Before doing anything else, I'd swap out the fan belt. It's overheating and not charging. Both those things can be caused by a slipping belt. I've had a belt that was tight and appeared good but was slipping and I couldn't tell. Once I put on a new belt the problems went away. There's probably a single belt on that motor I think.

One relevant piece of advice: always buy a round trip ticket with a return flight the day following viewing the car when purchasing a vehicle at a distance. It takes the pressure off the purchase. I learned this the hard way.

Always buy a round trip ticket ... It takes the pressure off the purchase. I learned this the hard way.

Me too.... LOL.

the old girl is sitting right now. Doing the injectors, adjusting the valves, new return lines, brakes, and balancing the tires since she's not really safe to drive. Plus, I REALLY NEED TO TRACK DOWN THE THROTTLE LINKAGE and the steel cable deal. Anyone have one for sale out there ???
I got a lead on NEW, but I would rather buy used !

A fan belt for a 240 is needed as the 300na is the same. The 300 turbo belt is slightly narrower , using two belts and the narrower 300 turbo belt will slip on this 300 na car. Because the 300na was not offered here if you look it up in the book you will see what is needed for the 300 turbo. I was pretty sure it had the wider belt, but I could be wrong about it.

Sheet metal and rivets, use it as a test bench. Drive it until it's gone.

Think of it this way, you paid:
$1,000 for a 5spd
$500 for a 617NA
$500 for a parts car

It has the 300d flywheel too.

Cha Ching! Add $400-$500 to the total.


.

Happy Halloween -- & some light maintenance
 

Happy Halloween everyone !

Got home before it got dark and handing out candy, so I figured I would tackle a few things which annoyed me.

1. New wiper blades. Had these left over from when my car got totaled last year. These were super nice ones.

2. Washed the windshield and hit it with the RainX

3. Replaced the washer resevoir pump deal AND discovered that the hose was being pinched in-between the hood hinge. I get a nice blast now !

4. Disabled what remained of the EGR. Hunting the yards / forums for a non-EGR manifold. And, cleaned up the vacuum tubing set-up with a nice 3-way vs. the 5-way and extension which had screws blocking off the various ports.

5. Got the answer to my other post about the correct fluid for the trans. That's some work I am planning tomorrow evening.

MUCH NEEDED MAINTENANCE
 

I went ahead and did some long needed maintenance.

I changed the differential oil. It came out like water. Not a great sign.:confused:

I changed the trans fluid twice. I put in some mediocre stuff. MANY THANKS for all the posts I got to my thread on Transmission Gurus. :) The old came out like used gas engine oil, blackish but no burnt smell. I flushed it with Dexron. Drove about 1-2 miles and let it drain. It came out not perfectly pink, but close enough. Then, I put in the really good stuff. I got a super deal at Autozone at $5 bucks a quart and I got a $5 coupon. So, not so bad. :) I think I will need to re-torque the drain bolt and fill plug since I just tightened till it felt it was going on too tight.

The trans drives MUCH BETTER ! :) No question about it. However, I still got the grind, but instead of 2-5 miles per hour to shift or grind, I can now go about 5-7 miles per hour. Overall, very happy with the trans fluid flush and refill. But, there is something up mechanically with 3rd shifting to 2nd.

I was going to brag about my leak free engine. Not. :( Got a nice drip now going on at the front of the oil pan. There's some sore of weird bar with the engine shock absorbers blocking some of the pan, so not sure how easy it is going to be to replace the pan gasket. Normally a 45 minute job, but now who nows.

Also, just realize no back up lights. Need to chase that problem down. now.

This weekend I am popping in the Elsbett Injectors, adjusting the valves, and new valve cover gasket. Then, I am putting in my mechanical steering box. The box now (power) does not leak and it is in decent shape. I have that up for sale (the entire PS system), so I can vouch for it being in good shape. Same with front window regulator. They are the only 2 things right now without any issues. Knock on wood.

Hopefully, I can get the trunk lock installed, but I need to find my key, but it does not really matter a bunch since I cannot lock the front doors yet because the inside door handles are broken and that is somehow stopping the key from working. I think I located the spot where my spare thermostat is hiding in my clutter so that may be a quicky this weekend as well since after I get the throttle linkage fixed, I will be able to drive the car around without a lot of worry. Again, thanks for the posts and info !!!!

opps double picture
 

Pic from front

Aren't the back up lights hooked up to the NSS? Since this car is a conversion for an auto (right?), is the NSS still there?

Have you checked the voltage at the battery to figure out what was happening with the dead battery?

The system is charging OK. It was the battery. The battery was nothing more than a chunk of lead. It was junk. I took it to Autozone and they hooked it up to a meter and it was like 10V (I think ... could have been lower) instead of 12V+. I drove the car 13 hours so it should have been charged anyway. I had to buy a new battery and it works fine now.

