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Pursesnatcher posted:Alright, so there's good news, and there's bad news. It's hard to tell on the video because I recorded it years ago with a crap potato phone, but the AC compressor clutch on my old Mustang made a similar noise when it went bad. Fortunately I was able to replace just the clutch on that compressor for  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_BR516iS_w
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Jun 29, 2019 21:26
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Black88GTA posted:It's hard to tell on the video because I recorded it years ago with a crap potato phone, but the AC compressor clutch on my old Mustang made a similar noise when it went bad. Fortunately I was able to replace just the clutch on that compressor for Oh poo poo. I see what you mean. Yeah, the rattling could definitely be that kind of noise (though I can't really say what the intermittent DING DING might be). I pulled the belt off of my AC compressor, so that leaves alternator, water pump, servo pump and... that big main wheel thing that pulls everything. Here's to hoping it's the water pump, because that's only like a couple of hundred bucks at most. It's just weird that this rattle all began when I started emptying the coolant.
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Jun 29, 2019 22:40
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Yeah that definitely sounds like a failing water pump or a loose pulley. Go back over all the pulleys you touched during the work and make sure they're all tight. Then start worrying about the water pump - it should have a "telltale" weep hole below the shaft. It will leak coolant from there when the bearing seal fails, but usually soon enough that you can replace the pump before it fails.
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Jun 30, 2019 07:38
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It's the water pump. There's no sign of anything coming out the weep hole (mine is on top of the shaft, for some reason), but using a wrench as a stethoscope, that is definitely the area where the rattling is coming from. Holding one end against my ear, and the other against the top of that assembly, the rattle is even pretty much constant – it's going all the time. Now I suppose it could be that I botched the thermostat install, and that something is wiggling around inside the thermostat housing. But I also decided to take a very close look at the pulleys, and the water pump one is... well, I think it's not supposed to have this much play in it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjf9KcEiS7s (I turned the sound off and decreased speed to 50% in this clip, by the way)
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Jul 1, 2019 13:03
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I've never even considered using slow motion for that. Yeah I'd say that pump is done.
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Jul 1, 2019 14:33
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Pursesnatcher posted:Now I suppose it could be that I botched the thermostat install, and that something is wiggling around inside the thermostat housing. Nope, that's just plain worn out. You just didn't notice it until the new thermostat.  Better that you noticed it now rather than on the side of the road.
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Jul 1, 2019 15:34
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For future reference another great stethoscope is a piece of vacuum hose. Jam one end in your ear and point it at stuff, it's very directional. Are you sure the pulley isn't a separate part from the pump? Didn't the fan bolt on there and keep it tight? LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jul 1, 2019 |
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Jul 1, 2019 16:05
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Ah shucks. Well, when it's gotta go, it's gotta go. Turns out a new OEM pump is $450, but I can get a brand new unit from SKF for $175. With that price difference, I'm leaning towards going non-OEM for once. SKF is quality stuff, after all. Oh, but this gives me a great excuse to replace the hoses for the idle speed actuator and idling air distributor – since they are right on top of the water pump, and have to go out anyway! Always a silver lining  LloydDobler posted:Are you sure the pulley isn't a separate part from the pump? Didn't the fan bolt on there and keep it tight? Huuuh. I'm not sure, but yeah, the fant bolted on to the end of the pulley. I can't see how it would keep it tight though, unless the bolts somehow pulled something internally together inside the pulley. I guess I could try slapping the old fan clutch back on and just see. Unless the pulley actually breaks off and flies into the radiator, it can't do any harm.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:15
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Oh poo poo, I didn't even consider that either. If the clutch isn't the type that threads on with one giant nut - and that doesn't seem to be the case here - then without the clutch in place there's nothing holding that pulley to the pump, unless you reinstalled the bolts after taking the clutch off. You'll want to make sure that they don't foul on anything since they'll be threaded in deeper than before, or alternatively buy versions that are shorter by the thickness of the clutch mounting face.
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Jul 1, 2019 17:36
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With my Toyotas, which use the same style of fan mounting, the studs that thread into the water pump have a small section in the middle thats NOT threaded, and its thicker than the pulley material. Because the fan hub mounting boss is 6mm or so thick, that unthreaded section protrudes into the fan hub flange and then the nuts hold it tight. Might need to slap some washers under the nuts on the water pump studs. Or install the bolts if its a bolt on styleand they arent in! Probably before the pulley falls off and fucks off over the horizon!
