The Diurnal Precedent in NY

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Amskeptic
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The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by Amskeptic » Sat May 26, 2012 5:30 pm

Yes, there was a day before the Night Of Pray in upstate New York. It had its own amusing moments that I was going to share with y'all.

After Vdubtech and I got Rustybus running in Syracuse on the afternoon of May 13th, I decided to pay a call to my poor languishing automotive lions in the barn in upstate New York, not five miles from the already posted nocturne of the pickup nutcase. When I arrived, it was a year and a day since I last saw them. I saw a pool under the Mercedes. It smelled of gas. I looked under the rear axle and there was a drip, about a drip per second. Blocked in by the Lincoln, I had to get these cars started carefully and quickly and out of that big wood barn with hay bales in the loft and boats galore below.

For the first time, the Lincoln's 17 year-old battery finally decided that it would not fire up that engine. Brought the Lexus over and jumpered the batteries. Spent five minutes trying to get a fast idle out of the Lexus with various pieces of wood. Gave up. Lincoln started right up anyway. Got those cars out of the way of the impending explosion. Squareback started so quickly it was as if I had just shut it off from last year's trip to Vermont. Had to drag a four-wheeler and a riding mower out of the way to get it out of its doorway.

Now the Mercedes. Will the fuel pump wiring ignite the fuel pool under the car? Will the antenna motor combust the entire proceedings? Will the starter solenoid explode the vapors that wafted up under the hood area? How about the ignition switch, will it immolate me in a ball of fire right in the driver's seat? None of the above, the car started and drove out of the barn with the fuel gauge reading a half tank remaining. At the current drip rate, that calculates to this leak having started less than 36 hours before I drove in. Glad I decided to stop by.

My poor old cars . . . the damage from last year's promised-but-never-repaired barn roof leak is maddening. Mold on the leather seats. Pitting in the chrome. Rotted hoses. Corroded brake lines. Musty interiors, the list is endless. Look at the floor after just one year . . . :angryfire:
Mercedes gas leak to your far left, Lincoln automatic transmission leak to your right, Lincoln differential leak to your near left:
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Turned the Mercedes around with its butt hanging out the doorway so I could scoot my winter-pudgy carcass under it with an empty gas container to catch the leak:
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Went over to the Lincoln. There was fuel dripping on the A/C clutch, which thankfully was not actuated. This gas leak was from the fresh 5/16" AutoZone fuel hose I had put on two years prior:
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OK, I have two fuel leaks, one coolant leak, an automatic transmission leak, a differential leak, oh, and a transmission leak from the Mercedes now visible on the floor:
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The Lincoln fuel leak, I was able to stop just by shutting off the car. The Mercedes was trickier. Millions, oh stop exaggerating, thousands of hoses under the tank with dampers and filters and accumulators and which one will stop the leak? Any of these hoses look like they will just crumble if I attempt to clamp them. Pulled out the factory manual. It is in German. Achtung. Finally guessed a hose to clamp and watched to see if the drips would eventually cease. You have to be patient when draining dampers and accumulators, you know. The fumes are delightful, so buzzed . . .
to be continued
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by bigbore » Sat May 26, 2012 7:05 pm

Wait till you work on a Rolls Royce hydraulic brake/self leveling suspension lines and hose's to hell and back I have been helping a friend find a blockage SOMEWHERE in all that mess.

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Amskeptic
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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by Amskeptic » Mon May 28, 2012 8:24 am

. . . after several minutes, the drip seemed to diminish somewhat, and my two gallon gas container looked to be able to handle a "quick" trip to the store (28 miles total as it turned out). The fuel hose clamp with two pieces of wood as wedges was getting wet too, so yes everything was going to hell in a handbasket. Let's leave anyway! Shut the power off to the barn at the service box, and Lexed over to the first hopeful stop, Glenwood Automotive in Holley NY, where the proprietor was happy to see me. He and his friend both could not imagine where I might find a 13mm ID *fuel hose* for the Mercedes, but was able to give me another try at a 3/16" hose for the Lincoln. Went to Albion NY, a town with rich memories of the two local bars and running amok in the Laundromat with a two year-old, and walked into the parts house.
"No. We don't have anything that size."
"How about fuel resistant, like breather hose?"
"No."
"Power steering hose? I'll use power steering hose."
"No."
"Don't you want to sell anything today??"
"Nu... yeah, sure, but it ain't gonna work."
"Show me what you got" (and so sorry for the long aggravating walk to the part shelves).
Ha HA, there it is, 1/2" reinforced power steering hose, and what the heck, some breather hose, too.
"We can only sell three foot lengths or more."
"No."
"What, you don't want it?"
"No. You don't want to sell anything today, I heard you."
"Oh, yeah, OK. You need three inch lengths? Just take them."

