What is the most disrepaired state you have had to drive your Diesel in?
 

All of us have had that experience, you know. The weekend brake job or master cylinder change out or radio install that just doesnt get done Sunday night by 8 PM and you have to jury rig the car to make it be able to get you to work Monday at 5 am through rush hour traffic the next day..


http://home.comcast.net/~snow7ice/hole.jpg
I think things really hit rock bottom once when I decided to rip out every piece of rust in my car and weld in new panels. Boy little chunks of rust in the floorboards turned out to be the size of Manhattan land plots.

The worst thing was, I had to drive the car because the engine and transmission both came from a donor car with 112K on it and the car was mechanically stout. Driving car on the Interstate at 60 mph with the highway beckoning right up at you is kind of a Transmeditative experience. I guess that why they don't put windows on the floorboards...

No, but I once rode in my cousin's car which was missing a good bit of the floor. I thin it was a 1950's vintage Chevy. That IS rather unsettling to see the ground going by that fast under your feet!

Wow, and I thought driving my '84 SD 110 miles with a totally dead battery was something. No speedo, no lights, no power windows, etc.

I'd have to say driving it home after hitting the white oak last winter (not this winter but the year before)

Second favorite driving-disassembled moment, driving it with half the dash pulled out while we changed a/c vacuum pods.

mine was getting it home when the clutch master decided to take a shiz. that was alot of double clutching and "opps" grinding.... i rather not talk about it:D

Michigan.

I've drive home with a broken alternator on a couple of occasions, once for about 1000 miles.

Big fuel leaks mostly. Couple times I got 13 mpg :)

Gee, where do I start? :o

Well before I changed the engine in Jurgen ('82 300sd) we must have driven several thousand miles with a faulty vacuum pump that required me to pop the hood to shut'er down. The wife found this embarassing??:confused:

Shortly after the engine install I discovered a torn boot on the RH axle, so with a piece of thick flexible plastic from one of the kids' popped lake toys, some hay-wire, and most of a roll of duct tape I've got over 5000 mile on it and it's still going. er, would still go if the rad didn't have the fan embedded in it. Oh that reminds me... The night the fan shaft broke and toasted the rad, I tried to repair it with that auto-goop stuff to no avail, so I had to get the car to a safe place (3am with wife and 6 yr-old) so that they could sleep in the car and I hich-hiked (walked 12 miles out of 40) home for the truck. Anyways, with not a stitch of coolant I needed to go about 5 miles. I would get about 3/4 of a mile and the temp would hit 100deg. and I'd shut down for 20-30 min then do it again, there was a hill that got me two miles alone. :D

I’ve driven home 10 miles with a frozen alternator on my 300d using a shoe string to turn the water pump after I cut off the belts :eek:.


I learned this trick in desperation when I threw a water pump/alternator belt on Volkswagen in the middle of nowhere during my cross country move in the 1990’s.

I just happened to have shoe laces in my glove compartment at time. It is now a must for my emergency kit.:D

Wow, that is truly badass.


The worst ive ever driven, I drove my 84 300d the day after it got t boned at 45mph. We bungie corded the doors shut and drove around the block for one final time. Amazing car, still drove straight

I had the driver door panel and door handle off.

The worst drive was the morning the 300 was vandalized to my body shop. I had to drive it 2 miles across downtown Rochester covered in epoxy, ground beef, and every 4 letter word and sexual innuendo ever conceived written across every panel.

I just remembered, I once drove home from KS with a failed flex line on one of my rear brakes. I did a panic stop on I-70 in KS and one of the lines blew (no rear brakes), so I stopped a little sideways. The front brakes were good, so I (carefully) drove the 6-700 miles home.

Actually you had one rear brake working. The brake system is set up in an "X" so if this happens you still have one front and one rear brakes working.

Thanks!

I had the rear seat out because I didn't get to changing the rear shocks the night before.

Other than that my MB's have never really caused me any heartburn on the road.

I thought this car was set up front/rear, but I may be wrong.

Broken alternator.. No heater in below freezing temps and no wipers. No fun.

Come now, gentlemen. This is all very amusing, but I KNOW a few of you out there have tried to drive your Benz half-way through an inst. cluster repair and ended up w/ a lap-full of oil. :rolleyes:

Show of hands?

*raise hand* lol.

I drove one of my w123s briefly w/o a windshield, a barn-find w123 w/ non-existent brakes (ten yr old brake fluid, rusted out discs, & at least one stuck caliper...definitely a "Fletch Lives" moment pulling into the barn lol), an SL w/ a malfunctioning top in sub zero weather (mostly for the looks of incredulity). Non-MBs: My old GMC van after hitting a deer 100mi from anywhere. Had to pull/beat the front crossmember out to get the radiator off the fan and then tie the rad hoses back out of the way. Then we had to stop every to 20mi to fill the rad w/ collected pond water. Worked great until the rope that was tying the rad back got saturated & stretched enough to get one of the rad hoses into the fan... poof, blinded by steam... And an old International Scout w/ a 5gal bucket for a drivers seat.