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Jul 2, 2019 08:52
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loving  Alright so I gave it a go. Sticking the bolts into the flange of the clutch, I still thought they looked way too short to have any function inside the pulley, but whatever. Tried screwing one back into the pulley, and couldn't get it to thread. Weird. So this is what the face of my water pump pulley looks like:  Lesson learned: If you're ever removing the fan clutch from an M116 or M117 Mercedes-Benz engine, and you're planning on retrofitting an electric fan to the thing, put the bolts back into the water pump pulley afterwards. Now I've got to find a way to rotate this thing back into orientation. Shiiiiiiit. And I don't even have a reason to replace those air tubes up top anymore.
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Jul 2, 2019 11:03
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Is it just a case of popping the belt off and the pulley isn't fixed to the pump? Can you then pull it off by hand and clock it round to the right place?
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Jul 2, 2019 13:41
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Yeah that's all it'll take. The funny thing is that I was going to ask this like a month ago but the rust made it look like it was all one piece in the previous picture and it fooled me too.
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Jul 2, 2019 14:35
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Holy poo poo, that's amazing.
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Jul 2, 2019 19:17
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As a note, your new thermostat doesn't look like it has a gasket on it? On cars I've seen with thermostats in that style, that's also the gasket for the thermostat housing. As you don't appear to be leaking coolant from the thermostat housing, there must be something else sealing it? It would also *potentially* rattle around a bit in there, and you suddenly have a rattle from your water pump.....
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Jul 3, 2019 00:35
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cakesmith handyman posted:Is it just a case of popping the belt off and the pulley isn't fixed to the pump? Can you then pull it off by hand and clock it round to the right place? I guess so! I'm sort of wary of popping the belts off, though. There are two working the pump in parallell, and I can't see any tensioner I could loosen, but I'm going to try checking out some videos and see if I get any wiser. Update: Google made me wiser; seems I've got to loosen the servo pump in order to loosen the belts. Belts themselves were last changed only six years and 20k miles ago, so I won't be replacing the ones in there, methinks. Deceptor101 posted:As a note, your new thermostat doesn't look like it has a gasket on it? On cars I've seen with thermostats in that style, that's also the gasket for the thermostat housing. As you don't appear to be leaking coolant from the thermostat housing, there must be something else sealing it? It would also *potentially* rattle around a bit in there, and you suddenly have a rattle from your water pump..... Yeah no, that's my bad with the picture – the new gasket came in a sealed, separate little bag, so I didn't want to take it out until the minute I was actually going to install it. The new gasket is also a hair thicker than the old one, but also sort of rounded instead of flat, so I'm pretty confident it offers an even better seal then the old one. Pursesnatcher fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jul 3, 2019 |
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Jul 3, 2019 15:14
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Pursesnatcher posted:Update: Google made me wiser; seems I've got to loosen the servo pump in order to loosen the belts. Belts themselves were last changed only six years and 20k miles ago, so I won't be replacing the ones in there, methinks. This is typical of V-belt systems, one of the accessories on any given belt loop will be adjustable. You shouldn't even need to remove the belts (or any bolts), just loosen the mounting bolts on the pump enough to give it a shove towards the centerline of the engine and you should get enough slack to rotate the pulley into the right orientation.
