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First - let me warn you; today was Bad Picture Day... I was not allowed by the government to take good pictures. I swear it was the goverment! Under the driver's seat there has always been this plug... If connected with a seat heater ECU - it makes the heater switches light up: (Don't ask about the shifter surround - I don't know & have given up fixing it) So out came the seat - also apart. Like skinning a cat, only less blöödy. And then - some new parts, fresh from the counter at MB's. Those are heating elements for Series 1 cloth seats and dirt cheap, 25€ inc. VAT each - and I get a discount of 20%. So - not bad. I know, after market stuff is a lot cheaper. But - these work so well & quick since they'r directly under the cover. Like so: They'r simply very effective & get warm very quick. When it came to reassemble the seat, I remembered that someone before my time with this car had hacked the seat frame apart. And replaced the missing parts with foam. For reasons unknown. Doesn't make any sense at all. So I put the seat together nevertheless - and drove to my work place. Butchered another W124 and came home with this... Cut off the missing part from the other seat frame and welded it to the Taxi's. After I had removed it again and stripped it down - again. This little bracket holds a shaft with two cams which adjusts the height of the front of the seat, and the stiffness. It also holds together the seat cushion spring base & the main seat frame. Without, the seat cushion is basically only connected by the bolts holding the back rest. The whole front flopps about (hence the foam). Hope you understand, a bit hard to explain what's going on there In short; seat was scrappy scrappy, me fixy fixy with welder. The reason I didn't just put the old cushion on the new frame is simple: the old one is uprated (stiffer springs) and it's still the original seat frame with sticker dating it to may 1989! On a different note; the switches light up, but no current is being sent to the seat... Whatever, I have another wiring loom. And since monday is a holyday, I might just have enpough time to rip the carpet out. Which is a bit of a pain on a wagon... Cheers, Jan
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Looks like the Amazon is ready for driving...
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Sept 26, 2016 21:20:32 GMT
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Hmm. Ha! This morning the worst cold-engine knock was gone, and the gearbox shifts a lot smoother when cold (cold shifts had been a bit harsh if not hard at times). And I think the engine also smokes less on high revs... There's a hint in the Factory Service Manual that faulty vacuume pumps may cause excessive black smoke, though I've not understood the correlation yet.
But - wow. Nice!
Cheers, Jan
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Sept 24, 2016 17:59:36 GMT
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Sept 24, 2016 17:12:23 GMT
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It will still take a while for the counter to reset And I have to report an actuall malfunction; the pre-glow relais died on me last week. I noticed that it didn't glow occasinally, mostly when the engine was still warm. And at some point it was gone. The coil of the big switching relais lost a couple of wires, beyond my ability to repair. Got a 2nd hand one, all good. The engine starts relatively good when the temperatures are not low, even without glowing. And I replaced the vacuume pump. Not because it is broken, but as a pre-caution. Making use of my "new" garage for the first time. Awesome to have all tools hanging on the wall instead of a pile on the floor And that's the thing of concern; the vacuume pump: Removal is easy; apart from the fiddly part of removing the fan & belt & some pulleys. Space is tight on an OM603. Anyway, can you spot the difference? MB sells them for twice the money - but with the star. Aftermarket pumps are cheap, but the star is ground off But that's not the main difference. The big difference is the design of the push roller: The old style pump has two big ball bearings, the new pumps have a bushing of some sort. Those pumps have two problems. First is that the ball bearings fail and the roller drops into the timing chain... No es bueno! The second problem is that the rollers start to pit - which also damages the counter part on the injection pump timing device (which drives the pump with a wave-pattern). And I might be seeing ghosts, but to my - untrained - eye it looks like the hardened roller surface is allready showing signs of pitting: Engine still rattles when cold - at least now I know that it isn't the vacuume pump. And there's no fear of sudden timing chain failure All good. Cheers, Jan
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Sept 18, 2016 8:37:06 GMT