Damn fine thread gentlemen.

I drove Scar around the back roads around here so I could make sure the engine and tranny were good. {engine has been in China for 10K miles now so I think it was good. ;)}

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../MB300D004.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...MBStuff012.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...MBStuff020.jpg

drivers seat was not secured to the floor, all door panels off, drivers front and passenger rear didn't have latches so they would fly open.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...MBStuff018.jpg

Oh, and he didn't have any shocks installed either so it was waaay bouncy. :eek:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../Scar001a1.jpg

He was a good car, though....... {now that was dis-repair}

Here too. '83 300SD. About 130 miles. Driving from Tuscaloosa, AL. to Jackson, MS. Late afternoon, December, getting cold, no heat hardly any lights, by nightfall pulled in to the La Quinta in south Jackson, and shut it down for the night. Next morning jumped by MB Roadside service, drove to dealership and changed-out alternator on dealer's parking lot.

I've done the cluster out/oil on pants routine once. Not fun and hasn't happened again.

My friend wins. He drove his 240d around for a few days with no dash. Everything looked pretty funny. I'm sure more was out of the car as well. I don't think his dash is back in right yet.

http://www.maj.com/gallery/Boardmonger/w123/2400.jpg

My dad has driven with a door panel off in his SD......he was working on repairing rust.

I have driven with a dead alternator (and then battery when it got dark) for 350 miles or so.....other than that I've never really driven with the car in a state of disrepair....I've fixed/replaced so much that there's not really anything that can go wrong. :D :D :D ;)

And as babymog said, Michigan. :D Its quite a disrepaired state. They say we have no money to fix the roads....thats a scary thought....its already autocross out there! :eek:

Yup. I was on my way to visit my mom; when the battery finally went very low about 10 miles from her place at night I was driving on I-81 using others' taillights to navigate the highway. I let it run overnight and went to work late so I could drive it during daylight. Two hour drive with no speedo, turn signals, etc etc... as well as no way to use headlights in the construction zones... oh well :D

MB? in Disrepair?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHmFkKulojI

My poor wife drove around in her 300D for 2 weeks with a gutted interior, no trim, bumpers, grille etc when we decided to repaint her car and hated the "Viper Red" we (she) had chosen. We reshot it in a GM color that is very close to Signalrot and it turned out pretty well.

The OP will identify with this....

While not a diesel,I had a brain fart with my 250C.

I was in the process of a brake job and had all four calipers off for rebuild, when I needed to make an emergency repair on Linda's 87 300TD.

So I put the wheels on the 250C, and moved her outside.

A few days (and adult beverages) later, I put the 250C back in the shop. Fired up fine, idled into the shop, then when I went to stop, the pedal goes to the floor, and I coast right into the beer fridge.

There is still a horizontal crease in the door, right about W114 bumper height to remind me.:)

Jim

Steering pump locked up...Serpentine belt broke....Dash lights came on like a Christmas tree and coolant temp started to rise (very quickly).

It was 10 o' clock at night. I was 6 miles from my house. With no way of getting that waterpump to perform its purpose.

I was betting against a #14 head...Had to use very low energy, so as not to kill the battery...And starting and stopping, so that the engine didn't overheat. But of course, doing this sucked the life out of the battery.

I feathered the pedal, coasted in neutral whenever possible, and shut down every 1 - 2,000 feet or so. But, by the grace of God, I made it. And the head was/is still fine.

drove a dodge colt with only a drivers seat and cluster for a week..


drove the 300 for a day with only a drivers seat(dash was still on)

I envisioned this event in my head and was then unable to stop laughing. :D :D ;)

My first car - a 63 beetle. Holes in the floor, 40 horse engine usually running on 3 cylinders, no heat (too many leaks in the heat exchangers), no defrost etc. I scrapped it an bought a 66 beetle that at least was solid. It had other problems - once the generator caught fire - fortunately the bearings were still OK, so I disconnected its electricals and drove on home. Later the starter died, so I drove it for 3 months and only parked on hills.

I suppose my dad did drive his in a semi-disabled way. His starter solenoid was starting to stick real bad (as did the bendix) and so he drove around with a metal pole and hammer in the trunk so he could beat on the starter if it wouldn't fire. :D :D After about 3-4 months of that he finally got fed up with it and replaced it. :D

Driving around in my van with no engine cover was fun for a week. Driving a VW bettle back in the late 60s and going through a deep puddle and finding out that when the heater system scoops up water it shoots steam into the car and you can't see anything at all and this happens instantly. I worked with a guy that drove across the US with no motor mounts and his engine tied in with rope. And a lot of other stuff I can't think of now. Oh yea, driving my old truck at around 60 MPH on the highway and suddenly having the dash catch fire was lots of fun.

