Ancient fellow came in need of van repairs (7)
I believe the answer is:
caveman
'ancient' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'came in need of van repairs' is the wordplay.
'in need of' says to put letters next to each other.
'repairs' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'repaired' mean this).
'came'+'van'='camevan'
'camevan' anagrammed gives 'CAVEMAN'.
'fellow' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for caveman that I've seen before include "Prehistoric chap" , "Prehistoric male" , "old-timer?" , "Early hominid" , "Uncivilised chap" .)