My favorite kind of day, I have a 380sl in

[Bill R.]

right now for some brake problems and while i'm working on it I have it running checking the brake booster vacum and the motor dies.... Traces down to be a 600.00 ignition module, so now i get to tell the customer that his unrelated brake problem has turned into an ignition problem while it was here. And I still haven't fixed the brake problem...

[George M]

a tough one. Bet that kind of thing happens more than you like to admit sometimes
with these old cars.
George.
BTW Bill...can you use an E-32 Bentley manual?...as you work on these cars from time to time...help with the M70 cars in particular. I asked Jack..the injured war vet E-32 friend of mine if he wanted it and not sure if he does and/or already has one. He has not responded to my e-mail and not sure if he is laid back up or not. If he has a Bentley and you are interested, I want you to have it out of thanks.

[Brian C.]

.....used to work on MY CAR????



I think I've heard the story that you're going to come up with before. Good luck.

Brian C.

[Bill R.]

called him up to tell him what had happened he said he was just glad that it didn't happen to him on the road somewhere... I finally found him a ignition module from autozone of all places for 145 with a lifetime warranty so he's happy anyway....
It doesn't happen to me to often fortunately, Usually i'll just find 20 other things wrong with a car to tell the customer and he can decide in the future when to repair them, rarely do i have one crippled when here to the point that they have to fix it...

I'm very flattered that you thought of me George, but with all the service manuals I have on cd and paper, I think you could put that e32 manual to better use by giving it to someone locally or on the e32 board that could use it ..Thanks much for thinking of me though.

a tough one. Bet that kind of thing happens more than you like to admit sometimes
with these old cars.
George.
BTW Bill...can you use an E-32 Bentley manual?...as you work on these cars from time to time...help with the M70 cars in particular. I asked Jack..the injured war vet E-32 friend of mine if he wanted it and not sure if he does and/or already has one. He has not responded to my e-mail and not sure if he is laid back up or not. If he has a Bentley and you are interested, I want you to have it out of thanks.

[George M]

You were my first thought Bill for who to give the manual to. I will check with you one more time if Jack already has one :-)
Don't know much about the MB 380SL...but visually they are beautiful.
George
PS had a friend down in Florida with a classic silver one a few years back and almost bought it.

[Bill R.]

contemplating it ...

You were my first thought Bill for who to give the manual to. I will check with you one more time if Jack already has one :-)
Don't know much about the MB 380SL...but visually they are beautiful.
George
PS had a friend down in Florida with a classic silver one a few years back and almost bought it.

[Jr ///M5]

My wifes Uncle has a 380 SL and called one day because it wouldn't start. I told him to quit cranking it, but knew the damage had already been done.

The timing chain guides are pure crap on these cars and they break off at the top of the left bank. The broken piece then decides to lodge itself between the timing chain and the sprocket causing the chain to jump and bounce the valves off the tops of the pistons.

I told him to take it to a local indy who does excellent work and assured him it would cost around $3000. He did, and they did and in the end, he was very pleased that his car ran like a brand new one. He couldn't believe it.

You might have your valued customer let you take a look at those plastic guides, Uncle Chucks broke at 130k miles.

By the way, isn't that George Mann such a nice guy....=)

Jr

[winfred]

single row mercedes chains blow chunks and pop every 100-130k double's are sloppy as hell at 200k, benzes are generally harder on valve train then m10/30 bimmer motors which are about as bad as bmw gets, i've seen 190-300e motors wear out cams/rockers so bad the valves barely get opened. these days chuck (the ase master tech i work with) and i look upon mercedes as a form of automotive VD (the drip) and avoid as such, we have one customer with a couple old 5 banger diesels that we will grugelingly work on as a favor and are working on getting him into a volvo and bmw

[George M]

from a man who knows. Quite something Winfred...I wouldn't expect such a difference in durability between MB engines and BMW and Volvo. Have to say I am a bit surprised. I am no MB fan to be sure but thought their engines went a long way without rebuild. Good info.
George

[gale]

Some friends had Karman Ghia that needed some minor body/paint work done on the nose, so I did it for them for a token $50. They were so impressed with the results they asked me to repaint the whole car. So I do a primo 4-coat acrylic lacquer, hand sanded & buffed sky blue paint job on it, a real gem if I must say. I had it long enough to need to periodically give it a jump start. When they came to pic it up, the battery was weak again so I jumped it one more time & blew the diodes out of the alternator. It blew all the lights out of it & fried some wires so threw my hands up & subbed it to an electrical shop for them on my nickel. I ended up making a token $5 profit on the entire paint job -- live & learn. Seems like 1 out of every 10 jobs goes to crap without warning, but I do ok on the other 9.