:eek: THAT'S the one I'm just waiting for in the Mercedes. All these various electrical gremlins that pop up where you least expect them.... strip fuses in plastic holders that melt/burn the holders rather than burning in two.... I'd really like to avoid it but every time I have climate control problems I wonder if the dash is going to start smoking.

Dec 05 a month after purchasing my 97 e300d, I was at a christmas party and as I was pulling in I heard a wheel bearing start to screech, later that night I drove home 60 miles. Next morning I backed out the garage and the wheel just about fell off, the outer bearing was completely gone, when I pulled the wheel off, the inner race had welded itself to the spindle. Drove alot summer 06 without properly functioning AC and aux fans that werent working. Last week, drove home from Philly with no tailpipe, and was praying that the exhaust wouldnt melt a hole in the bumper.

Oh geez....

I used to have to do that with my first Mercedes.

Back in 1973, I bought a 190SL. Starter was sticking, so I kept a broom handle in the back of the passenger compartment.

For the 1 out of 10 times the starter would stick, I'd drop the top, open the front hinged hood, grab the broom handle, stand up and lean over the windshield and bang on the starter whilst I held the starter button in.

Great fun on dates......

Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTN__QQZf3U&feature=related

Here you go, this one is pretty beat!:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqM5T9S3g0Q&feature=related
Hung up on a rock, classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ItrcvU7kI&feature=related

The red fender is really awsome!:D

I'll go with my first Beetle, driving my older sister to college, LR wheel & brake drum came off at 60mph, chased it across the freeway and put it back on the axle spindle (castle nut still in the hubcap) and locked it on with a hairpin in her luggage, ... on the way home (~200miles) the throttle cable broke, I wedged it on the high-idle cam for the rest of the trip home and just shut it down to stop. Later that year the same car lost the clutch cable (a pattern forming here) and I drove it for two days without, just started in 2nd gear and went from there.

The car cost me $150, drove it all winter and sold it in the spring for $1000, loved those little creatures.

Nope you are incorrect, brakes are front/rear with all w123 and w126 mercedes. If you dont believe, just follow your brake lines.

Thanks, that's what I thought.

Driving on the Apache trail north east of Phoenix and my brake booster went out, then the brakes overheated. One lane dirt road with no where to pull over (except over half mile high cliffs). A lot of engine braking and foot dragging going on, even had to scratch the paint a few times to slow down, definitely was not my best day.

Didn't the car fall on the ground/get damaged when the wheel came off?? :eek: :dizzy2:

I learned driving through PA how careful you need to be with huuuuge hills and such....you can destroy the brakes in no time. I just kept it in S or L the whole time and engine braked down the hills....still needed the brakes sometimes though! Insane when the hills are steep enough to drag the engine/car when its in 2nd/3rd gear. Wshew. Some of the hills I could barely break 35-40mph going up, even with it floored in 2nd/3rd gear. :dizzy2:

in my younger days I regularly drove my 67 beetle around with no brakes... smart I know... the ebrake worked, and with engine braking I could get the car safely to work and back... terrifies me to think about it now...
I also drove my 72 cellica around with no hood, and a massive oil leak and no gas gauge, and a rusted out gas tank and bald tires... I regularly stopped into a gas station to fill the oil and dip the gas tank to see how much was still in there... man I miss that car.... real fun sporty car.
the worst had to be driving the 78 pinto though... the old 4cyl motor had a press in fuel line that routinely popped out of the carb while going down the road... I'd pull over when it died and push it back in and continoue down the road... until the volume of fuel sprayed all over the motor finally ignited and sent the car to a fiery grave... the fire department came to my rescue or so I thought... they just let the car burn (it was just a pinto after all) and they contained the fire from taking down too much of the forest I was parked next to on the side of the road... that black column of smoke sure was tall...

Oddly enough, no.

I had just shifted into 4th gear, full throttle, loud exhaust (had replaced the glass-filled tips with "megaphones"), all of a sudden the engine revved. I reached down and shifted out/in gear thinking it had popped out, just about that time I saw the wheel rolling past my window and launch as it hit the berm. The car barely dropped when the suspension went down on the brake backing plate.

I stand corrected:).

Driving around with the dash removed is kinda fun. I put an old oil pressure gauge on the hose so i wouldn't get an oil shower and went down town, was fun too catch some "double takes"

Wow that was this past fall when I took my 240d to the state inspection station. When they jammed the brakes on..the rear break line burst. I had to decide wether to have towed or not...drove it in the parking lot and the front brakes held well and the emergency brake work just fine so I drove 10 miles home with no rear brakes leaving lots of stopping distance between me and the cars in front of me. Then again it is a 240d so how fast could i really be going.

-- Liz

I'm not going to recommend anything, but I once drove my 300D from KS to denver with a burst rear brake line. The front brakes do most of the stopping, but do leave plenty of extra room.

The worst thing that happened to me was having an alternator puke and having to drive around on the battery. Since I didn't find an alternator fast, it stayed that way for a couple of days, even when going to work! I just tossed a battery charger in the trunk so I could plug my battery in at work and make it home.:D