Who is Pete anyway?
So that *&^%$! 240D...
Trent turns out to have gotten himself in over his head and has everybody mad at him including me. The 2 hoses I really needed for this car turned up but they're wrong, both for a gasser, not even close to what I needed.
I finally got some standard heater hose and crammed it into place. Really crammed it since its supposed to be bigger at one end than the other. The other little hose I took to the parts store and they let me look around until I found one that was close. What I bought is too big but it should do short term.
So I get it all assembled and guess what? The friggin thing bubbles coolant out of the radiator again...
ARRRGH! The boys on the Mercedes list (okiebenz.com) came up with a bunch of cockamamie theories but have finally settled into thinking its probably a cracked head or block.
Angie is going away this weekend so I think I'll make one last ditch effort and re-torque the head bolts. Its possible they've stretched a little since I've had the engine running. Unfortunately thats a bit of a PITA because the cam has to come out of the way. I intend to zip tie the cam to the chain so the timing can't shift, we shall see what we see...
Showing posts with label 240D. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 240D. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Saturday, June 1, 2013
MORE 240D repairs
The following morning I managed to just loosen the 4 bolts holding the fan so I could retrieve the trapped belt, got everything finally hooked back up and the alternator tensioned and fired it up. No leak that I could detect from the tensioner. Thats not totally a win yet because the tensioner is hidden under the thermostat housing and behind the AC bracket but you can get a relatively good look at where the oil has to fall when it drips. Anyway back out on the road for another test.
This time the road test is a complete success, 20+ miles later I'm happy and as the day is heating up I retreat inside.
In the afternoon I decide its probably time to tackle the broken wire to the AC compressor. This is the trigger wire for the AC clutch and without it the AC won't come on. Before the head gasket debacle I'd done some testing and it looked like this was the only reason the AC wouldn't work. I'd had some work done on the AC last year and it worked pretty well then although used up a lot of the limited power the OM616 engine could provide.
Anyway I crimped on a new wire with a new ring terminal and found a bolt (which we appear to have lost when I disassembled for the head gasket job) and got everything together nice. Then I had to fart around trying to get the AC belt tensioned enough. The tensioner on the AC belt is a weird system that looks like it should be spring loaded but isn't.
Unfortunately at some point I had decided to put the radiator cap on tight, I hadn't done that in some time because I had been worried about the head gasket. With the radiator cap loose I theorized the limited pressure in the system might keep from breaking a fragile head gasket. At some point I'd decided since the new head gasket is good I could pressure to the system which will make it cool better which would be important if I were running the AC on a hot day.
The tensioner for the AC belt lives just under the upper radiator hose and to loosen or tighten the bolt on it I had to push the hose out of the way. At some point doing so stressed the LAST cooling system hose which hadn't been replaced on the car. This hose (which Mercedes calls a bypass hose) goes from the thermostat housing to the water pump. Its about two and a quarter inches in diameter and maybe three inches long. It lives just under the timing chain tensioner...
You know what that means right? Lather, rinse, repeat.
I called Trent at buymbparts.biz and ordered up the hose. While I was at it I ordered a thermostat and a gasket for the thermostat hosing where it connects to the block. I put a new gasket there when we did the head gasket but I hate reusing gaskets and it was only a buck for a new one. I also ordered the 90 degree heater hose that lives just under the AC compressor. That one has been swollen by oil dripping on it for years and looks as if it'll fail next.
Angie asked me if this was the last straw, am I ready to junk this car and move on? She's got it all wrong of course. I'm so close, I've replaced so many parts in the past year:
Head gasket
Radiator hoses
Radiator
Oil Cooler
Oil Cooler hoses
Now I can't possibly give up, I've got too much money, time, blood, sweat and yes I'm not to proud to admit tears invested in this car. It WILL ride again!
This time the road test is a complete success, 20+ miles later I'm happy and as the day is heating up I retreat inside.
In the afternoon I decide its probably time to tackle the broken wire to the AC compressor. This is the trigger wire for the AC clutch and without it the AC won't come on. Before the head gasket debacle I'd done some testing and it looked like this was the only reason the AC wouldn't work. I'd had some work done on the AC last year and it worked pretty well then although used up a lot of the limited power the OM616 engine could provide.
Anyway I crimped on a new wire with a new ring terminal and found a bolt (which we appear to have lost when I disassembled for the head gasket job) and got everything together nice. Then I had to fart around trying to get the AC belt tensioned enough. The tensioner on the AC belt is a weird system that looks like it should be spring loaded but isn't.
Unfortunately at some point I had decided to put the radiator cap on tight, I hadn't done that in some time because I had been worried about the head gasket. With the radiator cap loose I theorized the limited pressure in the system might keep from breaking a fragile head gasket. At some point I'd decided since the new head gasket is good I could pressure to the system which will make it cool better which would be important if I were running the AC on a hot day.
The tensioner for the AC belt lives just under the upper radiator hose and to loosen or tighten the bolt on it I had to push the hose out of the way. At some point doing so stressed the LAST cooling system hose which hadn't been replaced on the car. This hose (which Mercedes calls a bypass hose) goes from the thermostat housing to the water pump. Its about two and a quarter inches in diameter and maybe three inches long. It lives just under the timing chain tensioner...
You know what that means right? Lather, rinse, repeat.
I called Trent at buymbparts.biz and ordered up the hose. While I was at it I ordered a thermostat and a gasket for the thermostat hosing where it connects to the block. I put a new gasket there when we did the head gasket but I hate reusing gaskets and it was only a buck for a new one. I also ordered the 90 degree heater hose that lives just under the AC compressor. That one has been swollen by oil dripping on it for years and looks as if it'll fail next.
Angie asked me if this was the last straw, am I ready to junk this car and move on? She's got it all wrong of course. I'm so close, I've replaced so many parts in the past year:
Head gasket
Radiator hoses
Radiator
Oil Cooler
Oil Cooler hoses
Now I can't possibly give up, I've got too much money, time, blood, sweat and yes I'm not to proud to admit tears invested in this car. It WILL ride again!
240D repairs continued
Guess I should bring you all up to date on the saga of my 240D.
When we left our intrepid heroes the team had successfully replaced the head gasket on the 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D. The next few days I was busy and didn't have any chance to work on the car so it waited patiently for me to give it a longer run. I finally snuck in an hour, got the radiator and hoses and whatnot installed and ran the car for awhile. It sounded good but as usual (for me anyway) there were air bubbles in the cooling system that made the temp go higher than I like. Of course just when I gave up and shut the car off a big bubble popped out of the radiator and the coolant level dropped considerably, typical...
Anyway then we were on our yearly spring trip to camp where it rained almost the whole week, so no car wrenching.
Upon our return I ran the car some more and make some tentative runs around the neighborhood. I really hate idling the car in the driveway waiting for it to warm up and putting the engine under load warms the cooling system much more rapidly. That seemed to go pretty well until I discovered the upper radiator hose was leaking. This could in part be attributed to the old hose clamp but considering all the work we've put into the car thus far I didn't want to take any chances so I ordered new hoses from my local CarQuest. They were cheap enough (under $30) and they had them the next day. While I was at it I changed the oil. I figured any bits of schmutz or whatever that we had dislodged during the head gasket job would have worked through to the oil filter (or would be suspended in the oil) by now and it would be a good idea to get it all out of the engine.
New hoses in I had to do the bleeding the coolant dance which is actually considerably easier after this job as I only lost about half a gallon of coolant in the process. With the engine temp stabilized I took a couple more rides around the neighborhood before I decided it was time to head out on a longer ride. This longer ride gave me the opportunity to put some speed on and I'm pleased to report that the engine seems to perform better than it did in the past, especially the recent past. Unfortunately after about 5 miles there was a strong smell of burning oil and I figured I'd better turn back. Good thing as when I got home I discovered a truely massive oil leak. This engine has always leaked some oil somewhere above the alternator but now it was really bad. I searched around with a light and decided the leak had to be coming from the timing chain tensioner.
