I haven't given a great deal of background on our other cars, but now is as good a time as any. This is relevant, eventually. We have a Jetta TDI that we call Flash. We've had him for a few years, and now that the intake has been cleaned, he lives up to his namesake again. Although we originally bought him as a work-commuter car, its been the fam-transporter for the last year. A few days ago, we bought an '85 Mercedes 300TD turbo-diesel wagon that we call Ella. This is the new fam-transporter, that should move Flash back into a commuter car and move Hapy back into a Summer-only funbus. That was how we started the day yesterday, but things got interesting by nightfall.
First, something happened to Ella and she wouldn't start. I had to beat feet home from work so the kids could make their after school events. Ella sounds like she's fuel-starved, but I don't have a filter or anything for this car. So it sat overnight and went off to the shop this morning on the back of a towtruck.
Second, I noticed when I drove Flash last night after the kids got home that the check engine light was on. He ran fine, so I'm thinking its something minor, but I'd like to run the codes just the same. Anyway, with Ella in the shop, the wife and kids get Flash today, and Hapy needed to be the commuter car for one more day. Apparently, that was one day more than he wanted to be a commuter car. Which leads us to "third"...
On the drive into work this morning, Hapy's clutch cable broke. I fully admit, I knew it was on borrowed time. I had recently adjusted the cable and I had practically run out of threading. This told me that the cable was stretching, which only happens at the beginning and the end of a cable's useful life. Since I knew it wasn't new, I knew it was dying. I made a note of it and promised Hapy that I'd deal with it after he was allowed to rest (not commuting every day). I guess Hapy thought I went back on our deal. So, in less than 24 hours all 3 of our cars went from trouble-free to troublesome.
Hapy's first tell was when I clutched to shift into 4th during the morning rush hour and felt a little "doink" through my foot. I knew something wasn't quite right. My first thought turned out to be the right one: the clutch cable snapped, but the pedal didn't drop to the floor, so I was a little unsure. Fortunately, traffic was moving at a pretty steady pace through the Terwilliger curves on I-5, so I was able to stay with it from the Terwilliger on-ramp through to the OR26 offramp. At this point, traffic started to gum up so I took the exit and turned onto a side street. I only clutched once and that was just to get out of 4th so I could coast. This may have saved the rest of the cable and, more importantly, the wingnut on the end.
I was pretty angry at myself for not having kept my promise to Hapy, and the whole vehicular nightmare that we were living: 2 cars down, 1 unknown. After cursing for a minute or so, I climbed into the back of the bus and checked under the rear benchseat for a new cable. Ahh... I had one. I remembered buying it a long time ago "just in case", but I wasn't sure if it was in the bus where it should have been or in the garage. Carry an extra clutch cable, wingnut and clevis pin. I had to reuse the clevis pin, but if the wingnut had been lost, I would have been too - I had no spare.
Now comes the fun part: getting out of my docker-world monkey-suit and into my coveralls to see what's what. There's something very surreal about stripping down inside your bus while the morning commute rushes past the windows. What I don't realize when I'm driving with them is that no one ever looks out their side windows except to check the blindspot. I'm practically naked with the curtains spread wide and I didn't get a single look. Funny.
Anyway, I had my bag of books so I opened the Muir book to the clutch cable replacement section. Turns out he's completely wrong for buses after 1968. I realized this after removing the front belly pan only to discover that I couldn't get to the front of the clutch cable from there. Grr... If you ever need to replace
your cable, the Bentley chapter 5, section 15.5 is right. I was able to pull the old cable out and inspect it for wear. There was an old fray about 2 feet from the end and the end itself was split in 2. Fortunately, the tail of the cable was still there, connected to the clutch arm and the wingnut was still attached. I think if I had gone to town on the clutch pedal trying to will it to work, I would not have been so lucky. I greased the snot out of that new cable while I slid it in from the front. The front end of the tube into which the cable is supposed to feed can be hard to spot if you aren't sure where to look, so make a note of it before you pull the old one out. I could have saved myself a few minutes if I had.
The whole process, from the "doink" feeling in my left foot to pulling back onto the interstate was less than 2 hours. If I had to do it again, I could probably half that time. Regardless, as always seems to happen, every time I do a small repair on the bus, I get that satisfaction feeling of having been self-sufficient again. In
contrast, Ella has been at the shop all morning and we have yet to find out what's wrong. I think it would be terribly ironic if it was the fuel filter. This would just further prove that while doing your own diagnosis and work is important, having the part immediately available is more so. I guess I need to start making a list of Mercedes parts to have around.
until next time...
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