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Jul 3, 2019 21:46
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Success! Turns out the servo pump hangs on one bolt up top which acts as a sort of swivel, while a single nut far below that one locks it in place. Then there's a third, on the opposite side of the pump from these two, which actually adjusts the elevation. With everything rusted and/or thick with oil, I only figured this out after completely removing all three (plus one which just held a hose clamp in place), but still. Took just a bit more than an hour to do, and that was split evenly between trying to access nuts and bolts, and trying to realign the pulley to the holes underneath. That was complicated by the alternator belt getting in the way of the loosened pulley all the time, but no biggie. I've still got a slight rattle, but that's hardly a surprise – with the bolts sticking out like that, they're not really doing much to actually push the pulley and pump together. So now I just need to find a bunch of washers to stick between the bolt heads and pulley, and that should sort itself out beautifully. Once that's in place, I should be ready for a short, careful road test (the first such since there was still snow on the roads...) to see how the cooling holds up without the main fan. I've got one question before I go there, though. I lost a little bit of ATF when I replaced the radiator, and there might be leaks that I'm not aware of. So I'd like to know I'm in the
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Jul 4, 2019 17:27
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Pursesnatcher posted:Success! Turns out the servo pump hangs on one bolt up top which acts as a sort of swivel, while a single nut far below that one locks it in place. Then there's a third, on the opposite side of the pump from these two, which actually adjusts the elevation. With everything rusted and/or thick with oil, I only figured this out after completely removing all three (plus one which just held a hose clamp in place), but still. Took just a bit more than an hour to do, and that was split evenly between trying to access nuts and bolts, and trying to realign the pulley to the holes underneath. That was complicated by the alternator belt getting in the way of the loosened pulley all the time, but no biggie. For oldschool primitive stuff, the conventional wisdom is that you need to drive it around a bit to warm up the trans, park on a level surface, and check the dipstick with the engine running, trans in park. I don't know if that extends to modern complicated MB stuff, though.
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Jul 4, 2019 20:54
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Raluek posted:For oldschool primitive stuff, the conventional wisdom is that you need to drive it around a bit to warm up the trans, park on a level surface, and check the dipstick with the engine running, trans in park. Thanks. Sounds reasonable enough, and although complicated, I think they cooked up most of the engine in the late 70's, and the transmission (a 722.3 variant) in the early 80's. I'm just worried what might happen if I start driving it around if there's not enough oil in the transmission.
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Jul 4, 2019 22:46
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Pursesnatcher posted:Thanks. Sounds reasonable enough, and although complicated, I think they cooked up most of the engine in the late 70's, and the transmission (a 722.3 variant) in the early 80's. I'm just worried what might happen if I start driving it around if there's not enough oil in the transmission. It would probably take a moment to drop into gear, and you might get some slippage while you're driving (engine RPM higher than it should be for how fast you're going in the gear you're in) but as long as you don't keep driving it in that condition it probably won't hurt anything.
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Jul 5, 2019 00:40
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It's aliiiiiiiiive! So yeah, three little shims on each bolt and we're good to go! The rattle and dinging is all gone, and the pulley looks pretty tight again. Now I just have to not put any fingers down there, since this contraption would just take them right off. Weather is kind of poo poo now, so I won't hazard a road test at the moment, but it all seems pretty good. No leaks detected, and no weird sounds to worry about. Sure, the two auxiliary fans up front won't spin; I've brought the engine up to 105 centigrade twice now with no movement in those, so I guess the electric motors are burnt out or something. No worries though. I'll just keep the old fan clutch and fan assembled in the back of the truck in case I ever need to stop and apply some heavy duty way-too-powerful cooling when I do try it out on the road, and get a pair of replacement fans whenever. Next on the list of priorities is to find a way to attach that oil cooler pipe. In the meantime I'll just clad it in gorilla tape where it meets the radiator, so it won't break any fins by vibrating against it. Then, I'll find a nice, dry spot to replace my valve cover gaskets. But none of that is critical, so I'll ease off on the restoration for a bit now. But man oh man, it feels good to have made progress. And I'm extremely grateful for the tips, pointers and encouragement I get in here; I really couldn't have gotten this far without you guys.
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Jul 6, 2019 17:11
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If you haven't checked the ATF yet, let it idle awhile, then put it into each gear for a minute or so, through each gear position. Then do the same the way back up to park. Then check it with it still running (you can do so immediately after putting it in park). Since you have questionable cooling at the moment, keep an eye on the temp gauge; the trans does take a bit longer to warm up vs the engine (you may try firing up the heater on high to keep the engine cool[er]). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jul 7, 2019 |
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Jul 7, 2019 16:40
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STR posted:If you haven't checked the ATF yet, let it idle awhile, then put it into each gear for a minute or so, through each gear position. Then do the same the way back up to park. Then check it with it still running (you can do so immediately after putting it in park). Since you have questionable cooling at the moment, keep an eye on the temp gauge; the trans does take a bit longer to warm up vs the engine (you may try firing up the heater on high to keep the engine cool[er]). Oh, that's smart. Standing still, just applying the brakes, will still get the fluids running if I do that? I wasn't sure if I actually had to have the car in motion to circulate ATF or not; without a separate oil pump of its own I still don't quite get how that particular fluid gets pressurized or starts moving throughout the system. Any resources on the matter would be welcome. Why would I fire up the heater, though? I reckoned turning it over to maximum freeze, in order to tell the electronics "my AC is on" even though it's borked, would be my best bet to get those auxiliary fans running?