The timing chain tensioner does exactly what it says it does, keeps the timing chain tight. Its a spring with a hydraulic dampner of some sort that uses engine oil to damp the movement of the spring. It has to come out when you pull the head and if I remember correctly we originally tried to just unscrew the spring which doesn't actually work, you have to pull the whole assembly. Unfortunately it would appear we left it loose.
Unfortunately for me the timing chain tensioner lives behind the AC compressor. This in itself isn't a big deal but the bottom front bolt for the AC compressor bracket lives behind the water pump pulley. The water pump pulley lives behind the fan and since I wasn't removing the radiator to get the 4 bolts that hold the fan out requires working between the radiator and its shroud in a way my wrists and elbows just don't want to bend.
I managed it all in about an hour, the tensioner cap was loose (very loose, like turn with your fingers loose) so I tightened it and got everything back together only to find that I'd trapped the alternator/water pump belt behind the water pump pulley. Theres a little gap there just big enough to allow you this mistake without (fortunately) harming the belt.
That was it, I was all in, my back was killing me from hunching over so long and I was sweaty and tired so I quit for the night...
When we left our intrepid heroes the team had successfully replaced the head gasket on the 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D. The next few days I was busy and didn't have any chance to work on the car so it waited patiently for me to give it a longer run. I finally snuck in an hour, got the radiator and hoses and whatnot installed and ran the car for awhile. It sounded good but as usual (for me anyway) there were air bubbles in the cooling system that made the temp go higher than I like. Of course just when I gave up and shut the car off a big bubble popped out of the radiator and the coolant level dropped considerably, typical...
Anyway then we were on our yearly spring trip to camp where it rained almost the whole week, so no car wrenching.
Upon our return I ran the car some more and make some tentative runs around the neighborhood. I really hate idling the car in the driveway waiting for it to warm up and putting the engine under load warms the cooling system much more rapidly. That seemed to go pretty well until I discovered the upper radiator hose was leaking. This could in part be attributed to the old hose clamp but considering all the work we've put into the car thus far I didn't want to take any chances so I ordered new hoses from my local CarQuest. They were cheap enough (under $30) and they had them the next day. While I was at it I changed the oil. I figured any bits of schmutz or whatever that we had dislodged during the head gasket job would have worked through to the oil filter (or would be suspended in the oil) by now and it would be a good idea to get it all out of the engine.
New hoses in I had to do the bleeding the coolant dance which is actually considerably easier after this job as I only lost about half a gallon of coolant in the process. With the engine temp stabilized I took a couple more rides around the neighborhood before I decided it was time to head out on a longer ride. This longer ride gave me the opportunity to put some speed on and I'm pleased to report that the engine seems to perform better than it did in the past, especially the recent past. Unfortunately after about 5 miles there was a strong smell of burning oil and I figured I'd better turn back. Good thing as when I got home I discovered a truely massive oil leak. This engine has always leaked some oil somewhere above the alternator but now it was really bad. I searched around with a light and decided the leak had to be coming from the timing chain tensioner.
The timing chain tensioner does exactly what it says it does, keeps the timing chain tight. Its a spring with a hydraulic dampner of some sort that uses engine oil to damp the movement of the spring. It has to come out when you pull the head and if I remember correctly we originally tried to just unscrew the spring which doesn't actually work, you have to pull the whole assembly. Unfortunately it would appear we left it loose.
Unfortunately for me the timing chain tensioner lives behind the AC compressor. This in itself isn't a big deal but the bottom front bolt for the AC compressor bracket lives behind the water pump pulley. The water pump pulley lives behind the fan and since I wasn't removing the radiator to get the 4 bolts that hold the fan out requires working between the radiator and its shroud in a way my wrists and elbows just don't want to bend.
I managed it all in about an hour, the tensioner cap was loose (very loose, like turn with your fingers loose) so I tightened it and got everything back together only to find that I'd trapped the alternator/water pump belt behind the water pump pulley. Theres a little gap there just big enough to allow you this mistake without (fortunately) harming the belt.
That was it, I was all in, my back was killing me from hunching over so long and I was sweaty and tired so I quit for the night...
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
HEAD GASKET!
When we last left our hero his 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D was down for the count with a failed head gasket. What to do, what to do? Call out the troops of course!
Saturday three of my good Mercedes friends came over and the four of us got to work.
I started before the others arrived, at about 7:30am I started by pulling the washer fluid bottle, radiator, hoses and radiator shroud plus the air cleaner and its hoses. Finally I disconnected the battery. My friend Fred arrived and we had breakfast. While we were eating Dimitri and Dwight arrived, with our team assembled we went back out and really got going. The air conditioning compressor gets moved out of the way but not removed. Mercedes recommends pulling the power steering pump out of the way but I didn't want to deal with the mess so we just pushed it out of the way, same for the oil cooler. With the front of the engine exposed the fan and its pulley get removed, all the belts are now out of the way. The thermostat housing comes off, then the injection lines, glow plug wiring.
Throttle linkage injector return lines and injectors which leaves the valve cover.
With that removed we see the cam shaft, timing chain and lifters, and Dwight's finger :)
Re-install the head and torque it down. Theres a procedure for that of course...
I started before the others arrived, at about 7:30am I started by pulling the washer fluid bottle, radiator, hoses and radiator shroud plus the air cleaner and its hoses. Finally I disconnected the battery. My friend Fred arrived and we had breakfast. While we were eating Dimitri and Dwight arrived, with our team assembled we went back out and really got going. The air conditioning compressor gets moved out of the way but not removed. Mercedes recommends pulling the power steering pump out of the way but I didn't want to deal with the mess so we just pushed it out of the way, same for the oil cooler. With the front of the engine exposed the fan and its pulley get removed, all the belts are now out of the way. The thermostat housing comes off, then the injection lines, glow plug wiring.
With that removed we see the cam shaft, timing chain and lifters, and Dwight's finger :)
Getting the head off and not screwing up the timing was one of our top goals so we spent a lot of time mucking about. It turns out you cannot leave the top sprocket on and remove the head, don't even bother. Fortunately as long as you maintain tension on the timing chain you can lift the head off without changing its alignment on the bottom end. A couple friends are helpful there.
So pull all the head bolts, put them in a piece of cardboard to keep them ordered.
The pull the head, its not super heavy but a helper here is a great idea, an engine lift would do the job too but is probably overkill.
Now clean the mating surfaces of the head and block real good. We scraped with razor blades to get a good clean surface, then ran a wire brush in the drill over them to be sure. We also cleaned all the headbolts good with a wire wheel. These are the hex head bolts which can be reused, unlike the later type which are torque to yield. Fred measured bend in the block, its slightly banana shaped which is normal. Mine is between 0.003 and 0.004 which is well within spec.
With everything cleaned a coating of Hylomar on the mating surfaces:
Thats some interesting stuff, it ate right through my gloves...
Re-install the head and torque it down. Theres a procedure for that of course...
Tighten, tighten some more, wait 10 minutes, tighten some more. You end up at 100Nm, a good long torque wrench is nice.
The rest is reversal of dissassembly which of course leaves out all the fun. Getting the timing chain back together was a bear, we probably wasted an hour on it. First we got the sprocket on but forgot the top guide, then we got the sprocket on backwards. FINALLY we got everything on and in the right orientation, I spun the engine over with a ratchet a couple times to prove it was all going in the right direction and nothing hit or made bad noises. Dwight and Dimitri had to head home, I can't blame them, they both drove many miles to be with me. Fred bless his soul stayed until the bitter end. Finally at 10:30pm we fired the engine up. Of course with no fuel in the injectors it was a tough start but with Fred working the primer pump and me cranking the starter it fired to life. Sounded weird which I realized later was the lack of air cleaner. I backed the car out of the garage and buttoned it down for the night.
