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What repair do you fail at?
Hey everyone,
Just thought I'd vent a bit about my recent failures on my 420SEL and 300SD. I'm hanging up my hat and never going to replace another pan gasket on these cars. Gah. What disappointments. First car, the 420SEL. Whole endeavor was to replace the leaky oil level sender seals. That was easy. Got my new pan and gasket all in place. Went nice and slow, torqued them down as per spec. OH LOOK. A LEAK. So I snug up the ones around the leak by a 1/4 turn, move the car, and check again. OH LOOK LESS LEAK BUT STILL A LEAK. I threw in the towel, I wasnt about to replace the gasket and lose the oil only to fail a second time. Send it to the shop, they replaced it and the same o-rings that I did. I should have been more clear in my note I suppose. Second car, 300SD. Transmission has been flaring when cold but once it was warm is was perfect. After I did the spring kit it had a small leak at the passenger front corner. So I said I'm not playing games, new pan + new gasket, $65. My other 300SD I over-torqued the pan, broke the gasket and it leaked a river a few days later. Not again. Soon as the pan and gasket arrive I put the gasket on the pan and let it sit for a day or two to let the gasket loosen up and return to its normal shape. Today I drop the pan, put the new pan and gasket in. Use my new 1/4" drive torque wrench to get it right at the proper number. It converted to 70 inch pounds. I start putting in ATF. After the third quart. OH LEAK, whole front of the pan. OH LOOK MR. GASKET ROLLED INWARDS. THAT *******. So down goes the pan and my nice three quarts of ATF. I reseat the gasket, making sure to install bolts caddy-corner. Visually checking the gasket to make sure its all seated. Start putting in new ATF. 5 Quarts are in good, no leaks. Drove it around, parked and tried to check the fluid level. I cannot for the life of me read this dipstick. It seemed a bit low to me, so I add 1/2 quart. Drive off. All is good, some flaring at 3-4, so more adjustments of modulator. I make my final adjustment, and what do I see.. OH A LEAK. Rear corner, passenger side. So thats 0/2 for pan gaskets for me. How about you guys? Whats your Achilles's heal of repairs?
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Cruise Control not working? Send me PM or email (jamesdean59@gmail.com). I might be able to help out. Check here for compatibility, diagnostics, and availability! (4/11/2020: Hi Everyone! I am still taking orders and replying to emails/PMs/etc, I appreciate your patience in these crazy times. Stay safe and healthy!) 82 300SD 145k 89 420SEL 210k 89 560SEL 118k 90 300SE 262k RIP 5/25/2010 90 560SEL 154k 91 300D 2.5 Turbo. 241k 93 190E 3.0 235k 93 300E 195k |
#2
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Body work, rust.
I thought I'd done a good job until i put the paint on, then all the flaws in the sanding show up.
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1989 W124 260E |
#3
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Well, I am not good at anything in my book. With that said the work that I absolutely detest is anything involving touching coolant. I do not know why. I could be covered head to toe in oil and grease and it does not bother me. But coolant..I HATE to touch it.
I do like rigging something broken into working condition. Not saying I am an expert, but growing up on a farm and working for other farmers looking for ways to keep something working for a few more hours was common place. You learn to invent on the spot.
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Current: 1985 300D aka Miss Margaret 1991 300SE aka Alarice 1995 SL320 aka Samantha 1997 K1500 Silverado Past: 1999 E300 ex-wife got it and let her son ruin it 1984 190 2.3 ex-wife got it and let her son destroy a great car 1985 300D (CA version) aka Maybelline lost to deer at high speed. 1981 300D aka Madeline (went to salvage at near 400k) rusty, yet best car I ever drove Wishlist: McFarlan TV6 (only a few privately owned) ReVere with Rochester engine 1917 Premier (only one left) |
#4
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re what repaires that I failed at
First , I'll try anything, but I never give up.
1984 Kawasaki 900 cc, GPZ R, put in new bearings ,shifter forks, rings and guides. upon reassembly the manual said to line up the marks for the counter balancer shaft to the crank.. uhmmm 4 marks on it pick one,, the counter shaft spins 2 times the crank RPM.. the red line is 10,200 RPM. put the engine back in the frame Started her up and she shook like an old Norton ,,, had to remove engine pull the cases apart and re-index the crank to the CB shaft. 10 hours latter, she was running fine. |
#5
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It's the simple stuff that I always screw up. I put on a new fuel filter, buttoned it all up, and it leaked. I replaced the distributor caps and rotors-stripped all the hex screws trying to take them off-so I took a hammer and pulverized them to get the screws out. Worked well, especially if you use a screwdriver as a chisel to get at the rotors.