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Jul 8, 2019 00:08
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Excluding very very unusual transmissions, nearly all automatics have a pump that is driven by the input shaft and torque converter, even in park and neutral. So any time the engine is running, fluid should be moving. It will take a long time for the transmission to get to operating temperature like that, but it will eventually. STR recommended the heater running to keep the engine cooler for a prolonged idling session.
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Jul 8, 2019 00:13
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Aha, got it! I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of engines; transmissions and running gear is still pretty alien territory, though. And I'm guessing running the heater helps by dumping engine heat into the cabin by means of the tiny little blower fans?
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Jul 8, 2019 00:35
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Exactly that, though if you could somehow convince the AC fans to come on that might help as you say.
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Jul 8, 2019 10:23
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Think of the heater as a smaller radiator. Because that's exactly what it is, except you're using the heat from the engine to warm the cabin. It's still removing heat from the engine, it's plumbed in just like a radiator, it just doesn't dump out as much heat as the radiator can. It's a good trick to help cool off a toasty engine a bit quicker, assuming the cooling system is full and the water pump is circulating coolant. At one point, owner's manuals suggested doing this if your engine was getting hot. And yeah, try to get those electric fans working too. And (automatic) transmissions are absolutely alien black magic, and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise. 
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Jul 9, 2019 07:45
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Alright, so I did the little trick with standing still, applying brakes, and letting it sit in Drive and Reverse, shifting between them occasionally. Let the engine heat up to only about 120 degrees F, and tried checking. Now the ATF dip stick seemed to not want to come out while the engine was running; after turning it off there was no issue with that. So... this looks fine, I guess? Even though I lost a little bit when removing the radiator, there doesn't seem to be much of a shortage here. If that stuff is even ATF, I don't know. It had a slight, slight reddish tint when I wiped the stick on paper, but I thought it looked mostly clear. Maybe that's just because it was such a small amount at once. Transmission stuff is confusing. But otherwise, I'm about ready for a road test! I made a nice little pillow out of electrical tape and gorilla tape which I put on that ATF line running across the radiator (that weird new angled pipe one which really should be bolted stuck onto the bottom of the radiator, but somehow won't fit), so hopefully that'll cushion the impacts between the two when I run into bumps and potholes. The grille is back where it belongs, I got the underrun protective plate back on, and I can't find any screws lacking a home. Checked tire pressure as well, and turns out I've leaked a bunch of air from two of my tires, so I made sure to get all four filled to the same pressure (supposed to be 36 psi, but my compressor is puny, so 29 psi it is).  I even cleaned up the air filter housing before sticking it back in; looks much better!