I haven't had time to put in the radiator so I can run it up to temp and know for sure the head gasket fixed the problem but I'm pretty confident. If it weren't raining I'd be out there right now. Maybe tomorrow night...
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Car troubles
As it stands today we have a little fleet of 3 vehicles:
1. 2003 Ford Ranger XLT: The only gasser in the fleet the Ranger provides 4wd and hauling capacity. What it lacks in size it makes up for in offroad prowess courtesy of a limited slip rear differential. Unfortunately the Ranger had sat at some point before we got it (in 2008) and suffers badly from under carriage rust. Lately rust is bubbling the paint under the passenger side rear door.
2. 1984 Mercedes-Benz 190D: I don't think I've written, or at least written much about my addiction to old diesel Mercedes. This one I scored for $250 because it had a "broken timing chain" which turned out to not be broken at all. The timing chain cover was broken and my friend Fred had a replacement. Sadly this car had been poorly maintained and has required rather a lot of work to sort out. On the plus side its still just under 200,000 miles and starts nearly like a gas car.
3. 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D: My friend Dwight sold me this old solder when my '83 240D met an untimely end due to a ruptured oil cooler line. I've had it since 2010 and put about 35,000 miles on with relatively little trouble until just before Christmas 2012. In fact it was that incident I wanted to talk about.
We were heading to Maine to see my parents, on rt 495 heading north at about 75mph when I smelled something funny, a glance at the gauges showed the temp gauge absolutely pegged, I went from the left lane to the right and got us stopped fortunately just beyond a rest stop which we were able to roll backwards into. An inspection showed a hose clamp on the lower radiator hose had sheered and broken allowing the hose to fall off and the coolant to fall out. I was lucky enough to have a zip tie in the car along with a couple gallons of water and astonishingly we were able to drive back home...
A couple days later I played around with the car and amazingly it seemed to run pretty well. It clattered like crazy on startup but that noise went away after a minute or so. I changed the oil and kept on driving it. Fast forward 5,000 miles until last Tuesday. I was on my way to work and smelled coolant. I was in heavy traffic and the temp gauge was starting to climb. I flipped on the heat full blast and fortunately as the traffic broke up the temp went back down. At lunch I managed to get a quart of coolant into the radiator. On the way home, again in heavy traffic it heated up again. This time I got most of a gallon of coolant in. The next day the problem became clear. I can pour in all the coolant I want but something pushes it back out again. That something is exhaust gasses passing from the cylinder to the water jacket through a failed head gasket almost certainly caused by a massive overheat. I'd left the radiator cap loose as I was worried that putting pressure in the system would cause this but I guess it was just a matter of time.
Angie quickly decided it was time for a new car but has balked at what new cars cost (more on that next time) and frankly I'm not real excited about a big car payment. I put out a note on the OkieBenz email list about the issue and suggested that if my friends pushed me I'd probably do the head gasket but if I had to pay somebody to do it the cost would quickly run up to the value of the car. As I expected my friends responded that I should do it and they would help.
This my friends is a big step into mechanic-dom which I've never made before, the head gasket is under the head which is connected to the engine by not only the bolts but also the timing chain. Breaking the timing chain (which you have to do to take the head off) is a big deal and I'm scared of it. Get it back together right and everything is good, do it poorly and the valves meet the pistons and the whole engine is junk. Currently I'm tentatively planning the job for May 11, probably going to order parts tomorrow. If worse comes to worst I'll haul the car and the parts to my mechanic for installation but considering the low value of the car I'd like to be able to do it myself to hold down costs...
1. 2003 Ford Ranger XLT: The only gasser in the fleet the Ranger provides 4wd and hauling capacity. What it lacks in size it makes up for in offroad prowess courtesy of a limited slip rear differential. Unfortunately the Ranger had sat at some point before we got it (in 2008) and suffers badly from under carriage rust. Lately rust is bubbling the paint under the passenger side rear door.
2. 1984 Mercedes-Benz 190D: I don't think I've written, or at least written much about my addiction to old diesel Mercedes. This one I scored for $250 because it had a "broken timing chain" which turned out to not be broken at all. The timing chain cover was broken and my friend Fred had a replacement. Sadly this car had been poorly maintained and has required rather a lot of work to sort out. On the plus side its still just under 200,000 miles and starts nearly like a gas car.
3. 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D: My friend Dwight sold me this old solder when my '83 240D met an untimely end due to a ruptured oil cooler line. I've had it since 2010 and put about 35,000 miles on with relatively little trouble until just before Christmas 2012. In fact it was that incident I wanted to talk about.
We were heading to Maine to see my parents, on rt 495 heading north at about 75mph when I smelled something funny, a glance at the gauges showed the temp gauge absolutely pegged, I went from the left lane to the right and got us stopped fortunately just beyond a rest stop which we were able to roll backwards into. An inspection showed a hose clamp on the lower radiator hose had sheered and broken allowing the hose to fall off and the coolant to fall out. I was lucky enough to have a zip tie in the car along with a couple gallons of water and astonishingly we were able to drive back home...
A couple days later I played around with the car and amazingly it seemed to run pretty well. It clattered like crazy on startup but that noise went away after a minute or so. I changed the oil and kept on driving it. Fast forward 5,000 miles until last Tuesday. I was on my way to work and smelled coolant. I was in heavy traffic and the temp gauge was starting to climb. I flipped on the heat full blast and fortunately as the traffic broke up the temp went back down. At lunch I managed to get a quart of coolant into the radiator. On the way home, again in heavy traffic it heated up again. This time I got most of a gallon of coolant in. The next day the problem became clear. I can pour in all the coolant I want but something pushes it back out again. That something is exhaust gasses passing from the cylinder to the water jacket through a failed head gasket almost certainly caused by a massive overheat. I'd left the radiator cap loose as I was worried that putting pressure in the system would cause this but I guess it was just a matter of time.
Angie quickly decided it was time for a new car but has balked at what new cars cost (more on that next time) and frankly I'm not real excited about a big car payment. I put out a note on the OkieBenz email list about the issue and suggested that if my friends pushed me I'd probably do the head gasket but if I had to pay somebody to do it the cost would quickly run up to the value of the car. As I expected my friends responded that I should do it and they would help.
This my friends is a big step into mechanic-dom which I've never made before, the head gasket is under the head which is connected to the engine by not only the bolts but also the timing chain. Breaking the timing chain (which you have to do to take the head off) is a big deal and I'm scared of it. Get it back together right and everything is good, do it poorly and the valves meet the pistons and the whole engine is junk. Currently I'm tentatively planning the job for May 11, probably going to order parts tomorrow. If worse comes to worst I'll haul the car and the parts to my mechanic for installation but considering the low value of the car I'd like to be able to do it myself to hold down costs...
Thursday, November 20, 2008
More on Hammie
Got 3 out of 4 studded snow tires on, Angie forgot to stop at Wal-Mart to get the last one put on today. I'm actually pretty impressed with Wal-Mart putting the tires on the rims, yeah its not that hard but their price is competative and they seem to do good work. Hopefully this will fix much of the horrible highway speed vibration.
The rear shocks showed up yesterday but not the upper control arms. Talked to Hursty and apparently his supplier screwed up so they're being next day shipped at the supplier's expense. We'll see...
