs.
Can you throw some more light on this fight? Was it reported in press? Did the matter reach courts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steeroid View Post
This was the ONLY vehicle I've seen where the driver had to open the door if he wanted to look outside while reversing. The windows were too small and there was no way you could put your head out
Apart from the small size, they didn't have crank mechanism - you had to slide them open.
Another interesting bit was that it had front wheel drive, even on the goods version. A rear wheel drive version did appear but it was too late by then with Tata 407 - the Matador killer - already out.

Last edited by directinjection : 5th July 2008 at 19:23.
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Old 9th July 2008, 18:27   #30
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Some information on the Bajaj Tempo Minidor (the big rikshaw):

The Minidor is essentially a Matador running in reverse. They had the transmission of the Matador which essentially recieved drive from the engine in longitudinal direction (north south) and provided output in transverse direction (east west). They rotated this transmission around the vertical axis by 180 degrees, so in the MInidor the transmission back faces front. Essentially the Matador's back is the Minidor's front. The engine then went behind the transmission. Then how did they get 4 forward gears and 1 reverse gear ? Simple - the single cylinder engine crankshaft is made to rotate anticlockwise as seen from the back. As the transmission orientation is reversed, the gear shift pattern is also reverse of what we normally use in passenger cars. Normal 4th is 1st and vice versa but in this segment, it does not matter. It is an ingenious idea. They used to have a 499 cc vertically oriented IDI engine upto the year 2000. Due to Euro 1 coming in on 1 April 2000, they had to changeover to IDI engine which they oriented almost horizontally. They used to advertise that their emission norms were almost Euro 2, but they lost a lot of ground on account of poor fuel efficiency of the IDI engine (from 24 kmpl to 18 kmpl). Starting was through a dynastarter which operated the engine through the drive belt and then reverted to becoming a dynamo as soon as the engine started.

I know all this as I have studied the Minidor in complete detail. Its transversely mounted torsion bar rear suspension is also derived from the front wheel drive Matador.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar
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