Well we are back!

Its dark now, so couldn't check out the car all the way...

but I looked under the rear, the spare tire well is all messed up....going to have to get a can of rubber under coating and tare care of that...

The worse thing I can see, is that I blew out two axle boots, no idea how...they were newish. Not sure if they tore when I bottomed out, or how....I am just going to fill them with bearing grease and duct tape them for now....not sure when I can take care of them or how....big frown

The road into Arizona..

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Well that is wonderful and really nice that you had a great trip! - and a safe one also. Yes those boots will come apart and it is difficult to tell why at times. I have heard that some of the replacement boots are rather poor quality. I don't know how long duct tape will hold the grease in, typically tape and grease don't work together two well. What caused the tire well to get messed up. That is pretty high off the ground to hit something. Is it just scraped or is it dented in.

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

Yeh, it turns out it was poor rubber quailty. I crawled under the car, and you can see that the boot is cracked....love it! The other appears to have slipped off, so I added in grease and put a worm clamp on it to keep it on...It is just scrapped, small dented....it was caused by the damn driveways going into gas stations and stores...

THANKS! I don't have the money at this time to do anything really with them, but when I get there....I will let you know!

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What about using the axles from the 78??? Just for now since that is down IIRC.

That is a possibility, I plan to work on the 78 this coming month. If I removed the axles, I could probably just take em into the local diesel shop and have them stretch some boots on.....

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Great sounding trip. Reminds me of the old days where we went long distances in older vehicles without a lot of money. Always camped out as well.

Strange looking back we never had a serious breakdown on any of them. Although on my travels from the east coast in later years with more modern cars. Lost a rear wheel bearing and a front cv joint.

Both changed out myself as there were no garages locally that could get the car in promptly if any. Amazing what tools a total stranger could borrow back then. What population that remained seemed to have become more self sufficient.

What had changed over the years was the small general car service shops had pretty much dried up. Plus earlier all the interstate road improvements where far from completed so you went through all the small towns on your path.

It almost looked like the local economies had pretty much failed and the population was dwindling in many areas of the northeast by then. No railway passenger trains or buses. Not much left of anything actually unfortunately. I think the term for what we did earlier was busman's holidays.

ok, I can loan you the flex gun boot stretch tool... or you can ship me your axles, or I can send you a set of rebooted axles... lemme know which is best for you via PM.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!