Interestingly it turns out to do the shocks I have to remove the back seat, that surprised me! The hole to get the top bolts out is behind the seatback (so the whole seat doesn't come out just the seatback). Doesn't sound like that hard a job, just have to be a little careful because if I don't support the lower control arm the spring will come out which can be dangerous...
The rear shocks showed up yesterday but not the upper control arms. Talked to Hursty and apparently his supplier screwed up so they're being next day shipped at the supplier's expense. We'll see...
Interestingly it turns out to do the shocks I have to remove the back seat, that surprised me! The hole to get the top bolts out is behind the seatback (so the whole seat doesn't come out just the seatback). Doesn't sound like that hard a job, just have to be a little careful because if I don't support the lower control arm the spring will come out which can be dangerous...
Monday, November 10, 2008
Hammie rides again!
A quick update, got the brakes done on the 240D (Hammie) done yesterday. The parking brake still needs a little sorting but its pretty much there. I took him out for his first drive of any distance (Angie and I did take him around the block Friday night) to go get some fresh fuel. The brakes seem spot on (except of course the parking brake) but the suspension seems squishy and I'm concerned about the front upper ball joints and upper control arms. The ball joint boots are cracked open and the UCA bushings look poor. Interestingly though to my somewhat untrained butt the worst of the squishyness is coming from the rear, I'm thinking I need shocks. Of course the problem could also be a soft tire or two. The snows on the car are really pretty terrible. They were cheap tires when I bought them 4 years ago and although they don't have a ton of miles they need replacing. I've got 4 studded snows Dwight gave me, just need to put them on.
So I think Saturday I'm going to take him for inspection and see what the inspector thinks. I don't want to go replacing stuff I don't need. I just sat down and figured and the whole of the brake job cost me just about $360. Thats pretty cheap when you consider thats all 4 rotors and pads and 2 new calipers (ouch!) plus I'll be keeping the old calipers to rebuild, the caliper repair kit is a mere $15.
I priced all 4 shocks and the upper control arms and its $310 (shipping is free at that point). Add the two rear parking brake cables (the likely culprits) and we're up to $370 or thereabouts.
I've resigned myself to not ever getting my money back out of this car. If I make this purchase (I'm thinking I will) I'll have over $1000 into a $400 car that is now worth approximately $1000...
So I think Saturday I'm going to take him for inspection and see what the inspector thinks. I don't want to go replacing stuff I don't need. I just sat down and figured and the whole of the brake job cost me just about $360. Thats pretty cheap when you consider thats all 4 rotors and pads and 2 new calipers (ouch!) plus I'll be keeping the old calipers to rebuild, the caliper repair kit is a mere $15.
I priced all 4 shocks and the upper control arms and its $310 (shipping is free at that point). Add the two rear parking brake cables (the likely culprits) and we're up to $370 or thereabouts.
I've resigned myself to not ever getting my money back out of this car. If I make this purchase (I'm thinking I will) I'll have over $1000 into a $400 car that is now worth approximately $1000...
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
UGH
The problem with driving an old car is that crap happens. Well okay crap happens to everybody and everything, the problem is that crap happens to older cars with greater regularity. Don't get me wrong my 190D has been a great car but the rear diff is getting really noisy and needs replacement bad. I've got a couple options for getting a replacement but none of them is working the way I'd like.
So my plan right now is to get my butt in gear and get the 240D (Hammie) back on the road. The thing thats keeping that car off the road right now is brakes. Specifically the front brakes and the stuck parking brake cable. I think the parking brake cable will free up with some solvent and a hammer. The front brakes however get us into the scary world of bearings. On this particular car the brake rotors are super rusty. I've already replaced the rear rotors which is a really easy job. The fronts however are bolted to the wheel hub which is supported by the wheel bearings, you can't remove the rotor without removing the hub and you can't remove the hub without disturbing the bearing.
I have this image of my screwing this up, the bearing chewing a channel through the spindle and the wheel falling off while I'm cruising down the highway. I have this other image of the rear diff on the 190D failing and catapulting me into oncoming traffic. Neither is an image I'm real excited about. It must be really nice to be ignorant... Anyway I'm reasonably sure neither of those situations is going to happen, what would probably happen in both cases is the noise would get so bad I'll pull over and get the car towed...
So I'm just terrified of this job and I don't know why, millions of idiots replace wheel bearings all the time and I've made a point of pride in myself of not being afraid of anything, I'm a teacher for God's sake, I hang it out there in front of people every day!
Okay good, I've built my dander up, in fact I really wish I could just do the stupid bearings right now.. Alas that isn't going to happen. I don't have the correct grease and what really makes me nervous is that while I'm sure Mobil 1 wheel bearing grease is just fine I don't know how much to use. Part of me says "hell just use some, the correct grease is on its way, just do it again later". Legions of rednecks are screaming "USE WHATS IN YOUR GREASE GUN"...
Sigh, I blame this all on my parents, my Dad somehow lost some of his redneck roots at some point and I never got to learn any of this from him. I'm not a redneck but for some reason I have the desire...
So my plan right now is to get my butt in gear and get the 240D (Hammie) back on the road. The thing thats keeping that car off the road right now is brakes. Specifically the front brakes and the stuck parking brake cable. I think the parking brake cable will free up with some solvent and a hammer. The front brakes however get us into the scary world of bearings. On this particular car the brake rotors are super rusty. I've already replaced the rear rotors which is a really easy job. The fronts however are bolted to the wheel hub which is supported by the wheel bearings, you can't remove the rotor without removing the hub and you can't remove the hub without disturbing the bearing.
I have this image of my screwing this up, the bearing chewing a channel through the spindle and the wheel falling off while I'm cruising down the highway. I have this other image of the rear diff on the 190D failing and catapulting me into oncoming traffic. Neither is an image I'm real excited about. It must be really nice to be ignorant... Anyway I'm reasonably sure neither of those situations is going to happen, what would probably happen in both cases is the noise would get so bad I'll pull over and get the car towed...
So I'm just terrified of this job and I don't know why, millions of idiots replace wheel bearings all the time and I've made a point of pride in myself of not being afraid of anything, I'm a teacher for God's sake, I hang it out there in front of people every day!
Okay good, I've built my dander up, in fact I really wish I could just do the stupid bearings right now.. Alas that isn't going to happen. I don't have the correct grease and what really makes me nervous is that while I'm sure Mobil 1 wheel bearing grease is just fine I don't know how much to use. Part of me says "hell just use some, the correct grease is on its way, just do it again later". Legions of rednecks are screaming "USE WHATS IN YOUR GREASE GUN"...
Sigh, I blame this all on my parents, my Dad somehow lost some of his redneck roots at some point and I never got to learn any of this from him. I'm not a redneck but for some reason I have the desire...
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Cold starts
People who drive gas powered cars made in the last 20 years generally don't pay any attention to temperature. Those of us with older diesels (23 and 25!) do, at ~10F my 240D will get a little ornery at -10F it'd be difficult and at -20F it won't start without help. With the magic of the block heater it'll start no problem at all temps.
Anyway if you take a look at Youtube there are tons of coldstart videos. The interesting thing I find in those is that they're mostly from metric countries (not the US basically) so you get "Coldstart, 10C" or "Coldstart -10C".
This winter will be the 6th in which I've driven a diesel car, so 3 winters each the 240D and the 190D plus one winter screwing around with my 300TD. The 190D has a more modern engine and starts WAY easier than the 240D but either way I figure I've got a masters degree in diesel engine cold starts. Let me start by saying -10C isn't cold... Thats 14F which isn't even the beginning of cold. Cold starts at -10F, real cold starts at 0F and bitterly cold starts at -10F. Here in central MA we can expect one or two mornings a winter at -20F which is the start of take your breath away cold. The guys in the extreme north scoff at all this of course.
