Quick One

Not a lot has been going on in my world. Went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago for some updated training on Mercedes. I go to this class every year and enjoy it very much. The instructor is just a guru and he always makes learning so easy. Then several suppliers show up to hock their wares and spend money on us for a change instead of the other way around. It's great because it only cost me class, gas and hotel for the weekend. I've long since learned it is pointless to fight with these guys over who's buying drinks and dinner. There egos are much bigger then mine so I just sit back and reap the rewards :-)

Quick funny story. While having drinks across the street at the Golden Pheasant, which will surprise you if you didn't know better. In the front is more or less a biker bar but the back room fine dining at it's best. All homemade very good food. Bone in Prime Rib, Oysters Rockefeller and everything in between. Anyway I put my coat over a chair and this guy Dave yells "Hey Team Slut!" He seen my patch and the points cover on my bike that says Team Slut and knew whos bike it was. After stating he has never seen a chain like the one I use on my bike, I Told him that is what happens once you've had one stolen.

So we're laughing and having a good time talking about bikes and such. When I ask Dave what he rides he tells me a 93 FXSTC. Funny cause that is what I had before some low life piece of sh*t stole it. But I regress. He asked me about my tank size and how far I could go on a tank. Told him 5 gallons and Whiskey will go around 170/180 on a tank. Then he tells me he can only go about 130 before he needs gas. I knew that wasn't right and asked are you filling both tanks? Dave says his left gas cap isn't a cap but just a dummy cap. Stock tanks I ask? Yep he responds. Tell him he has 5.2 gallon tanks but he insist it only holds 2.5 something. We go outside I grunt and groan but I get his left gas cap off and the look on his face was that of amazement. He had own the bike for 3 years and never knew that cap came off. Needless to say he bought me a couple of Shastas'. Then he and his buddy Dennis took me around and showed me some of the sites and we had a blast.

Dang, I guess this one wasn't a "Quick One" after all. I guess I'm not as bored as I thought I was!

fasthair

I'm Just Sick

Seems the saga of this little 400E just will not end. But after last night the little devil will be causing no one any more trouble.

The owner of the car lives in Washington state. He flew in last week and spent a week here with family and to drive it around making sure it was ok before heading home in it. He walks in to the shop this morning stating "I'm pissed my car doesn't run." Needless to say my heart sank and all I could think of what the hell is wrong now. Then he reaches in his pocket and pulls out a packet of photos. Only 120 or so miles in to his trip home and... well I think the photo says it all. The good news is the car did its job and the gentleman is walking today with just a sore body and a headache.

He was slowing for another accident on I80 near Omaha doing about 35MPH and watching the road, when this semi wasn't paying attention. The truck hit the little 400E at 60+ tossing it another 200 feet down the road. There was already State Troopers waving flashlights and the lights on the cars going. How this trucker didn't see the mess is beyond me.

I feel real bad for this guy but like I said at least he was not hurt and the car can be replaced. I put a lot of work in to this car and had a lot of pride in it after how screwed up it was when it showed up. The owner did tell me that the car drove better then it has in years and was happy he spent the money on it. I was really looking forward to seeing this little car go another 200,000 miles.

fasthair

It's Out of Here

I was beginning to wonder if that 400E would ever leave. But at long last this past Friday it drove out of here and I was never so happy to see a pair of tail lights in my life. Happen to run into the customer on Saturday out driving around in it and he is thrilled to have it back and running like it should. He has been without it for nine months (not my fault the other shop had it for over 6 months) so needless to everyone is happy.

In other news, ok there is none really. My brother's birthday day was yesterday (April 28) so Happy Birthday Noel. Sorry you were at work when I called but I hope you got my message and know I was thinking of you. My big day comes next week, May 6. The weather is trying to really try to be spring so with any luck it won't be raining and I can ride to go out for dinner. With any luck I will round up a date with this really nice lady I've met and all will be right with the world. If not, well it will still be ok and I'll be happy to have just made it another year getting to spend it with my family and friends. It would be nice to go the NHRA race in St. Louis this weekend but it's not in the cards. I'll just have to wait until Chi-Town I guess.

fasthair

Getting Closer

Well this pain in the ass car is almost done. It seems that it doesn't want to leave but it doesn't understand I am sick of looking at it and I want it gone.

After the happy dance of it starting late last week it started to show some of it's other problems. The worst being the electronic throttle control. Of course the problem is part design flaw and part having been torn all apart. The bad design part is the wiring used in this device was mandated by the European Nation to be easily recyclable. Only problem is it did just that and started to recycle itself under the hood as the car aged. Once this happens and the harness gets moved like it did while I had the engine out and all apart,the insulation falls off shorting the harness out ending the life of the almost dead part. It's a cause and affect kind of thing. So what's another grand after spending over 5K now? Ugh.

Other news. It looks like ol' man winter has finally decided it is time to get out of Dodge. It seems official now... spring is here! Nice day here and I need to go for a ride just to clear my head and enjoy the sound and feel of my bike. At this point I don't even care where just as long as it is no where close to here. After having a little bomb shell dropped on me this morning I think it is just the ticket I need.

I'll try to blog a little more often, not that my life is all that exciting or I think anyone really cares.

fasthair

Past Due

First thing I guess is my employee Pete has moved on. He found a new job that can provide him with the things I couldn't. While I'm sad at loosing him I can do nothing but support him with his choice. We've had a lot of good times working together and I would like to think I taught him a few things just like he did me. I must say I am going to miss working with him. Best of luck my friend!