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Thank you! I'm in love with that vice, best I ever had (first too xD ). It was advertised online, so I contacted the guy. When I got to his place, he dug out another vice. Not a bad one, but not as nice. Told him that's not the one I came for. After a lot of discussion, he invited me into a almost completely collapsed building, with gaping holes in the floor, crashed roof and iron supports every 2m to prevent it from completely collapsing... Scary place, littered with trash and piles of crashed ceiling. And in a dark corner, under a pile of rubble & trash - there it was. I literally dug it out of it's grave - the guy wanted twice the money advertised for it, being his grand dads he never wanted to sell and so on. I didn't care and payed him without negotiating. I've seen a lot of those vices advertised, but never one with the jaws this high. One of the best tools I ever bought And big enough to hold a 6-cylinder head Didn't continue on the work bench, no time. Resp. too much lazyness. But next step is to build the drawers. Made plans for that, only need to buy some materials & have a little time. Or less lazyness. And I need to buy or borrow an M12 tap to plug the hole I drilled for lifting the top onto the frame. I decided to leave it in place, in case I have to lift it. Wont be in the center of gravity, but that's not a huge issue. Of course the hex will face down once installed That's all. Cheers, Jan
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Sept 17, 2016 12:59:48 GMT
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2184. That's how many kilometers I drove between saturday september 10th to monday 12th. I started saturday early morning, destination Brandenburg, some 100km north of Berlin. Destination: have a french Merquez sausage and a couple of beers. BBQ basically. We also had a ship christening. This thing is from the 50's and has never seen the water. It's a life boat of a ferry that used to travel between germany & denmark or sweden. Which was scrapped around 1971. I slept in the car, woke up early. Had an espresso and then packed my gear to head home, after an very enjoyable evening the day before. But... Allready heading south, I changed my mind. Turned around and headed north again. I wanted to see the baltic sea again. I've not been there for over 10 years... I love northern germany so much, it was very emotional to be back where I used to be very often during my childhood. I visited my relatives who live there, spend the night - and then headed back home, across the whole country (almost). Which took me nearly 11h of driving, due to accidents, traffic jams and the usual construction work. But it was worth it! The A/C lasted as long as my trip lasted, then it was dead again. And despite making good use of it, the fuel consumption was only 7.9l/100 km, which equals to 35.7MPG. But that's not important - I'm happy I went to see the sea after all the time I didn't. Cheers, Jan PS: odometer is now at 971.500
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Sept 9, 2016 16:31:18 GMT
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Today I was mainly cleaning up the place, but also welded up this from some left-over bits... Also made a holder for my vintage tyre irons & punches and mounted them all next to the window. And seeing you concern, @johnnybravo , about my severe lack of hammers - I also made this: Cheers, Jan
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I've just read up on the power consumption in the Service Booklet... Up to 9kW / 12HP Holy cow! I've never really missed having AC. But I thought, well - if I carry the stuff around all day, it could at least work. I'm not going to run it full steam, I've just left the temp. switch where it was. I'm not a fan of being super-cooled and enter into thermal shock if you open the door But a little cool breeze - that's nice to have. And a bit iiritating, it's the first time in like 10 years I had a car with - working - AC. Cheers, Jan
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Sept 8, 2016 19:37:46 GMT
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I know... But; I've bought less than 30% of those tools. The rest is skip rescues, inheritance and presents But hammers - noone throws hammers in the bin. On the other hand; you can be gentle with a big hammer, but you can't beat the curse word out of something with a small one. So - this 1000g hammer is all I ever had & needed (my bodywork hammers are hidden elsewhere ;-) )
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Sept 8, 2016 19:02:30 GMT
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So, turns out our local village-garage does A/C service. So I gave them the car this morning and just walked home. At 14°° I got a call "all good, it's working". YES! and indeed - no drama, it just works... A breeze of cold air through the vents. Nice! When the compressor is switched it feels like hitting a snowdrift, though Amazing just how much power this thing consumes. They've also added flourescent tracer - I'll see if it leaks ans where. But since there was still pressure left in the system, I'm positive Cheers, Jan