Anyway what follows here is what you need to know to start your old diesel Mercedes in the cold. This should basically apply to other makes too but I dunno...
#1. Throw that starting fluid away and smack yourself for even suggesting it. The MB is an indirect injection diesel with glowplugs, you use that crap you'll crack a prechamber and the engine is toast.
#2. If your battery is older than 3 years its automatically suspect, if its older than 5 you need to replace it. Don't kid yourself into thinking you can get "just one more year" out of it, you can't. I spent one miserable winter where the 240D wouldn't start even at 15F because the battery was bad. It finally failed completely and I was amazed when a new battery fixed a host of issues. If the battery is older than the toddler next door it needs replacing.
#3. Synthetic oil is your friend, Mobil 1 5w40 is best followed by 0w40. I'm not a huge fan of the 0w40 as my cars both clattered a bit more with it, I don't think it hurt anything but still... 15w50 will do in a pinch if its all you can get. 15w50 will still flow better than conventional 15w40 at cold temps but the other two choices will flow better still. Put a bottle of conventional 15w40 oil in the freezer and you'll see it turns into honey. How well is that honey lubricating your engine when its cold out? If you've got a block heater you can get away with conventional oil but remember you might want to travel somewhere that plugging in isn't an option...
#4. Glow plugs. Marshall used to chide me for my suggesting to change the glowplugs before they failed. He said that glowplugs would go 100,000 miles without being changed. I contend that when glowplugs fail its always at the least opportune time. If you've ever change glowplugs outside at -10F (I have!) you know what I mean.
#5. Water is the enemy. It'll condense into your fuel tank then freeze and you're in trouble. It'll also give a place for algae to live. Treat your fuel tank with a water remover at least once in the fall. I use isopropyl alcohol at 2x the recommended strength once in October sometime. Then I run a bottle of Diesel Kleen (from PowerService) in Novemeber sometime. I use a whole bottle of Diesel Kleen in about 1/4 tank of fuel which is probably 10x the recommended concentration but I never have water or gelling issues.
#6. Make sure you've got winter fuel. When I first got my 190D it had been sitting for months and had summer fuel in it. It would start but wouldn't go in any gear but first. I put a full bottle of Diesel Kleen in and ran it. That car has a fuel thermostat that heats the fuel so after 20 minutes or so I could drive fine. I drove until the tank was mostly empty and refilled.
-The actual cold start -
So its -10F out and you need to start your car. Lets say you don't have anywhere to plug it in either. When I was driving the 240D that was how things went most of the time for me as we lived in an apartment...
Okay get in the car, turn off all electrical loads. You made sure to turn off the wipers last night right? Make sure the heater fan is off too. We're going to need every amp available. Key on, the glowplug light should come on. Wait the 20 seconds or so until the light goes out and then wait 10 seconds more. Cycle the key back to off and then on, wait the 20 seconds again and then again 10 seconds more.
You're only going to get one shot at this, if the car doesn't start you're in the hurt...
Pump the throttle (gas pedal) to the floor 3 times, then hold it all the way down, FULL THROTTLE!
Okay key to start, the engine cranks, HOLD THE KEY ON START. Yeah I know, your dad told you to only crank for a couple seconds, he told you you'd ruin the starter otherwise because it'd overheat. Hey, its -10F, its not going to overheat. If you stop cranking now the car will be harder to start than if you don't and it will thus put more wear on the starter, crank until it starts. This is what momma benz says to do and thus the best thing for your car... Except maybe for my alternate start method, more on that later.
Within 20 seconds you should start to hear encouraging noises. If your battery starts to die at this point it needs replacing, even if the car does start. The battery should be able to crank for a good minute at this temp without dying. The encouraging noises should get more and more consistant (pop.....pop, pop......pop, pop,pop.....pop,pop,pop,pop...etc) don't give up yet keep at it until the car is actually running. Once the encouraging noises are mostly constant release the key and ease back on the throttle. On these older cars when its real cold out if you come off throttle too fast at this point lots of times they'll die, so ease back on the throttle, keep it at high idle for maybe a minute. You've used up a lot of what your battery had to offer, if the car dies now you might have a hard time restarting. My 240D has a high idle knob for situations like this, it'll keep the idle above what it normally would be. I've never had it working enough to try it. I've bought all the parts so I hope to try it out this winter.
So your car is running, take off eh? DON'T hang around waiting for it to warm up. All cars warm up best (most quickly, most evenly) by driving around. That isn't to say romp on it and merge with freeway traffic right away, drive easy for a mile or two and you'll be all set.
-Curt's alternate diesel Mercedes starting proceedure-
So the above didn't work, or you've got bad glow plugs or a bad battery or heavy oil or your block heater croaked or its -20F and your 240D won't start no matter what, what now? I had this a lot that year the battery in my 240D wasn't any good.
Start your pickup truck, its a gasser right? It always starts, no worries. Why do you drive a diesel then? Well economy of course.
Go wake up your wife, you'll need help for this. Get out the strap and connect the pickup to the car.
Let your wife drive the pickup, give her CLEAR instructions on where to go and how fast to drive. Don't make her guess about anything and remember not to yell at her.
Your car is manual trans right? So she doesn't have to pull you very fast so lets say 25mph. A fullsize pickup is better at this but any truck (or car) will do a smaller vehicle may have traction problems so your tower may have to go faster, you'll need to experiment.
So at 25mph you put the car in 2nd gear (maybe 3rd, experiment) and ease out the clutch. Don't just dump the clutch or the tow vehicle may lose traction... Ease out the clutch and you should hear the engine cranking over. You may need to let it crank over for awhile (especially at -20F) before it'll fire. Careful with the throttle here, you don't want to smack into your tow vehicle! Once the car is running and everybody's stopped get out and take the strap off. Put the strap in your car with you, you might need it later...
Thank your wife, appologize for yelling at her, bring her something nice that evening.
-Curt
Anyway if you take a look at Youtube there are tons of coldstart videos. The interesting thing I find in those is that they're mostly from metric countries (not the US basically) so you get "Coldstart, 10C" or "Coldstart -10C".
This winter will be the 6th in which I've driven a diesel car, so 3 winters each the 240D and the 190D plus one winter screwing around with my 300TD. The 190D has a more modern engine and starts WAY easier than the 240D but either way I figure I've got a masters degree in diesel engine cold starts. Let me start by saying -10C isn't cold... Thats 14F which isn't even the beginning of cold. Cold starts at -10F, real cold starts at 0F and bitterly cold starts at -10F. Here in central MA we can expect one or two mornings a winter at -20F which is the start of take your breath away cold. The guys in the extreme north scoff at all this of course.
Anyway what follows here is what you need to know to start your old diesel Mercedes in the cold. This should basically apply to other makes too but I dunno...
#1. Throw that starting fluid away and smack yourself for even suggesting it. The MB is an indirect injection diesel with glowplugs, you use that crap you'll crack a prechamber and the engine is toast.
#2. If your battery is older than 3 years its automatically suspect, if its older than 5 you need to replace it. Don't kid yourself into thinking you can get "just one more year" out of it, you can't. I spent one miserable winter where the 240D wouldn't start even at 15F because the battery was bad. It finally failed completely and I was amazed when a new battery fixed a host of issues. If the battery is older than the toddler next door it needs replacing.
#3. Synthetic oil is your friend, Mobil 1 5w40 is best followed by 0w40. I'm not a huge fan of the 0w40 as my cars both clattered a bit more with it, I don't think it hurt anything but still... 15w50 will do in a pinch if its all you can get. 15w50 will still flow better than conventional 15w40 at cold temps but the other two choices will flow better still. Put a bottle of conventional 15w40 oil in the freezer and you'll see it turns into honey. How well is that honey lubricating your engine when its cold out? If you've got a block heater you can get away with conventional oil but remember you might want to travel somewhere that plugging in isn't an option...