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Jul 12, 2019 21:19
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Lol so ok time for more fun stuff. Today was going to be the day I would eiter 1) burst into fire on a remote country road or 2) triumphantly return with an engine that wasn't overheating and besides sounds as bad-rear end as an engine can sound (it does that anyway, good heavens why don't everyone just get a V8). However, before I could attempt this, I, uh, couldn't open the driver side door. It's been a bit wonky before, but now the awesome Germanic archive drawer push-button in the door handle did exactly nothing. Crawling in the passenger side, opening it from within? No problem. All right, so there's an issue with the outside handle knob button. But that's fine! Because I've heard about those, and they've got a sort of adjustment screw on the inside. If you've got issues, that's most likely the problem – sometimes they get pushed in over time. Just re-extend, and you're good. So I guess today was going to be the day where I learned how to open up the inside of a G-wagon door instead. (Hope nobody's bothered by these image-heavy posts by the way, I just find exactly such posts to be an extremely useful resource when trying to figure stuff out, so... maybe one day some other poor fool with a 500 GE finds this helpful) So first off, there are two little screws way up top; tiny, but conspicuous. Off you go.  Next, the door pocket. I thought this was attached to the lining, but took it out just in case. Good thing, too, it's most definitely part of what's keeping the lining attached to the door. Six more screws.  Finally, the handle bar thing. Three massive screws.  Oh yeah and this little thing looks fragile so maybe take it out gently.  And that's about all there is to it. Now the lining didn't come loose at once, because there's also a ton of little plastic studs holding it attached to the door, so that needed gently but firm prying to get off. And underneath, I sigh once more at the poor car and the treatment it's been given by previous owners. I mean, what the hell, dudes. Masking tape? Seriously?  So that's a sort of plastic film which is supposed to have an adhesive layer on the backside. I think it's also supposed to be replaced entirely whenever you do need to take it off. Probably has something to do with sealing the inner working of door and window, so moisture and poo poo doesn't get in? But I'm pretty sure masking tape is cheaper. As I haven't checked, this film might well be $700 or something. But fine, that made things easier for me.  The guts of the door, ish. It's not a pretty sight, and I'm willing to bet that's not Mercedes-Benz's fault. Sound-proofing (such as it is...) is peeling off, and there's just stuff on everything. One thing is their fault, though, and that's placing the entire locking mechanism firmly behind a sheet of metal which is absolutely part of the door's structure. To access the lock, handle, things in there, you have to take it out. All right.  First, you've got these two screws, removed in the picture. The lower one attaches to the outside handle, while the upper one keeps the whole locking mechanism in place. Then there are two more screwed directly into the locking mechanism assembly on the inside of the door, and they hilariously just almost-fall and are kinda hard do manage, but no worries. Finally, there's this dude right here:  That's the other screw holding the handle in place. You can make it out in the middle of the picture of the guts of the door up there, too. It's rusted to hell and back, and it's not coming loose, no matter what tricks I pull. So what I did instead was just shove the entire handle forwards, and it popped right out, like so:  Not at all liking that rust around the hole it's been sitting in, so I grabbed a small metal wire brush and gave it a good rubbing, inside and out. I then gave the surface a generous helping of that sheep oil I like so much, which ought to help, at least temporarily.  Alright, finally, to fix the problem.  The adjustment screw was coated in wax and had red locktite applied to it, and was extended to the maximum, so that wasn't it. But after a lot of fumbling around, I figured out how the mechanism works. This is taken in from the hole where you push the door knob from the outside. The adjustable screw from the push button is supposed to engage plate A, which will push the dog-eared "handle" B inwards. Now, that dog-ear is supposed to hook on to lever C, just barely visible in this picture, which releases the door lock. Problem: It doesn't. I'm not sure why, I think maybe the dog-ear is worn out? Before taking this picture I tried banging a bit on it, which is why it's shiny, in order to bend it into position so it can hook that lever. Didn't really work too well; I went from a 0% success rate in "opening door from outside" to 10%, but I'm still probably going to have to go in there again. By this point it was getting pretty dark, too, so I had to reassemble the whole thing and call it a night. Oh well, at least I'll know to check for one of those plastic film things. Pursesnatcher fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Jul 13, 2019 |
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Jul 13, 2019 22:39
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Good job being fearless and diving in on little things like this. it's fun to see and makes it fun to help. The plastic film is there to protect the door card and interior in general from moisture. The window seals and such don't actually seal, and aren't meant to. Water will always trickle down the edges of the window and get inside the door. Since the door card is usually made of some kind of wood or fiber product the plastic keeps it from soaking up water. There are drain holes in the bottom of the door, next time you go in there take a plastic scraper and vacuum and get down in the bottom of the door and clear out any mud and dirt and whatever. That way they work like they're supposed to and don't cause your door to rust from the inside out. You can also clean them from the outside just by poking something plastic up in them, you don't have to take the door apart just for that. But any time you have a door card off, it's 100% worth taking an extra minute and vacuuming out the door. And it doesn't really matter what the plastic is, just as long as there's something there. You could tape a garbage bag in place and it would be better than nothing.
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Jul 13, 2019 23:11
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Ahh, I see! That's smart, I'll definitely clean out the inside there next time I go in. Didn't notice any drain holes, and I suppose that's a good thing, as I'd likely have thought they were supposed to be plugged and covered them up if I had. The film is still in place, too; I didn't open it up any more than the masking tape brigade had done, so that's all good then.