As for the back up lights, I will check to see if the car has bulbs. First step. If it has bulbs, then I need to check to see if they are burned out. I do have a set of wires on both sides of the trans just dangling so not sure what they are. I will remember my digital camera to take better pictures.

Right now the bigger issues are the overheating, the lack of a throttle linkage, lack of emergency brakes, and no locks. I drove it today to do the maintenance. Once I get the major mechanical and safety issues tackled, then I can focus on the fine tuning. Also, the old girl needs an exhaust sytem. The header pipe is totally rotten and partially broke off.

Not the smartest thing, but I could not help myself
 

Drove the old girl this AM, which was not the smartest thing since I got to get a few things under control first, but I could not help myself. Just love the old diesels. :) Had the tires re-balanced last evening on top of some other maintenance, e.g., tranny flush and refill and differntial fluid change, and got about 50% of the shimmy and shake out of the front end. 3 out of 4 were out of balance. I am thinking the hubs need to be rebuilt as well plus most of the rubber boots on the joings look beat. One thing at a time:cool:

Taking my lunch break in the parking lot to try to adjust the rear brakes again. 3x's a charm I hope. And, hoping an ever so slight turn on the hex's on the oil pan will stop the leak I developed a few days ago.

Time for more maintenance
 

In between painting shutters, and watching paint dry, I figured I would do a quicky valve adjustment job, valve cover gasket, and pop in some nicely done injectors with Elsbett Nozzles. Big mistake. I realized while pulling off the valve cover, the PO used silcon caulk to seal the old girl up. That crap was everywhere, inside and out. So, lesson one: NEVER, NEVER USE SILCON CAULK SEALER ON THE VALVE COVER GASKET. It will get INSIDE your engine. I pulled off bits and pieces of that crap. That took almost an hour alone.

So, after loosing the sun since it was no longer a 1-1 1/2 hour job, I invested some time on my newly bought Horrible Frieght 6" Buffer and I buffed the Valve Cover. It got pretty shinny for my first time. Learned a lot about buffing so the next time I adjust the valves, I will make it look like a mirror.

Then, pulling the injectors was fun too. The return lines literally just poped off. No tugging like normal -- they just flipped right off but that explains the heavy weeping. I discovered that 2 of the heat shields were put in wrong. They look like they rotted away also. So, I went ahead and install new heat shields correctly, then Rebuilt Injectors with Elsbett Nozzles and some new return line. The old injectors peed almost as much as they popped. The injectors were in very sad shape. :(Also, I had to take out the "throttle linkage" which also had me concerned since that thing is a piece of work ! LOL :eek:

I slapped the old girl back together and off we went like crazy. 100% improved performance. I can tell the old girl has much more muscle and responsiveness, but 2 major problems: She still overheats and although the valve cover very slight oil leak is gone, the oil pan leaves a hand sized dropping whereever I park it. So, that is the next major project !

And the Overheating Riddle is Solved
 

So, realizing that I had about 2 good hours to work on the old girl on Sunday, I made the most of it. I determined that no way is the belt "slipping" so I found one of my stashed thermostats. A Behr 80C -- a nice little gem. I tried removing the old one but snapped 2 bolts. They were frozen in there good. I then realized that the gasket fossilized, so who knows how old that deal is. BUT, I got the snapped bolts out and installed the new thermostat. GUESS WHAT -- No more overheating ... at least yet. :D The lower radiator hose is about ready to go. Rotten at the bottom, but I am OK with that until it explodes since I do not want to invest any money on the cooling system now when I am working on converting to EWP. However, she really does drive nice now.

So, just celebrated my first week with "The Sleeper" and

1. I drained, flushed, and refilled the tranny
2. drained and refilled differential.
3. Oil and oil filter change
4. Adjust the Valves and VC Gasket
5. New Injectors with Heat Shields.
6. New Thermostat and gasket with new bolts
7. Adjusted rear parking brakes although they are basically shot

As for things fixed, here's a partial list

1. Fuel Sending Unit
2. Washer Fluid Resevoir and pump
3. Trunk opened but no new lock yet

Things that must get done this week:

1. New Oil Pan and Gasket. Need to figure out how to save or capture my new oil since that costs more than a new oil pan and gasket. That is sad ...

2. Exhaust. Header pipe is half way busted right now. I got a new header pipe and new manifold gasket. I got some serious manifold leaks also.

3. Tracking down any more leaks since I am finding them here and there.

4. Finding my key to the trunk lock and fixing the front door locks so I can lock the doors.

MODS which I missed out this weekend because of the extra work involved in Maintenance

1. Getting rid of the Power Steering and putting in the mechanical box

2. Getting rid of the non functioning A/C system. I won't need it until March so I got time to rebuild it correctly.

3. Installing my 150 AMP Altenator

4. Relocating my new battery to the trunk

5. Installing my WVO system -- way over engineered but I like it. :D

Right now, she's doing ok and coming back slowly.