#4. Glow plugs. Marshall used to chide me for my suggesting to change the glowplugs before they failed. He said that glowplugs would go 100,000 miles without being changed. I contend that when glowplugs fail its always at the least opportune time. If you've ever change glowplugs outside at -10F (I have!) you know what I mean.
#5. Water is the enemy. It'll condense into your fuel tank then freeze and you're in trouble. It'll also give a place for algae to live. Treat your fuel tank with a water remover at least once in the fall. I use isopropyl alcohol at 2x the recommended strength once in October sometime. Then I run a bottle of Diesel Kleen (from PowerService) in Novemeber sometime. I use a whole bottle of Diesel Kleen in about 1/4 tank of fuel which is probably 10x the recommended concentration but I never have water or gelling issues.
#6. Make sure you've got winter fuel. When I first got my 190D it had been sitting for months and had summer fuel in it. It would start but wouldn't go in any gear but first. I put a full bottle of Diesel Kleen in and ran it. That car has a fuel thermostat that heats the fuel so after 20 minutes or so I could drive fine. I drove until the tank was mostly empty and refilled.
-The actual cold start -
So its -10F out and you need to start your car. Lets say you don't have anywhere to plug it in either. When I was driving the 240D that was how things went most of the time for me as we lived in an apartment...
Okay get in the car, turn off all electrical loads. You made sure to turn off the wipers last night right? Make sure the heater fan is off too. We're going to need every amp available. Key on, the glowplug light should come on. Wait the 20 seconds or so until the light goes out and then wait 10 seconds more. Cycle the key back to off and then on, wait the 20 seconds again and then again 10 seconds more.
You're only going to get one shot at this, if the car doesn't start you're in the hurt...
Pump the throttle (gas pedal) to the floor 3 times, then hold it all the way down, FULL THROTTLE!
Okay key to start, the engine cranks, HOLD THE KEY ON START. Yeah I know, your dad told you to only crank for a couple seconds, he told you you'd ruin the starter otherwise because it'd overheat. Hey, its -10F, its not going to overheat. If you stop cranking now the car will be harder to start than if you don't and it will thus put more wear on the starter, crank until it starts. This is what momma benz says to do and thus the best thing for your car... Except maybe for my alternate start method, more on that later.
Within 20 seconds you should start to hear encouraging noises. If your battery starts to die at this point it needs replacing, even if the car does start. The battery should be able to crank for a good minute at this temp without dying. The encouraging noises should get more and more consistant (pop.....pop, pop......pop, pop,pop.....pop,pop,pop,pop...etc) don't give up yet keep at it until the car is actually running. Once the encouraging noises are mostly constant release the key and ease back on the throttle. On these older cars when its real cold out if you come off throttle too fast at this point lots of times they'll die, so ease back on the throttle, keep it at high idle for maybe a minute. You've used up a lot of what your battery had to offer, if the car dies now you might have a hard time restarting. My 240D has a high idle knob for situations like this, it'll keep the idle above what it normally would be. I've never had it working enough to try it. I've bought all the parts so I hope to try it out this winter.
So your car is running, take off eh? DON'T hang around waiting for it to warm up. All cars warm up best (most quickly, most evenly) by driving around. That isn't to say romp on it and merge with freeway traffic right away, drive easy for a mile or two and you'll be all set.
-Curt's alternate diesel Mercedes starting proceedure-
So the above didn't work, or you've got bad glow plugs or a bad battery or heavy oil or your block heater croaked or its -20F and your 240D won't start no matter what, what now? I had this a lot that year the battery in my 240D wasn't any good.
Start your pickup truck, its a gasser right? It always starts, no worries. Why do you drive a diesel then? Well economy of course.
Go wake up your wife, you'll need help for this. Get out the strap and connect the pickup to the car.
Let your wife drive the pickup, give her CLEAR instructions on where to go and how fast to drive. Don't make her guess about anything and remember not to yell at her.
Your car is manual trans right? So she doesn't have to pull you very fast so lets say 25mph. A fullsize pickup is better at this but any truck (or car) will do a smaller vehicle may have traction problems so your tower may have to go faster, you'll need to experiment.
So at 25mph you put the car in 2nd gear (maybe 3rd, experiment) and ease out the clutch. Don't just dump the clutch or the tow vehicle may lose traction... Ease out the clutch and you should hear the engine cranking over. You may need to let it crank over for awhile (especially at -20F) before it'll fire. Careful with the throttle here, you don't want to smack into your tow vehicle! Once the car is running and everybody's stopped get out and take the strap off. Put the strap in your car with you, you might need it later...
Thank your wife, appologize for yelling at her, bring her something nice that evening.
-Curt
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Busy times
Apparently the Chineese have a saying, "may you live in interesting times" which basically says may you be so busy you're screwed...
The hood for the 240D is done, 10 coats of paint (or was it 9?) and the hoodpad is installed. I really need to do another coat on the underside, I painted it some just for continuity and it kind of looks worse than before. Another coat (brushed on with a foam brush) and it should be fine, doesn't take long to do anyway.
It'll be awhile before I get it installed since its really a 2 or 3 person job. This weekend is the Chowda fest MB gathering in RI so I won't be able to do it. Maybe Angie will have some time to help me this week, doubt it. I'd rather get another guy to help but I'm not sure if thats gonna happen either...
I still haven't gotten the rear brake parts yet, I'll need to email Rusty....
The hood for the 240D is done, 10 coats of paint (or was it 9?) and the hoodpad is installed. I really need to do another coat on the underside, I painted it some just for continuity and it kind of looks worse than before. Another coat (brushed on with a foam brush) and it should be fine, doesn't take long to do anyway.
It'll be awhile before I get it installed since its really a 2 or 3 person job. This weekend is the Chowda fest MB gathering in RI so I won't be able to do it. Maybe Angie will have some time to help me this week, doubt it. I'd rather get another guy to help but I'm not sure if thats gonna happen either...
I still haven't gotten the rear brake parts yet, I'll need to email Rusty....
Friday, September 5, 2008
More on the hood
8 coats of paint down, 1 disaster passed, 3 different types of roller used and the end is in sight.
Okay lesson #1 it really does need to be thinned 50%.
#2 you NEED a HIGH DENSITY foam roller. Not the thing that looks like a mattress pad. The proper roller is tapered at one end. Spend some time squeezing rollers and pick out the stiffest one. Do NOT use a fabric roller, it'll leave brick like patterns.
#3 if it doesn't feel right wipe it all off and start over. I almost left a bad coat on to sand off later figuring it would cost me 2 coats to do so. Thats dumb, if its going to be WORSE I should just clean and repaint, which is what I did.
#4 more prep work (ie better sanding) at each step will make for a better job. I was too slow to get into 400 grit and didn't spend enough time there. Thats okay, this is a 50 foot car. If your car wants to look better don't worry as much about painting, spend more time on prep.
-Curt
Okay lesson #1 it really does need to be thinned 50%.
#2 you NEED a HIGH DENSITY foam roller. Not the thing that looks like a mattress pad. The proper roller is tapered at one end. Spend some time squeezing rollers and pick out the stiffest one. Do NOT use a fabric roller, it'll leave brick like patterns.
#3 if it doesn't feel right wipe it all off and start over. I almost left a bad coat on to sand off later figuring it would cost me 2 coats to do so. Thats dumb, if its going to be WORSE I should just clean and repaint, which is what I did.
#4 more prep work (ie better sanding) at each step will make for a better job. I was too slow to get into 400 grit and didn't spend enough time there. Thats okay, this is a 50 foot car. If your car wants to look better don't worry as much about painting, spend more time on prep.