I've also been struggling with a repair on this one motor. This has been a pain since it rolled in the door. I'm fixing this car after another shop (for lack of a better term) just did a hack job on it in every sense of the word. Every time I turned around there was something else they had screwed up on this engine. I've drilled out 7 cross threaded broken bolts. Broken bolts are bad enough but when they are cross threaded too it is a major pain in the ass. That is just the start of what they wrecked. Harmonic balancer hammered on 45 degrees off smashing the woodruff key, broken head gaskets, missing/loose bolts and oil leaks from every possible spot that it can leak. After removing the engine and taking it down to the short block to fix all of these problems I can see the end in sight. The engine is back in and 90 percent bolted up. All I am waiting for now is a special tool so I can time the camshafts. The bad part about that is the tool has to come from Germany. It's been a week now and the tool still isn't here. It will be a very happy day when this thing is done and out the door.

I did get the Harley out last week and have been riding almost everyday since. Oh that feels so good! Now if it would just warm up in the mornings so I don't freeze on the way to work I would be as happy as can be. I have got to figure out why when riding in a heavy rain it drops a cylinder. I've tried every secondary ignition part there is on it with either the good parts I took off when I hopped up the engine or new. It will run fine in the shop with a garden hose soaking everything. But as soon as it either rains real hard or I power wash it it drops the cylinder and nothing will bring it back other then getting it dried out. The only thing I haven't tried is a new crank sensor. While I find it hard to believe that the crank sensor will drop just one cylinder I've not ruled it out. I've seen it on Mercedes before where the crank sensor gets wet and causes all kinds of weird running problems. To top it off the local HD dealer has them on stock and they don't stock anything. At about 60 or 70 bucks I guess it is worth a gamble.

fasthair

New Mercedes-Benz

Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon stopped by the shop Monday to show off their new car. This is their sixth Mercedes-Benz but their first brand new one. It is a 2008 E320CDI BlueTec diesel.

Since they brought it out I just had to drive it, of course Mrs. Sheldon insist I drive it. Who am I to say no? This engine is amazing. If the first thing that comes to mind if you think of diesel is tons of black smoke, a loud knocking engine and poor acceleration then you are in for a surprise.

The first thing you notice is nothing. No knocking noise, no black smoke and no sluggishness. The only way to tell the engine is running is to look at the instrument cluster to see the gauges are showing activity, it is that quite and smooth. Once put in drive it moves away from a stop like it was a gas engine. No turbo lag or laziness and in fact when the turbo does spool up it is so linear you never feel the "bang" of the turbo coming on. Simply just steps up and gets with the show. Having driven many late model gas Mercedes-Benz I think their claim of this engine being able to out run a gas motor of the same size to be true. I couldn't really romp on this car since it only had 350 miles and not even close to being broken. I kept the engine speed below 3000RPM but that was still plenty and zoomed the car to almost 80MPH before I got to the end of the on ramp and that was up hill! Mrs. Sheldon reports it does 100MPH with no effort. Impressive to say the least.

There was a time in my shop that almost every car I worked on was a diesel. During the mid 90s' that turned to mostly gas engines as Mercedes-Benz enter the horse power wars with BMW and other German car companies. While I don't really miss those old oil burners it will be nice to see if this engine puts Mercedes-Benz diesels back on the map. I think they have a hit on their hands. If the sales this dealership says they have are true with this diesel then I know they have a hit on their hands.

fasthair

Odds and Ends

I'm sick and tired of winter. The good news... Here is it March 2nd it's a nice 54 degrees at 11:30AM. The bad news.... They are calling for two to four inches of snow again tonight starting at 6PM...WTF?!?! If it wasn't for all of the crud on the streets from the melting snow I would be out riding. Lord knows I want to bad enough but not bad enough to ride in all of the salt and sand that is on the roads. Not to mention my bike would be a mess and I don't really feel like spending hours cleaning for only an hour or two of riding. This is the first winter in a long time that I haven't got to go for a ride at least once a month during the winter. Sad part is we've had a "normal" winter this year as far as snow fall an cold temps. I must be getting old.

Yesterday was a "lets fix PCs' today" day. I woke up to a desktop that wouldn't even finish the POST. This is the second time in three months I've woken up and had this happen. Last time like this time it is the mother board that is kaka. Now I'm not sure why but I'm guessing the power supply has something to do with it. I got out the trusty volt meter and checked all the voltages and while nothing is way out of spec I do see that the 3.3 volt outputs are in the 3.45 range. So it is getting replaced just because it is really about the only thing I can see causing these problems. So out the door to the shop to pick up my good old backup Sony laptop. Maybe not the fastest thing on the planet it does always run so there is something to be said about that! Plus I'm a smart guy and always have my stuff backed up so I'm not missing a bunch of stuff I just have to have. It didn't take twice for me to learn that lesson :-)

Back home my friend Chirp shows up with a Dell laptop her sister had given her saying HELP! I knew as soon as I booted and seen A: Windows ME for the OS and B: Always Off Line icons all over the desktop I knew there wasn't much that was going to help this little laptop other then a fresh load of XP. So some four plus hours later and 130+ patches via Microsoft Update she had a spanky new OS and a laptop that is now usable. She's thrilled and I'm tired of PC repair... until it happens again.

fasthair