[W126 Coupe] Spares in the Boot (was: Saturday's MB gathering)

[gerryvz]

>

>

> Gerry, you must be paying the preacher well - you were able to make it

> to a place where the belt was available. In the early 70's (before

> cellphones) when I was a salesman traveling by car, I lost a water pump

> belt about 7pm on a lonely stretch of interstate kinda near Sweetwater,

> TN - halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga. The guy at the service

> station called an autoparts guy at home and had him deliver the belt for

> my late-model Ford - saved my bacon, but I might not have been so lucky

> in those days with a Benz. My daddy, a parts man who couldn't fix

> anything, thought it was prudent to have a spare set of belts and

> radiator hoses in the trunk for emergency repairs by someone else.

>

 

Indeed I was lucky that it was only a belt that was the issue. I had just replaced the alternator about 2.5 years ago (last thing I did in Portland right before moving to Texas) so I was really hoping that the alternator was still OK. Luckily it was.






>

> Belts are fairly common because it's size the and not the car that matters.

> I was in a similar situation when lost the power steering belt on a 1975

> Mercedes Benz 280S that I was helping a fried drive back to Atlanta.

>

 
Exactly right -- the belt was clearly marked with the width & length and the replacement belt was within 1 cm of length (but was spec'd in the book for the SEC) -- close enough that the alternator adjustment screw/slot took up the slack.






>

> In a case of being rather lazy, I take the full set of used belts that have

> just been replaced with new ones and toss the used ones under the spare

> tire. They may not make 10,000 miles, but the used ones will get me home