-Curt
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Hoodwork continues
I have my doubts that anybody reads this but what the hell, I might as well continue in my own private Idaho. I'd always wondered what that phrase "private Idaho" ment. Hail mother internet, click on the link for the Urban Dictionary definition.
Anyway I worked from home yesterday, before work I put some POR-15 body filler on the dings and dents on the 240D's new hood. The stuff is basically fiberglass resin jelly with some fiber material in it. Its not bad but hard to get really smooth, should be strong though and its supposed to stick really well to POR-15.
At lunch I sanded down the filler (my $10 Harbor Freight sander worked well) and used some actual bondo brand filler to skim the low spots. Its important to not use a lot of bondo as its not flexible and will crack and fall off if used in big globs.
After work I sanded the bondo down and hit all those spots with POR-15 again. This time I painted out farther onto the exisiting body work. I also tried to flow a little extra into any little imperfections I found. I'm using POR-15 gas tank filler which is I think just thin POR-15 and it seems to work well for this.
Anyway hopefully today or tomorrow I can sand one more time (need to buy more sandpaper) and start rolling on the color coats.
-Curt
Anyway I worked from home yesterday, before work I put some POR-15 body filler on the dings and dents on the 240D's new hood. The stuff is basically fiberglass resin jelly with some fiber material in it. Its not bad but hard to get really smooth, should be strong though and its supposed to stick really well to POR-15.
At lunch I sanded down the filler (my $10 Harbor Freight sander worked well) and used some actual bondo brand filler to skim the low spots. Its important to not use a lot of bondo as its not flexible and will crack and fall off if used in big globs.
After work I sanded the bondo down and hit all those spots with POR-15 again. This time I painted out farther onto the exisiting body work. I also tried to flow a little extra into any little imperfections I found. I'm using POR-15 gas tank filler which is I think just thin POR-15 and it seems to work well for this.
Anyway hopefully today or tomorrow I can sand one more time (need to buy more sandpaper) and start rolling on the color coats.
-Curt
Saturday, August 23, 2008
On selling cars
So my 240D is not for sale any longer. The Quantum in Iowa was not what I expected and we declined to buy, thus the 240D will become Angie's daily driver.
What amazes me is the stupid questions people asked, it was an $800 car remember? I got a lot of "Does it have issues?" Of COURSE it has issues, its an $800 car. If it was perfect it'd be a $10,000 car...
I spent some time looking at cars on eBay today and noticed one common thread, "The A/C works but doesn't blow cold." Guess what kids, if the A/C doesn't blow cold, IT DOESN'T WORK. The A/C's whole job is to blow cold...
-Curt
What amazes me is the stupid questions people asked, it was an $800 car remember? I got a lot of "Does it have issues?" Of COURSE it has issues, its an $800 car. If it was perfect it'd be a $10,000 car...
I spent some time looking at cars on eBay today and noticed one common thread, "The A/C works but doesn't blow cold." Guess what kids, if the A/C doesn't blow cold, IT DOESN'T WORK. The A/C's whole job is to blow cold...
-Curt
Friday, August 8, 2008
Odometer repair
Ever wonder how the odometer works in your car? Its actually a pretty simple gizmo. The odo in Hammie the 240D is suffering from old Mercedes odometer syndrome (omods). When I owned the car before the odometer worked fine but the trip meter would count up to .9 and stop. Now nothing works at all. A guy from the Mercedes list sent me a bad odo (along with the speedo) that had similar symptoms (no complaints about the trip but the odo didn't work). I took it apart and discovered that there is a metal wheel that is driven by the speedo and then drives the odo. That wheel was slipping on its shaft and thus couldn't be driven properly. After some trial and error I carefully built up the inside of the wheel so it gripped the shaft more tightly and refitted everything together. Now odo and trip meter work fine.
With any luck tonight I'll pull the odo from the 240D and find it has the same problem and the trip meter is similar. Easy fix for no cost with glue I've already got...
-Curt
With any luck tonight I'll pull the odo from the 240D and find it has the same problem and the trip meter is similar. Easy fix for no cost with glue I've already got...
-Curt
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Too many projects
This post title appears in both my blogs but the content is different, check 'em both out.
With the Quantum coming in a couple weeks I need some more space. To get that I need to get rid of a vehicle, so Hammie's got to go. Of course as Hammie is a project vehicle I realize I'm going to take a bath on this.
So, for sale: 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D. Good running 2.4l diesel motor capable of 28mpg, the best tank I had with it was 32mpg but 28 is the average. Its got a brand new exhaust, replacement fog lights and rebuilt door locks. It still needs a replacement hood and to have the parking brake free'd up. I need to put the driver's door panel back together but will do that before sale.
The biggest thing it needs is to be driven, in Mercedes circles we say it needs "An Italian Tune up" which means it needs to have the stink driven out of it.
Anyway I've got $800 into this thing, I want $800 back out of it. Before sale it'll have a fresh oil change, air filter and fuel filter. I should also have the power locking system working again.
If you're interested drop me a note curtludwig@yahoo.com
With the Quantum coming in a couple weeks I need some more space. To get that I need to get rid of a vehicle, so Hammie's got to go. Of course as Hammie is a project vehicle I realize I'm going to take a bath on this.
So, for sale: 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D. Good running 2.4l diesel motor capable of 28mpg, the best tank I had with it was 32mpg but 28 is the average. Its got a brand new exhaust, replacement fog lights and rebuilt door locks. It still needs a replacement hood and to have the parking brake free'd up. I need to put the driver's door panel back together but will do that before sale.
The biggest thing it needs is to be driven, in Mercedes circles we say it needs "An Italian Tune up" which means it needs to have the stink driven out of it.
Anyway I've got $800 into this thing, I want $800 back out of it. Before sale it'll have a fresh oil change, air filter and fuel filter. I should also have the power locking system working again.
If you're interested drop me a note curtludwig@yahoo.com
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Door locks
Got Wilton's package yesterday with 2 replacement door handles and locks, thank you sir!
Turns out the lock tumblers basically fall out of the cylinder when everything isn't all jammed up. So I cut my old driver's side cylinder apart (finished cutting anyway, I'd started last week. Cleaned each tumbler good with a wire wheel and 400 grit sandpaper.
Interestingly my tumblers didn't fit in Wilton's cylinder the same as they fit in mine, odd... I had to use a mixture of his and mine to make it work. Never the less we got there.
So based on what I now know I realized the lock I'd already "freed up" was only set to fail again. So I took it apart once more and freed ALL the tumblers rather than just the 6 that came easily. Then took them out and cleaned 'em real good. I don't know what MB used in these for lube but its yellow and grease like and mine had picked up lots of dirt and turned into concrete. I sanded the cylinder and tumblers with 600grit to make it all work perfectly smooth and then lubed with graphite from a spray can (its in some kind of carrier).
So the locks are DONE. The doors still need to be buttoned up, they need moisture barriers too. I want to hold off on the drivers door as I haven't tested for vacuum leaks there yet. I already did the passenger's side.
Out of time though, gotta go to a barbeque.
-Curt
Turns out the lock tumblers basically fall out of the cylinder when everything isn't all jammed up. So I cut my old driver's side cylinder apart (finished cutting anyway, I'd started last week. Cleaned each tumbler good with a wire wheel and 400 grit sandpaper.
Interestingly my tumblers didn't fit in Wilton's cylinder the same as they fit in mine, odd... I had to use a mixture of his and mine to make it work. Never the less we got there.
So based on what I now know I realized the lock I'd already "freed up" was only set to fail again. So I took it apart once more and freed ALL the tumblers rather than just the 6 that came easily. Then took them out and cleaned 'em real good. I don't know what MB used in these for lube but its yellow and grease like and mine had picked up lots of dirt and turned into concrete. I sanded the cylinder and tumblers with 600grit to make it all work perfectly smooth and then lubed with graphite from a spray can (its in some kind of carrier).