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Jul 14, 2019 12:23
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Road test time! After alternating between what felt like 100 degree weather and the occasional severe thunderstorm, we finally got a good old-fashioned "warm summer day" today, so door handle or no door handle, I felt it was safe to try out a little road test. Nearest gas station and car wash is a couple of miles away on mostly empty roads, with speed limits between 25 and 40 mph, so that was my target. First off, I've got to say: The engine behaved beautifully. Running gear still has some mostly benign gremlins in it, but man; I have a sweet, smooth, and powerful engine. That was not the case twelve months ago. Actually, on this very day twelve months ago, this was the status: Pursesnatcher posted:[...] Some things have changed – it's got less issues getting up to speed or climbing hills, power-wise, or at least it seems that way. However, there are some bloody weird issues now as well. First off, idling is a lot rougher with a warm engine than it was before. It's also a tiny bit harder to start the car with a warm engine; like it'll cough a few times and sound like it's about to get going, and then just peter out. So yeah, we're clearly making progress. But how will my cooling revamp work out in real life? As it turns out, pretty well! Going by centigrade now, since that's what my gauges are in; operating temperature is supposed to be about 80. Getting there took just slow-climbing down my terrifying driveway, then driving just a tad aggressively than normal for the first two miles. By the time I got to my target, it looked to have risen to 84 or so. Very comfortable temperature, but that was from a cold start. I then proceeded to give the poor monster a thorough washing, inflated the tires to proper levels, and started it right back up. Ran around the block once in order to brake hard a couple of times, to dry out my brakes after soaking the whole car. Now, since I was going home from a warm start this time, I decided to go nice and easy on the way back. Maintaining speed was the highest priority to ensure air flow, but I did so without applying unnecessary power. I tried – ick – driving economically. And I guess it worked. Temperature started at about 60, then rose rapidly to 80, whereupon I cranked the heater up to max. And while the cabin got night unbearably hot, it seemed to help? Temperature appeared to stabilize at roughly 93 degrees C, where it sat for the last mile or so. Of course, nothing in life is easy. After climbing up my hill again, I stopped only to see a massive plume of steam rising from the front of my car. Neatly freaking out, I killed the engine and scrambled to get under the hood, but could find nothing at all amiss. The topmost chrome bar on my brush guard was covered in, uh. Steam? Dew? Like, that thin film that appears when you breathe on a cold window? That stuff? Anyway, it was covered with that, which then disappeared after a handful of seconds. So I'm thinking whatever it was probably rose up from the grille rather than from under the hood. And since there was still water dripping from all around the car after washing it, I'm hoping it might have just been a pocket of water somehow hitting the radiator as the car came to a stop, and evaporating. But holy poo poo was it frightening. Coolant levels nominal though, and engine, as said, behaves better than ever. Good road test. Sure hope the car isn't about to catch fire right now. Update: Car didn't catch fire, and I took it for another spin – this time braving traffic and red lights. Three and a half miles out, then stopped it for like five minutes, then same distance back again. Seems around 93 degrees C, that's exactly 200 in Fahrenheit, is where it ends up resting when running the cabin heater at moderate settings, and driving at an average of 30 mph. And there weren't even any terrifying clouds of steam this time! Pursesnatcher fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jul 18, 2019 |
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Jul 18, 2019 11:27
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Alright, I guess I spoke a bit too soon? Or maybe not? Anyway, new issues, so I turn to you all for help. Took the truck out for another short run today, only this time, I ran into some troubles. Just a few hundred yards out, I suddenly started losing power. I could feel the car starting to just roll rather than drive, while at the same time it was almost like lugging with a manual gearbox. RPM dropped to about 500, and it sounded like the engine was just about to die. I guess the car was in second; third at most (it's a four-speed, and first gear only engages via kickdown). Nothing I did with the throttle translated into any kind of action in the car. Every few seconds, at random, it would get some more power down to the wheels for just a moment, and then it was back to rolling. Kickdown worked, though; slamming the throttle in made the car downshift, and I was off like a rocket. Easing off on the throttle? Sometimes I would shift up and have power again, more often it would go back to painful rolling. Since speed limits are a thing, what I ended up having to do was kickdown, roll, kickdown, roll, and so on. Found a spot to park, had a look around, but couldn't see anything off in the engine bay or underneath the car (though you'll recall I'm pretty clueless about everything except the stuff I've replaced, so that doesn't necessarily mean much). Next I tried lurching out of the parking lot, which was pretty much impossible. It did not want to transfer power to the wheels, and the weirdest thing (to me, anyway) was that when it was acting up, even putting it in neutral did nothing to the whole dead-throttle-problem. Yes: I stuck it in neutral as I was going at half a mile per hour across the empty lot, and I tried revving the engine, and it flat out refused. Made it back home by means of kickdown-and-roll, reversed into a pocket on my driveway (reverse works nicely I guess?), stuck it in park, and revved the engine. No problem. Bit of a high idle, maybe, but all good. What the hell, guys? Any ideas?