. . . and I made it back to the barn with a new hose for the Lincoln, and three three inch samples of Mercedes fuel inlet hose to go from the filter to the damper. It was a mess of straw, angry birds, gasoline in the armpits, clamps that refused to tighten, splinters, and I did not care in the slightest, this was the first Have To repair I have ever had to perform on the Mercedes in the seventeen years I have owned it. Took it out on the parkway and did a brief run up to 60mph. Had a moment of sad, the kind of sad when you know you are an idiot for keeping a Siberian Tiger in your New York City studio apartment. It deserves to run:
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The Lincoln pulled off a spectacular surprise. The byzantine vacuum system just loves to split hoses, and every year I have had to replace some hose or another. For the first time since I have owned it, the vacuum system maintained its vacuum for reasons quite unknown to me. I had stupidly hit the trunk lever in the glovebox after I got back and fixed the Mercedes (oh sure, right, it'll release two hours after I shut it off . . .) and the trunk popped open. Took it on a parkway drive too. Still smooth, torquey, tippy-toe brakes, fingertip power steering, and the ridiculous mechanical contraption known as the "flyweight electro-latch cruise control" worked flawlessly. Sad again. I have owned this car 16 years now, 9 of them have been mostly languishing in the barn, this is wrong.
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The Squareback felt exactly like I had just driven in from Vermont, so I did a little drive with Chloe's license plates and got on it a bit just to make sure that its reflexes were all there. No sassing back this year, the Vdubtech commemorative spark plug connectors kept the plugs firing.
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So, just before I met up with the Brockport/Spencerport parking lot denizens of the night, I had made a promise to myself; that I will get this book done and published before any thought of selling off these old German and American lions (and one plucky house cat). I had almost committed to selling the fleet to finance my winters' drawing board down time. Loyalty can suck . . .
Colin

( uh oh . . . I think itinerary season has begun : ) )
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BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by Sylvester » Mon May 28, 2012 6:38 pm

Amskeptic wrote:( uh oh . . . I think itinerary season has begun : ) )
Image
Is that Chloe surrounded by three of Cobb County GEORGIA'S finest? Dear Lord if it is, I am surprised you made it any further!
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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Amskeptic
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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by Amskeptic » Tue May 29, 2012 7:29 am

Sylvester wrote: Is that Chloe surrounded by three of Cobb County GEORGIA'S finest? Dear Lord if it is, I am surprised you made it any further!
Yes it is. And I didn't.
"Mayan, thayat thing is cleeyan, did ya restore it?"
"Holy crap, it looks brand-new"
"Zat got the 1600?"
"Ah no, I bought it like that thanks, yes."
"Iyit mustav beyin restored."
"They don't make them like that anymore."
"Is that the dual port?"
"It was, they don't, it's a singleport."
Then the Porsche 356 guy showed up (hey Rudy).
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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whc03grady
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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by whc03grady » Tue May 29, 2012 7:30 pm

Cobb County Georgia's finest wrote:Zat got the 1600?

Is that the dual port?
All my ACVW life I've noticed that people spring little nuggets like these to try to impress you with their knowledge of your car. At least these questions make sense, unlike the "Is that one of the buses with the Porsche engine in it?" that I've most often heard.
Ludwig--1974 Westfalia, 2.0L (GD035193), Solex 34PDSIT-2/3 carburetors.
Gertie--1971 Squareback, 1600cc with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection from a '72 (E brain).
Read about their adventures:
http://www.ludwigandgertie.blogspot.com

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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by ruckman101 » Tue May 29, 2012 11:10 pm

My fave is, "Hey, nice old bus dude, that thing run?" Well it was parked in my drive. And of course the photo op, three young asian gals, draping themselves across the front taking pictures of each other. Too much fun.
The slipper has no teeth.

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hambone
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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by hambone » Wed May 30, 2012 3:30 pm

Yeah, cars need to run or they die a slow siezed death. Maybe it's time to thin the herd and give up some mental-responsibility. No cows, no cares. Sell me your Squareback! :flower: Erin would poo.
It is frustrating to have to deal with all that crap at once. No metric hoses? NY is all cibilized, I'm surprised.
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Kubelwagen
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Re: The Diurnal Precedent in NY

Post by Kubelwagen » Wed May 30, 2012 5:39 pm

No - No! I want the squareback! Me! Me! :)
Patience the 81 Adventurewagen

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