So the locks are DONE. The doors still need to be buttoned up, they need moisture barriers too. I want to hold off on the drivers door as I haven't tested for vacuum leaks there yet. I already did the passenger's side.
Out of time though, gotta go to a barbeque.
-Curt
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Door locks!
So I decided to try cutting the door handles out of the door. Meaning I decided to try cutting the link from the key bit to the lock bit.
Yeah right. Its way up there and goes the wrong way, almost impossible to get at with a dremel, file or hacksaw. Totally impossible for the angle grinder.
So I sat and stared awhile and finally it occured to me to take out the latch mechanism. Thats what the rod attaches to. Once I had that loose I could push it toward the outside of the car, pull the door handle out and rotate the whole handle to free the rod.
Knock the pin out that holds the rod and the lock falls out of the handle. The lock is simplicity itself and is not working because the tumblers won't pull in around the key. I've got the lock assembly sitting in a yoghurt cup of SeaFoam Deep Creep. With luck by morning it'll be all free'd up and I can do the other side.
Yeah right. Its way up there and goes the wrong way, almost impossible to get at with a dremel, file or hacksaw. Totally impossible for the angle grinder.
So I sat and stared awhile and finally it occured to me to take out the latch mechanism. Thats what the rod attaches to. Once I had that loose I could push it toward the outside of the car, pull the door handle out and rotate the whole handle to free the rod.
Knock the pin out that holds the rod and the lock falls out of the handle. The lock is simplicity itself and is not working because the tumblers won't pull in around the key. I've got the lock assembly sitting in a yoghurt cup of SeaFoam Deep Creep. With luck by morning it'll be all free'd up and I can do the other side.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Gadzooks
Already I'm not good about updating this thing, what a drag.
Heres part of the reason why:
Thats Hammie, my 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D. I'd bought him in '03 and then sold him to Devin in '06. Now I've bought him back from Devin again. The economics of the whole thing are astounding. I'll post them if/when I get the car on the road.
You can read the chronicle of the 240D here: http://home.gwi.net/~craymond/mercedes/mercedes.html
Other than that we spent a week at camp which was great. While we were there we pulled my Dad's swamp buggy to the new garage. That was quite an event. I rode from where the buggy was parked to the garage with the Super M tractor in second gear, thats about 2mph... It took forever but any seat time on the tractor is good time. I'll post pics of that later on.
-Curt
Heres part of the reason why:
Thats Hammie, my 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D. I'd bought him in '03 and then sold him to Devin in '06. Now I've bought him back from Devin again. The economics of the whole thing are astounding. I'll post them if/when I get the car on the road.You can read the chronicle of the 240D here: http://home.gwi.net/~craymond/mercedes/mercedes.html
Other than that we spent a week at camp which was great. While we were there we pulled my Dad's swamp buggy to the new garage. That was quite an event. I rode from where the buggy was parked to the garage with the Super M tractor in second gear, thats about 2mph... It took forever but any seat time on the tractor is good time. I'll post pics of that later on.
-Curt
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
What I'm up to
What I'm up to now is mostly waiting. My Honda '82 CB900f motorcycle is down for the count waiting for a new tachometer seal. The seal goes in the valve cover and should (along with a new valve cover seal) stop the flow of oil onto my pants.
My '89 Kawasaki LTD 454 is waiting for the CB900f to get fixed so I can do basically the same fix on it. The idea was I'd have a bike to ride while I was fixing one. It suddenly occurs to me how stupid that sounds... I think tonight I'll take the Kawi apart too. I've got what I hope are all the parts that one needs. That assumes it either doesn't have the same tach seal problem or that if it does the seal won't come apart and I'll be able to fix it with some RTV. The seal on the CB900f totally shredded so there was no chance of sticking it back together.
Sometime this weekend or next week I should get my old '83 Mercedes 240D (Hammie) back. I'd sold it to my friend Devin a couple years ago when I lived in an apartment and couldn't have 3 vehicles. Now we're at a point where a 3rd vehicle would be handy. The plan is for Angie to drive the 240D since it'll get much better fuel mileage. The rub of course is that diesel fuel is more expensive than gas. So I made up a spreadsheet. For giggles I even included myself and my 190D just to see. Assuming the Dakota is getting the 14mpg the EPA originally estimated (the new estimate is 13mpg) and giving the 240D only 24mpg (when I used to commute with it I was getting more like 28) She's paying $5.00 a day now, thats $1250 a year. With the 240D she'll pay more like $3.67 a day which is $916 a year.
So basically she'll save enough to pay for the insurance on the car.
Theres other benefits though. We'll have 3 cars, if one goes down we're covered. This'll allow us some latitude to actually fix up some cars and save money doing it because I can do more of the work myself without worrying that I'll get us into a spot where we won't have a car available. It'll take miles off the Dakota which is nearing the end of its lifespan and finally it'll give us a 4 seater sedan should we have friends over and all want to go someplace together. The Dakota and my 190D are both 4 seat vehicles that only hold 2 people comfortably...
Anyway the first big mission on the 240D will be a new exhaust. I had one put on right after I bought the car 5 years ago (5 years ago last month actually) and the rear muffler has fallen off. A replacement exhaust is around $200, I paid $450 installed last time so we already see big savings. Its also a good excuse for me to buy lift ramps and a floor jack that a guy at work has for sale...
If anybody is interested in the spreadsheet drop me a note and I'll send it to you.
My '89 Kawasaki LTD 454 is waiting for the CB900f to get fixed so I can do basically the same fix on it. The idea was I'd have a bike to ride while I was fixing one. It suddenly occurs to me how stupid that sounds... I think tonight I'll take the Kawi apart too. I've got what I hope are all the parts that one needs. That assumes it either doesn't have the same tach seal problem or that if it does the seal won't come apart and I'll be able to fix it with some RTV. The seal on the CB900f totally shredded so there was no chance of sticking it back together.
Sometime this weekend or next week I should get my old '83 Mercedes 240D (Hammie) back. I'd sold it to my friend Devin a couple years ago when I lived in an apartment and couldn't have 3 vehicles. Now we're at a point where a 3rd vehicle would be handy. The plan is for Angie to drive the 240D since it'll get much better fuel mileage. The rub of course is that diesel fuel is more expensive than gas. So I made up a spreadsheet. For giggles I even included myself and my 190D just to see. Assuming the Dakota is getting the 14mpg the EPA originally estimated (the new estimate is 13mpg) and giving the 240D only 24mpg (when I used to commute with it I was getting more like 28) She's paying $5.00 a day now, thats $1250 a year. With the 240D she'll pay more like $3.67 a day which is $916 a year.
So basically she'll save enough to pay for the insurance on the car.
Theres other benefits though. We'll have 3 cars, if one goes down we're covered. This'll allow us some latitude to actually fix up some cars and save money doing it because I can do more of the work myself without worrying that I'll get us into a spot where we won't have a car available. It'll take miles off the Dakota which is nearing the end of its lifespan and finally it'll give us a 4 seater sedan should we have friends over and all want to go someplace together. The Dakota and my 190D are both 4 seat vehicles that only hold 2 people comfortably...
Anyway the first big mission on the 240D will be a new exhaust. I had one put on right after I bought the car 5 years ago (5 years ago last month actually) and the rear muffler has fallen off. A replacement exhaust is around $200, I paid $450 installed last time so we already see big savings. Its also a good excuse for me to buy lift ramps and a floor jack that a guy at work has for sale...
If anybody is interested in the spreadsheet drop me a note and I'll send it to you.
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