[W126 Coupe] Saturday's MB gathering

[Gerry Van Zandt]

All:

Yesterday we had an MBCA-sponsored annual GTG in Centerville, TX which is attended by members of the Houston,Dallas and Austin chapters of MBCA. Usually about 15-20 cars attend.  Centerville is about halfway between Dallas and Houston and is about 1.5-2 hours drive from each city -- a caravan left each city in the morning.  I went with the Houston caravan and we had about 5-6 cars.

I decided to drive my 560SEC, becuase last year I took my E500. When I got about 5 miles before Centerville, I noticed my battery and ABS lights were lit up, and my fuel reserve and other lights were glowing faintly.  Immediately turned off the A/C, radar and radio and decided to see if I could limp it into Centerville.  No problem doing so. Parking the car at the BBQ place we reserved for the club there, I got out and looked underhood.  Immediately saw the problem -- no alternator belt. Or rather, strands of what was left of it were sort of wrapped around the A/C compressor pulley on the other side of the engine compartment !

Now Centerville is a town of 906 people, so Dave ought to identify with it very well. One of the Benz attendees, a young driver of a 1994 E420, looked up auto parts places on his smartphone while I was extricating the old belt remains from my A/C compressor. He located a parts place about 300 yards from where we were and was off to get a belt as soon as I gave him the measurements from mine!  He returned about 15 minutes later with an American-made Gates belt that was of the proper size, and I installed it in about 20 minutes.  Now remember it was 95 degrees out and it was at 1PM, so the hottest part of the day.

Had to remove the smog pump belt, loosen the alternator adjuster (to get the new belt on), and remove the A/C compressor/crank pulley belt by loosening the belt tensioner before I could slip the new alternator belt on the pulleys. Didn't bother to replace the smog pump belt because it was not necessary.

After I went inside and ate at the BBQ joint (the others were just finishing up their meals) I scarfed down some brisket and ribs, and then the group headed the 4 miles to Fort Boggy State Park for a show and shine. At 4:30 PM I packed up and headed south to Houston, going 75-80 MPH all the way. It was 100F indicated on my dashboard on I-45. Arrived at home just after 6PM and everything was fine. I'm going to order a new set of all of the belts even though they were Contis and all of them had been replaced in October of 2009.

The lesson learned is that belts seem to give way in the Texas heat quite a bit earlier than they did in the Pacific Northwest. I was thanking my lucky stars I was driving my SEC, with individual belts, rather than the serpentine-belt-equipped E500 or E320. When your serp belt goes, you are dead in the water. When your SEC belt goes, all you need is a 13mm, 17mm and 19mm wrench to loosen and/or replace everything to get yourself back on the road, and you can use NAPA or Western Auto belts to get you home.

Here's a couple photos of the remains of the belt....and the new one installed.

Thanks to those fellow Benz owners who were there who lent me their tools and also fetched the replacement belt (and wouldn't even let me reimburse him for it).

Cheers,
Gerry

P.S. The US-made Gates belts fit lower in the pulleys than the proper Conti / MB belts do. Using a US-made belt is not a long-term solution because riding lower in the pulley causes more friction and heat, and thus shorter life for the belt.  Replace as soon as possible with the proper belt !!



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