The Benz was a salvage car that had been hit in the back end. The tail panel has been replaced with flat steel, and the tailights replaced with bullet style lamps... old Impala style. They weren't getting good grounds, and the solution was decided to be welding the lamp brackets inside the trunk. Sean also installed a pair of license plate lights. It should now pass inspection.

Gotta do the master on the 323. It wont do the pedal-to-floor thing for me. Carlota says it might be ambient temperature related. Intermittent pedal drop & ambient temp related point to master cylinder usually. I just hope she isn't feeling a low pedal as the semi normal result of 70% worn pads at all 4 wheels on these cars. Maybe we'll do the pads too. They dont technically need to be replaced yet, and i dont see how the ambient temp could affect them. They do make the pedal a trifle lower, which is contrary to hydraulic law if you dont consider inefficiency in the system.

Geneva's truck....
Geneva's truck....
G, G, G,...

She ran out of fuel.
The fuel gauge wasn't working. Could me my fault. I put stuff back together like i was s'posed to. I didn't take any of it apart at first.
Hope it wasn't me. She drove it for wednesday and a little bit thursday.... fuel read full all the time.

Anyway, she ran out of fuel. She ran out of fuel in the injected diesel and wore the batteries down trying to start it. To make matters worse, she had some help trying to start it. sounds good, probably wasn't. Somebody used ether (starting fluid). Pretty much a no-no on a diesel. We hope there is no engine damage.
It wont start. It cranks slowly.
It was cranked until the batteries wore down.
They tried to jump it with a bitty car.
She had it towed.
The shop charged and tried, charged and tried. Said she probably needed a starter. They said they also bled the injectors.

The thing is, with these, I believe #1, if they run out of fuel the injectors might need bled first. #2 they need a full charge (4-8 hrs on the charger before you TOUCH the ignition switch if the voltage is low), or another Dual Battery Diesel for a jump-start if only slightly low batteries. If using a bitty car for jump starting, you just sit there with it running for about 6hrs, wishing you could just plug in a charger and go to the pub.

Though I took these on faith, i never thought that hard about it. I don't know much about diesels, but i hear they wont run on air ;)
After thinking and consulting (my brother is so smart) I realized
(and I think i knew this but keep it either in that recessed place in my brain connecting to "read shop manual" or the part which says "if you abide the rules, you need not think of the consequences of breaking them".... probably the latter which unfortunately is a rarely used section of my grey matter.)
that continuing to try to start a vehicle with low voltage can ruin the starter, and continuing to (not fully) charge and then discharge batteries can ruin them as well.

So.... she's had it towed back to her house... take batteries out and starter out. Have batteries tested and replace starter. As long as that guy with the ether didn't treat this like a gasoline engine, we should be fine.....
and get the fuel gauge working :embarassed:
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spott