But on complicated things I do pretty well.
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1992 400E current 1988 300E sold 1973 280C totalled 1973 280SEL never got it running 1971 250C my first love but rusted out |
#6
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My bug-a-boo is ATF. Same illogical dislike as yours for coolant. It seems as though one drop can expand itself to cover my entire body, wrenches and shop area. And the smell of it just makes me gag.
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#7
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James Dean...that ATF pan gasket is a pain in the rear! Mine did the same thing and the gasket kept on rolling inwards as was tightening it down...dorve me nuts! I think I re did it 3 times before it finally seated correctly and could torque it down in a "star" pattern...going up 3-5 lbs of torque on every pass until the correct torque was reached. Hope this helps but keep at it. I gave up on the hatch struts 3 years ago...but returned with fury a month ago, and presto. Some of the easiest stuff turned out to be mind numbing. I'm going to attempt suspension work next as the wagon is a clunky over small pot holes, seams, and crack in the road. But I'm a little nervous about going into it and not coming out of it sane.
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#8
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If you never do nothing, you never do nothing stupid. After fixing cars for the better part of almost 40 years i've learned that if you are asked to do something you don't wanna do just do something spectacularly stupid and no one will ask you to do it again.
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600SEL '91 300E 4Matic '88 240D '83 280SE '77 350SE '73 The most complex systems can fail in the simplest way. Contra verbosus noli contendere verbis, sermo datur cunctis, animi sapientia paucis. i don't believe in the lord! He's never bought me a Mercedes Benz. |
#9
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Glued-in windshield removal without cracking from parts cars: I'm 0 for 2.
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http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...aman/Fleet.jpg Peach Parts W124.128 User Group. 80 280SL 85 300SD 87 300TD 92 300D 2.5 Turbo 92 300TE 4Matic |
#10
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I actually stay away from anything involving gasoline on all my cars ... even fuel filters. I just don't want to go anywhere near heavy gas fumes or actually spilled/dripped out fuel.
Fuel filters on my non-Mercedes cars can be done for so damn cheap including filter at any lube joint. Reality is it only costs about $10 more at most to have someone do it for you in 10 minutes while you sip a cup of coffee. For my 560 sel I buy the fuel filter and places like Midas will slap it on for me for $25. Even though the fuel pumps are so easily accessible on the 560, if it came time to do them I'm not sure if I would. One stray drop hits a light bulb or someone walks by with a cigarette to say "hey man, cool car" and my car, myself and/or house is in flames. It's just not worth the chance - albeit pretty slim if you are very careful and in a controlled environment - of something to go wrong in the blink of an eye. But other than that i'll try anything and make it happen no matter what it takes! |
#11
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Paint and body work here too. Not my forte.
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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look. '85 300SD 245k '87 300SDL 251k '90 300SEL 326k Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford. Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG] |
#12
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Its good to know there are others out there lol.
I'm pretty good with most mechanical and electrical problems. Paint nope. Body work I can do underneath the car... the pretty stuff.. nah.
__________________
Cruise Control not working? Send me PM or email (jamesdean59@gmail.com). I might be able to help out. Check here for compatibility, diagnostics, and availability! (4/11/2020: Hi Everyone! I am still taking orders and replying to emails/PMs/etc, I appreciate your patience in these crazy times. Stay safe and healthy!) 82 300SD 145k 89 420SEL 210k 89 560SEL 118k 90 300SE 262k RIP 5/25/2010 90 560SEL 154k 91 300D 2.5 Turbo. 241k 93 190E 3.0 235k 93 300E 195k |
#13
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I may have posted this on other sites, but:
what I really dislike most about carfixing is to take an item apart, not see any reason why it isn't working, put it back together and find that it now works fine.
When I fix something, I want to know exactly why it works now.
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Numen tibi adsit! |
#14
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I'm not bad, just messy. The car turns out fine.
The garage floor OTOH? Looks like someone committed human sacrifice there 9 times out of 10.
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03 540I (GAK!!) 81 280E (W123) 70 LeMans Sport with pissed off Poncho 462" 1989 Silverado Step Side (under the knife- complete restomod) |
#15
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Quote:
It stopped working when I reset the trip meter. Took out the cluster saw nothing wrong, put it back, still not working so I took it out again, fiddled around, got the cog to catch and now it works again. I have no idea what caused it to reconnect, all I did was push and poke at a few things in there. Something decided to go back into place.
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1989 W124 260E |
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