What did you do to your other vehicle today?

Well, I'm not so sure about the local MBZ dealer's parts department anymore. When the mechanic adjusted the valves the other day, he found a bad ball socket on the throttle linkage. He pulled one off the cruise control linkage to fix it - a good choice. So I go cruising around the 'net looking for a replacement - very common part, easy enough to find. Cost about $15 (and up). Minimum purchase, shipping costs, and shipping delays made me want to check local. Called the dealer's parts dept - after they scratched around for awhile, they came back with $148, and it'd have to come out of California.

Screw this - I called MBZ Classic Parts division (in California). $8.50 plus $8 to ship. Boom, done. Either the local dealer here had the wrong part completely, or they just didn't want to deal with me so quoted a ridiculous price to get rid of me. *shrug* Like I told my wife, this wouldn't have happened with Stahl Motors in Monterey (where this car was originally sold from). They've been in the same location since the 1940s, and there are kazillions of old, classic, and downright antique Mercedes running around in the area so they're used to dealing with them. They even have a special "Classic" parts discount program!
 
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Cheesy said:
Other than the splash pan on the Chevy and the planned post retirement work on the DeSoto, the other vehicles are doing fine. The Wrangler, OTOH, fcuk me. Replaced the RMS and pan gasket. Moved it to the the other driveway, with an open exhaust, and parked it until the new cat system arrived. Check for leaks everyday. Dry. Cat system arrives and get that installed. Clear all the codes and go for an hour drive. Running good. No codes. Yay!
Go work on a bicycle project for a couple of hours. Call it a day. As I’m walking past the Wrangler, I spot a puddle under it. WTF. Crawl underneath. Crap, it’s oil. Not the RMS, not the drain plug, not the pan gasket. Nope, it’s a pin hole in the fcuking pan.
New pan showed up yesterday. I know what I’m doing tomorrow. At least I won’t be dealing with rusted fasteners this time around.
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Shit. So you get to do the whole oil pan gasket job all over again, remove the exhaust system again, etc, etc. That sucks - I *HATE* doing the same job twice!
 
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Zorba said:
Shit. So you get to do the whole oil pan gasket job all over again, remove the exhaust system again, etc, etc. That sucks - I *HATE* doing the same job twice!
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Yeah. I'll run it up on the ramps tomorrow morning and drain the oil. Then go for a bicycle ride while the exhaust cools down. I figure anywhere from 90 minutes to all weekend to get it done.
 
Transmission service on the old Mercedes. I've forgotten how much I *HATE* doing an automatic transmission service. Just no way to avoid a craptastic mess! Adding to the fun was the fact that I couldn't get a reliable number for the tranny pan capacity, so I overfilled it by about 1.25 quarts. Anyway, its done. Won't have to worry about it for another 15K miles.

At least it has a drain plug, which is more than I'll say for some I've worked on. I haven't done this job in about 20 years, I always paid someone else to do it - which doesn't make sense now that I'm retired. It isn't hard, it doesn't take long, but its just messy - drain plug or no. Absolutely zero cruft in the pan.
 
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Zorba said:
Transmission service on the old Mercedes. I've forgotten how much I *HATE* doing an automatic transmission service. Just no way to avoid a craptastic mess! Adding to the fun was the fact that I couldn't get a reliable number for the tranny pan capacity, so I overfilled it by about 1.25 quarts. Anyway, its done. Won't have to worry about it for another 15K miles.

At least it has a drain plug, which is more than I'll say for some I've worked on. I haven't done this job in about 20 years, I always paid someone else to do it - which doesn't make sense now that I'm retired. It isn't hard, it doesn't take long, but its just messy - drain plug or no. Absolutely zero cruft in the pan.
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I Don't know you pan capacity , ( who does ) .
But overfilling a GM Trans
can led to foaming the fluid and causing a multitude of issues!
I hope this isn't an issue for you.
 
ColoJeep said:
I Don't know you pan capacity , ( who does ) .
But overfilling a GM Trans
can led to foaming the fluid and causing a multitude of issues!
I hope this isn't an issue for you.
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I first checked it cold - it was obviously waaaay too high. Drained a quart out of it, then it showed just slightly below the low mark (cold). Figured it was probably still too high - and when I took it for a drive and re-checked hot, it was about 1 pint above the high mark. Will drain an additional pint+ tomorrow AM, and recheck.
 
Zorba said:
I first checked it cold - it was obviously waaaay too high. Drained a quart out of it, then it showed just slightly below the low mark (cold). Figured it was probably still too high - and when I took it for a drive and re-checked hot, it was about 1 pint above the high mark. Will drain an additional pint+ tomorrow AM, and recheck.
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Sounds good , don't want to see any old iron die from a woops !
 
More farting around with the MBZ tranny - trying to get the level dialed in. I think it "may" be there, but the leak continues. I'm 99% sure its the drain plug, gonna have to jack it up tomorrow and verify. If it is, I'll put the drain plug metal washer that was previously on it back on - the one that came with the filter/gasket kit fit, but was "different". Only thing I can figure is it isn't correct, so I'll try the old one. That will, of course, screw up the fluid level a bit...
 
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Zorba said:
More farting around with the MBZ tranny - trying to get the level dialed in. I think it "may" be there, but the leak continues. I'm 99% sure its the drain plug, gonna have to jack it up tomorrow and verify. If it is, I'll put the drain plug metal washer that was previously on it back on - the one that came with the filter/gasket kit fit, but was "different". Only thing I can figure is it isn't correct, so I'll try the old one. That will, of course, screw up the fluid level a bit...
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VW's had one time use crush washers. May that be the problem for you ?
 
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The damn oil pan. What looks likes eyes and a nose are rust through. Good for another 16 years.
51459997970_16c71768dd_z.jpg
 
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The leaking tranny drain plug finally stopped leaking after I R&R'ed it several times - I guess the washer needed to get itself seated or something. The ball joint for the cruise control linkage showed up, and got installed. Lastly, I ordered it a new OEM radiator as the existing one is 36 years old and pretty well clogged up.
 
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Zorba said:
The leaking tranny drain plug finally stopped leaking after I R&R'ed it several times - I guess the washer needed to get itself seated or something.
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Naw... you were finally holding your tongue just right when your torqued it down.:D
 
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ColoJeep said:
Naw... you were finally holding your tongue just right when your torqued it down.:D
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Yea, I'm lucky I didn't bite my tongue with this one! I didn't torque it down any more the last time than I did any other time, yet the leak stopped. Thank Goddess - I hate chickenshit candyass problems like that!
 
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