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Jul 25, 2019 10:37
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Bad throttle position sensor?
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Jul 25, 2019 13:07
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Fuel pump would be my next guess?
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Jul 25, 2019 13:37
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Hang on lemme just real quick figure out what throttle position sensors are... ...right, yeah, that would make sense. I suppose it might be either, though. I've been skeptical to my fuel pump for a long time, since it's always giving off a buzzing sound from the moment I turn on the ignition. On the other hand, I've seen a couple of other G-wagons doing the same thing, so if it's not supposed to do that, it's not uncommon either. But I'll have a look at the TPS first, if I can find it!
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Jul 25, 2019 15:06
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You know a pump IS working usually when you hear it hum with the key on.
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Jul 25, 2019 16:22
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Heh, I guess so! Just not used to it from other cars. But I guess I'll whip out the old multimeter this weekend, and go hunting. Found a few pictures of where I can find the relevant plug to measure at, along with the not-so-uplifting knowledge that the actual sensor is embedded so deep in stuff that – if it turns out to be busted – I'll have to tear away pretty much everything from the intake manifold up to replace it. Guess this has been a long time coming, though. Last summer I had several instances of the car not wanting to move, and the engine dying, in a very similar manner to this stuff here. Those times were all from a standstill, however, after shifting it from Park to Drive. For some reason I thought it could be caused by bad U-joints or something, since I've also got this nice clunk sound from underneath the car when I transition in and out of reverse (as well as when I apply throttle after releasing it completely). Ah well, the adventure continues!
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Jul 25, 2019 21:28
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Mercedeeeeeees...! Okay, so it appears my TPS isn't really a potentiometer, it's a switch. Somehow. And to check it, you're supposed to measure resistance, not voltage. I'm decent enough with electrical and electronic stuff in general, but once you put either of those in a car, I get confused and anxious. Problem: My manual doesn't say much at all about what values to look for when measuring said resistance, only that it's supposed to end up at zero Ohm's when throttle is fully engaged. Also, the switch itself is located at the throttle body, which is underneath the air flow sensor, which is underneath the fuel distributor octopus. That means I have to measure at the terminator. That, in turn, might be one out of two possible plugs. One looks right, but has four wires coming out of it, not three. The other's got one, not three. There are supposed to be three wires. So I'm at a loss. Didn't get much further than that this weekend, and am seriously considering letting a trained professional handle this particular problem. Good news though, I found out that my aux fans work! Both of them, even the one that was jammed stuck with corrosion, spin up with much gusto and excitement when fed 12 V directly. I'm positive that with both those babies running, I'll have exactly zero need for the big mechanical fan. Bad news is that they're supposed to spin up at a low setting above a certain coolant temperature, and at full blast at some higher temperature, but even after having run the engine up to 110 Celsius, I still haven't seen a hint of that low setting. So either there's a busted sensor somewhere, or there's a busted relay... so that's another thing I might want to hand over to a workshop. Of course, a friend who came over and helped out noticed a vacuum line hanging loose, outside a connector. I have no idea what it's for, but for all I know, those power issues might have been caused by that. Edit: It's literally 90 degrees F here now; not braining so well. Re: fans, doing some further reading, it seems they're only set to come online in the slow setting when refrigerant pressure exceeds so-and-so. As I've removed half of my AC system, and unhooked the belt from the AC compressor, that's not going to happen any time soon. Going to have to see if I can bypass that detection, I guess? Still kinda weird that they won't power up on the high setting, though, since they're supposed to do that anyway. Pursesnatcher fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Jul 28, 2019 |
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Jul 28, 2019 23:12
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