no rust whatsoever. Caliifornia for life.

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Janet
1979 240 D China Red SOLD
1973 GMC Green Service Truck w/ lift

janetcunningham@earthlink.net
Phone 323 668-2211

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Janet
1979 240 D China Red SOLD
1973 GMC Green Service Truck w/ lift

Thank you Just sent you an E-mail...

Go for it WARDEN !

Great CARcass ! jeje, nice color scheme.

good luck.

D

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

{on edit} And...the car's gone. I assume that someone beat me to it, but I didn't talk to her long enough to get any details (I sort of had the impression that she was politely trying to get me off the phone).

C'est la vie, eh? Back into running this car into the ground...

Hi
Sorry if I sounded short on the phone. I'm a landscaper and came home soaking wet after tweeking a watering system. Cold and dirty.

As for the car, someone who knows the car is trying to make arrangements to have it towed to his mechanic. The longer it's in jail, the more expensive it all becomes. I haven't heard from him today. I told him I would be home by 4. I'll keep you posted. It's a nice car and I'd love to see it go somewhere where it will live on.
Janet

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Janet
1979 240 D China Red SOLD
1973 GMC Green Service Truck w/ lift

No problem; I know what those sorts of days are like. Heaven knows I've had them myself (from too many years working on Sea Scout boats)...

If the arrangements fall through, please let me know...I think I left my number on a voicemail message yesterday, or you can E-mail me at warden@dieselwarden.net . I've got a good 617 turbo in an otherwise dying car (that's my daily driver, so I need to address the issue PDQ and this seems like the ideal way to handle it) that can be swapped in after school lets out...

Thanks again!
-Tim

Janet, sorry to see you've thrown in the towel on the pretty red Benz. I hope it's just temporary - your end goals of higher fuel mileage and possible biofuels are very sound.

I'd suggest a plan for the future:
1. Consider most people have gas cars. The free help you get (except here) is based on experience with quick fixes on gas engines. You've already learned that. So the ultimate source of brains and tools and time is you and you alone. You've learned that too.
2. You need knowledge and experience to work on older cars. Experience comes with time (here or under the hood). Find that beginning or home auto mechanic course at a local community or technical college. If they don't offer a diesel course then it's self-study time. Nigel Calder authors an excellent book on diesel engines - for boats, but diesel is diesel and this book is oriented towards beginners. Try Powells Books from Portland, OR (www.powells.com). Non-Amazon with real people. Then you need the service manual(s) for the vehicle you're working on.
3. Older vehicles will take time and space. Time to get it into shape so you aren't working on it every other day. Space to work on it without interruption. I've changed starters and water pumps in store parking lots, but only after I got good at it - before that happened I towed the vehicle to a place with space and time.
4. You need tools and tools cost money. Remember that tools are a lifetime investment if you buy good tools and tools are dumb. An adjustable wrench, with a little imagination, will get the job done 75% of the time. For the other 25% you need to decide if the cost of the tool is less than paying somebody to do the job. The tool usually wins, especially if you'll need to do the job more than once.

Working on older vehicles may or not be your cup of tea. It's no big deal when you see all the new cars out there. Only you can decide what's fun for you.

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daBenz - 1970 220D

dabenz
I appreciate your advice. I'm pretty self sufficient and like to take care of things myself. If I get another Mercedes, I will look into a class. I've worked on most every vehicle that I've ever owned, until the work became too physically heavy for me to handle. I have space, I have quality basic tools and invested in more for this car.

The red one has found a good home, and I'm happy about that. I just couldn't invest any more money in it. I bought two vehicles last year to the tune of 6000.00 and have nothing to show for it. The other one is going to the dump, as soon as I find a good car. It failed smog as a gross polluter. I'm not going to put any money into it either.

So, it's been a trip. I like the idea of bio diesel, and I like tinkering with the car myself. It gives me some kind of pleasure, but then, so does building hills and planting trees.
Thanks for everything, everyone

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Janet
1979 240 D China Red SOLD
1973 GMC Green Service Truck w/ lift

I didn't mean the GMC Service truck is going to the dump. It's a beauty and will run forever. Anyway, it's too old to smog.

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Janet
1979 240 D China Red SOLD
1973 GMC Green Service Truck w/ lift

the new owner and I exchanged papers, etc today. It's been a story on this one. The lovely little red one has journied to a new life, hopefully a good one.

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Janet
1979 240 D China Red SOLD
1973 GMC Green Service Truck w/ lift

Glad to hear about 'diametricalbenz' taking over the charge and I am truly sorry to read and participate in what was to be your 'first' MBZ experience.
Rest assured that the next one will be outliving all of us, between the forum and myself we will try to do our best to outfit you with the best car around and giving you years of pleasure nad, perhaps, the 'kick' of driving my self-made WVO!

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"Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss":

1979 300D 234.000 Miles "Brownie"
daily driver,
1979 6.9 Sundays to the Tavern
and car shows "Big Brownie"

We'll have to see how things go Monday. We/I have to deal with CA DOT or some bureacracy to get the vehicle release form (due to the registration lapse) which cannot be done on the weekend (why can't there be at least one central office that is open on the weekends?) as the tow company did not inform us ahead of time. So there's another 2 days on impound fees. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

If anyone's still following Janet's thread here's the latest in my efforts to give a good car one more chance

I bolted from work at noon yesterday and ran over to the traffic and parking enforcement division over by the USC Health Science Campus. Got the "vehicle release" in about 10 minutes and raced over to the impound yard where a big chunk of change was put out to get it out of impound. I might add that the other people in the lobby reeked of alcohol at 12:25PM In any case, I went to the alternate lot where the car was stored (an old rail switching yard) and was golf carted around until we found the car sitting in the dusty yard. We returned to the main office (er...trailer) whereby the attendant towed the car to the visitor parking lot area where I noticed a lot fluid dripping from the engine block. I looked unerneath and saw what looked like oil seeping from around the oil pan gasket. I opened the hood and saw that all of the injector lines were removed and there was diesel dripping everywhere on the engine (from the compression test?) About 10 minutes later the tow truck arrived to take it over to Santa Monica. It arrived at about 2:30PM intact My indie is busy this week so we'll see how things go. I would have liked to take on this project myself but I still don't feel comfortable working on this myself due to the lack time, space, and hands on experience. Hopefully that situation will change soon.

Hopefullly we'll find out on more on Thursday.

__________________
1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

...Good Luck!

__________________
"Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss":

1979 300D 234.000 Miles "Brownie"
daily driver,
1979 6.9 Sundays to the Tavern
and car shows "Big Brownie"