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Sept 8, 2016 18:14:01 GMT
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Hi! Thank you! Re: filings; it's not "tight", but not open either. You'll see the pictures below; there's not even a very notable amount of dust on the welders after today's work. Once I have fitted a lock/latch of some sort, it'll do it's job. I don't want it too tight actually, air should ciculate and vent the compartment. Onto the final part of this little project; I bought a big piece of thick plywood. Made this little contraption to cut dowel pins to size... Sorted my tools and cut some wood and more dowels and drilled lots of holes into many thins... ...until it looked like a carpenters workshop. And then... Well, I hung my little wooden plywood board onto the wall behind the workbench: Yepp - starting to look like a little workshop - like I wanted it for over 10 years! Yes, it took me this long to finally take the plunge and do it. My plan for my vacation was to rebuild the Taxi's suspension and put TÜV on the Coupé - instead I did this, with a very relaxed pace. And you know what? I'm glad I did. It's starting to evolve from a littered sh!thouse of chaos into a little less chaotic workshop Cheers, Jan
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Sept 5, 2016 14:50:45 GMT
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Thank you guys! @johnybravo: yours might be a bit easyer to push, though...
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Sept 4, 2016 11:44:43 GMT
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Hi! That's the first thing I tried/mocked up - there's enough clearance to get the bottles out If just. And nope, that's not just you All gaps will be closed, by wood though. I plan to put up a big-ish wood plate behind the bench to hang tools. On the bottom - not sure yet. So far a magnet on a stick retrieved everything
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Hi! I'll keep the top plate grease/oiled - the rest - not decided yet. Might just let it rust slightly and then cover with linseed oil. should give a nice patina. Re: bottles: I have emptied countless bottles of welding gas lying flat on the ground... Welding gas is just compressed gas, not liquid gas. A propan bottle with liquid gas inside would be a different animal!! But welding gas (Argon & CO²) can be stored either way My concern is however heavy things falling on the valves, so I'll keep the covers on when not welding.
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And now all that's left is basically to build the drawers and then - it's done Sits about level, doesn't rock about. And, well - it's probably not going to move anywhere I can't push/lift it by hand. Estimated weight is about 250kg. So far I put ca. 30 meters of square tube & profiles in there. Took me a couple of days of slow & relaxed working (it's my years vacation after all...). And I'm very glad I finally took the time to build me a solid work bench. Which can also serve as a welding table. Cheers, Jan
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Because... There's no way on earth I would be able to put it on the work bench by hand. So I drilled a hole right in the center. Put a bolt through, bolted a loop nut on, put a shekel through... ...and we had lift-off!
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Unloading this monster of a sheet of metal was a bit nerv wrecking, but not that hard actually. Thanks to my fleet of Steinbock jacks. At this point I was glad I never had lowered the Diesel-Coupé... Parked over my "sheet" for the night. Some time during the build I added stops & rests to the hatch, to make operation smooth and give it a fixed end-position. Then I had a very clever brain fart. Let's offer up the vice before I put on the "sheet"... Ha! Very glad I did check where the holes go... Right into the frame! So I straped the pillar drill to the workbench and made some cut-outs. And then welded in some tube I had left over from the intercooler build on the Coupé. ^here you can also see the fnished top for the welder & bottle compartment. I felt like it would be nicer to have the bottles rest on a wooden floor. Next step: strap the pillar drill to my "sheet":
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Then some more angle iron to make a foundation for the gas bottle compartment. Cut out some more sheet metal... I had bought a 2000x1000x1.5mm sheet - which almost completely went into this... After I had gone through the second cutting disc, I realised something... You may have noticed it too; it says "PLASMA" on my TIG-welder. And hey, it works! Who would have thought. Draw along a bit of steel clamped to the sheet - easy, quick & perfectly straight cut. Nice! Plasma cutter for the win! And speaking of sheet metal... At the steel yard they call this sheet metal too:
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