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..



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!

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

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.

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Bob Roe
Lehigh Valley PA USA
1973 Olds 88, 1972 MB 280SE, 1978 Datsun 280Z, 1971 Ford T-Bird, 1972 Olds 88, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Sentra, 1973 230.6, 1990 Acura Integra, 1991 Volvo 940GLE wagon, 1983 300SD, 1984 300SD, 1995 Subaru Legacy L wagon, 2002 Mountaineer, 1991 300TE wagon, 2008 Murano, 2007 R320CDI 4Matic 52K, some Hyundai, 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, all gone... currently
2007 Honda Odyssey Touring, 2014 E350 4matic

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.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

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

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1983 Euro 240D 277K
2016 Mazda 6
Coming Soon, 2013 Mercedes E350 Bluetec
Formers:
2012- Mazda 3
2007 Outlander- complete pile
1995 E300 Diesel 208K
2007 VW Passat 2.0T 63K SOLD
2003 Jaguar X-type 3.0 Sport Sold 04/11 w/88K
2009 Lexus RX350 9061 miles. Sold 04/09
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS:Totaled Sept.,09 @ 24,000
2003 Infiniti I35 58K Sold
1984 300 turbo diesel 222K

Michigan.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

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

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Gee, where do I start?

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??

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.

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'85 300SD 'Otto' new to us Sept. '07
'82 300SD 'Jurgen' (July '06 fan shaft broke, toasted rad, 3am in the morning 60km from home, walked 16km hitchhiking.... )
'70 SS Chevelle (finally back on my property, in the shop on stands)



"The thinking required to solve a problem cannot be the same thinking used to create it!"-Einstien

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 .


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.

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

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

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

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.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

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.

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

Thanks!

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System