Beginning to think this car was a bad idea
 

Once again, I drove an hour and a half from home to work on the 300D. Once again, I'm filled with a not so pleasant feeling.

To start, I put the replacement Bundt on that I picked up. I discovered the wheel bolts that are on the car now are clearly too short. Most of them only catch by a few threads. No problem, I think I picked up a few that should do the trick. After standing back and admiring my work, I realised something was wrong. As it turns out, one Bundt, not the one I justreplaced, is a 6" version. Just great. I now have 3 6'5" wheels and one freakin' 6".

After this fiasco, I checked all of the wheels for part numbers, and while jacking up the front passenger side, an upper control arm bushing gave out, and slipped halfway out of the arm. Perfect.

I decided something simple was in order. I diagnosed the fuel gauge as good, and the sender as bad. Upon pulling the sender and disassembling it, I find one wire loose, but otherwise undamaged. I soldered the mess back together, and then tested it by moving the float and watching the fuel gauge. Success! At least, until I put it back in the car.

While the sender was filling with fuel, I watched the gauge rise. At around half full, the gauge needle began twitching, telling me that although the wire has been cleaned, the float contacts obviously need work. I decide to take the shake-shake-shake approach. Result: The two solder connections I didn't touch come loose, and both the nichrome and the copper wire tangle and end up destroyed.

Holy crap, people. Today is sucking. I'm not even going to think about adjusting the valves today for fear that something terrible will happen. I'm not even sure that I want anything to do with the car at this point. I'm seriously frustrated with this thing.

Tell me other people have this kind of luck.

I've had those days and I've actually had those kind of weeks. However, on the whole, the cars deliver.

I've discovered that upon purchasing my MB's that they typcially need some attention. But after 5-6 small to medium sized jobs, they usually balance out.

I've had things go wrong for several weeks in a row and I've had 22 months in a row without touching a daily driver. Wierd.

Hang in there and re-evaluate after a year or so.

dp

It takes some time to work the bugs out of a "new" vehicle. In your case, the vehicle is 30 years old and probably was neglected for the past 10 years as a minimum.

So, it's a long, slow, tedius process to address all the "issues".

I purchased the '87 about 18 months ago and I'm still working through it's issues. It takes awhile.

Eventually, however, they do become excellent drivers. The '84 is currently in this condition.

I've decided that I'm just cursed, today. So, I calmed down a bit and stared at the car for a minute or two. I figured I'd try getting the manual antennae up and clean it with some solvent to free it up.

A few tugs and pulls later, the thing was moving pretty nicely. In fact, I chuckled to myself while extending it as if to say, "Screw you, bad luck. I'm in charge here!"

...Then it came apart in the middle.

I think I'll just go see what else breaks. May as well find it all today and be done with it. Why have ten bad days when you can have just one, right?

Anyone happen to know the resistance per foot of the nichrome wire used in the fuel sender? I can fix it, but it's gonna need new wire, and I'm having a heck of a time getting it near straight enough to measure with my ohm meter. Yeah, I know I could just buy a new sender, but I can fix this with the right wire, and save a lot of cash in the process.

Junkyard sender might be an easier and cheap enough replacement. An approach that is good for the head is just to tackle one job at a time forgetting totally about the next one. Before you know it you will be all done.

I would leave the car for a week. Brian is 100% right - I'm in the process of working bugs out. I checked both rear bearings last week, and thought that they were both noisy. Took off the left rear knuckle, scraped the lower bushing, but the bearing was really noisy. Took of the other, bearing is a-ok, but I scraped the bushing anyways.... It's not about the $50 for a new one.... it's about the wasted time and the fight to get seized bolts off.....

Needless to say, I didn't go 'short' hunting yesterday... Kinda peeved about taking something off for nothing....

Hang in there.....!!!
 

Lately I have been doing mostly cosmetic things......however, I had begun to hear a bearing "rumble' and correctly diagnosed it as the left front wheel bearing, replaced that, but while I was doing that, I did a little more examining in the area...found the boot on the left front ball joint to be torn and some movement in there.....no tire wear yet.....I need to drive about 1000 miles next week....so I will address that issue later.....this car is old enough to vote, and I expect to find stuff.....and I look for it.....so that I don't get into trouble on the side of the road.....

Hang in there, it will get better......as you repair broken or marginal items you will get to a point where "immediate" repairs become a memory:rolleyes:

SB

Dude, I just cleaned replaced injectors/replaced GP harness/purged/replaced fuel lines, still ahve a "stumbling issue" which I suspect is a bad seal in one of the jugs. Oh yeah. But I';d like to drive the car until October...

Par for the course buying a 220K mile car.

Now you're learning to double check everything - dont assume ( wheel width), and go the extra mile ( like soldering all the connections, not just the broken one).

Suck it up and drive on, it'll be worth it in the end.

First car I worked on was my parents 75 Nova. ( which I coveted bad). Long story short, a bolt was left inside the 4bbl intake mani I swapped on. The ran great for about one minute, then chugga-chugga CLANG! No start, no turnover, no nothing but the solenoid clinking once.. :confused:

Had to have one of the seniors ( gearhead) in high school stop by, when he went to pull #1 wire to check for spark, the plug AND part of the head came with it.

Coolant puked out of the hole. :eek:

Now THAT is a bad effin day! :)

But my parents sold me the car cheap eventually.

As I continue to work on different things with the car to get it stable. I am glad I have something else to drive and it is not the only mode of transportation. Then I can walk away from it and regroup.

Which ball joint? I replaced the entire UCA, which is easier than dealing with the ball joint itself, you get new rubber bushings too. Lower, different story. Enjoy the race.

i wouldnt worry about valves. headwork is easy. i could do it in my sleep. but i would worry about the timing chain that could cause some low end damage and that would not be good. only reason i say that is because the lower end damage = money where as headwork= less money.

Its best to have two cars when sorting out one of these.

A Mercedes and a Toyota makes a good combo. Because when the Mercedes is broke the Toyota will always get you to work.

Or you can buy several Mercedes and just rotate them in for repairs.:D

The Fleet approach, I like it.

Hmmmm, a '77 300D, where are you located, it's cursed too right? I guess I could be convinced to take all those demons off your hands;) HEAL THY SELF YOU DIESEL BURNING SNAFU!!!!! OUT! OUT! DAMN TARFU DEMONS!! BE GONE WITH YE FUBAR GRIMLINS!!!:D

I have to admit that I laughed when I read everything that went wrong. Sometimes things are just like that. I usually take a deep breath and walk away for a few minutes and regain my composure. Sometimes I just leave it alone and wait until the next day to continue. I bought an '82 240D a while back and it seemed that everytime I fixed something, something else would break. Every weekend I was replacing something on that car. Its all part of the sorting process we do when buying an old car. Now it runs great. You'll get there one day too. Don't get discouraged.

Scott