Right. Too much respect for machinery.

I can't remember what they were driving.

I had my '61 220b finney. Nice car. While in Morrocco one night we were coming back over the mountains to Marakech from Agadir on the coast and one of my dash warning lights came on. It was the amp meter.

Next day I changed the brushes on the gen and was running the car to charge the battery up and pulled the choke out a bit to make it idle faster.

Unlike an american car when you pulled the choke out on that car it made it run rich not just fast idle like I was used to so by and by it began running roughly.....it had fouled the plugs.

After a while I figured it out and hitched a ride into an auto parts store and bought some plugs. (Try ordering plugs for a german car in Morrocco from Arabs who speak a little french and no english, without the car there to point at.)

After a lot of sign language they brought out some marchal plugs for it.

They had PINK porcelain!

But they worked just fine.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

My uncle knew a guy that bought his wife a brand new Mercedes for Christmas of 1985... I think it was a brand new 1986 300SDL. It ran fine until she needed "gas" for the first time and forgot and filled up the diesel car with gasoline! I think the car ran for about 45 seconds.

It takes a lot longer than that to do real damage.

Not that you'd want to ever do it at all, though.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

a friend of mine pointed to the brake booster in his volvo asking "is that the alternator?"

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

That reminds me of a classic Top Gear moment...skip to :45

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOiCfRNxO0

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I have a customer who is proud of passing the Michigan drivers test.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/ROAD_SKILLS_TEST_STUDY_GUIDE_05-02_21935_7.pdf

He only took the test 44 times to pass.
He has 9+ minor accidents per month, totals several cars each year, and bought a law firm to deal with those pesky legal matters..

I think of him every time I see one of the Allstate mayhem commercials.

Dean Winters in Allstate Insurance commercial - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtP-S9OS0o0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivijpeZw6EQ

Here in ze Vaterland you are only allowed to take your test a certain number of times, and then you have to wait for a long time to take it again; it keeps atleast the biggest idiots off the road. If they are rich and/or patient however...

Lol, he may be related to a good friend of mine. Owns a 54k jeep that is on its second 3.0 straight 6 engine, 3rd gearbox, and second diff. Its a 2005, I think he averages 1 accident a year, so he's doing better than your customer, but he combines that with doing something to destroy the drivetrain on a semi-regular basis.

Most recently he was looking at some college girls and smacked a stone wall hard enough to shear off the steering box splined shaft and bend all the steering arms.

Wrangler is a good choice of car for constant fender bender people, the bumpers are simple cheap sheet steel, I think he said its between 50 and 100 bucks

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

The stupidest vehicle owner I ever saw was on Reality TV. Paul Tuetel(sp?) of Orange County Choppers drove his perfectly good SUV through offices inside his shop building in order to wreck out the offices within the building. Did the same to the car. For me, that's way more stupid than someone who isn't smart enough to stop driving their car with no coolant.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

well, now you know why I don't watch reality tv.

Unless it's on the street in Detroit, which provides its own type of comedy...

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

A friend of a horror of a neighbor once had a problem with his car. I dunno what the problem was but he’d work under the hood for a while then come around to the driver’s side to try and start the car. It wouldn’t start so he’d kick the steering wheel repeatedly with the bottom of his boot, as if he was trying to kick the steering wheel off the column, and after a few moments he would go back to the engine area and repeat the process.

It was both sad and funny to watch. After 2 days of this a tow truck showed up.

The steering wheel was not damaged as far as I could see, despite the repeated assaults

Several months later the neighbor caught their house on fire and moved away after that. That was a good day.

The 2nd owner of my Gwagen- The ridiculous amount of crap that I had to go through getting it to work again due to his idiocy.

Here is the thread- http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/open-discussion/305584-search-has-finally-ended.html


Here is what really pushed the stupidity over the edge for me. (Quoting from my own thread)


This comment was then followed by "Which Mercedes should I look for in a junk yard to find some used glow plugs."

Wow

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

C'mon, we've all done something like this at least once: The Best of OCC: Sr smashes his old office ! - YouTube

The one that comes to mind isn't actually that bad.

A bunch of us drove in a caravan to a concert in Southern Illinois and were driving back at about 2am when the lead driver suddenly recognized that there was a stop sign. I'm sitting in the back of her Hyundai Santa Fe and "whump!" there's the car behind us. She starts freaking out and jumps out of the car to check the damage.

I jump out of my seat to throw on the 4-ways because this is an unlit intersection in the middle of nowhere, then proceed to go to the back of the car to check things out. I can't find any damage on her car and only a paint smudge on the bumper of the LeBaron following us. She can't see any damage but because it's really dark out she looks at me (the only car guy in the group) for approval to keep driving. Yep, we're fine, let's get going.

We get back to campus and I look again at the LeBaron in the parking lot before going to bed, the scratch I noticed looks to be an old one.

I get a call at 5:45 in the morning from the girl who owned the SantaFe, she's screaming at me over some "huge dent" in her bumper and wants me to haul my but across campus to look at it before she leaves for work. I get there and see this....

(Her car, minus the hitch)

She keeps cursing at me and asking why I'd let her keep going with a huge dent in her bumper.

So I kindly point to the two other "dents" in the bumper on either side of the center "dent". And ask why she bought the car from Hyundai with "dents" in it.

Her mouth dropped open in anger and it took her a few moments for her to realize what was going on. She just got in the car and drove to work without saying a word.

... heck, it was cold that morning and she didn't even bother to drive me back to my dorm...

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Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat

I recondition w123/w126/w124/w140/r107/r129/ steering boxes!


1984 300D "Elsa" odo reset 6/2011 147k
1983 300TD "Mitzi" ~268k OM603 powered
1995 E300 "Adelheid" 262k [Sold]