[W126 Coupe] MBCOUPES Digest, Vol 85, Issue 12

[TRUELIL at aol.com]

FOR SALE: 1985 500 SEC RUNS. NEEDS WORK. 3,900.00. ALSO, 1982 380SEC NEEDS  
WORK 2,500.00. CALL 631-662-0120 OR EMAIL TRUELIL at AOL.COM
 
 
In a message dated 6/12/2011 5:00:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
mbcoupes-request at mbcoupes.com writes:

Send  MBCOUPES mailing list submissions to
mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide  Web, visit
http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mbcoupes
or, via email, send a  message with subject or body 'help' to
mbcoupes-request at mbcoupes.com

You can reach the person managing the  list at
mbcoupes-owner at mbcoupes.com

When replying,  please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of  MBCOUPES digest..."


Today's Topics:

1.  Saturday's MB gathering (Gerry Van  Zandt)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message:  1
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:19:36 -0500
From: Gerry Van Zandt  <gerryvz at me.com>
Subject: [W126 Coupe] Saturday's MB gathering
To:  Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists <mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com>
Message-ID:  <4CFBC944-9024-4692-8A3C-129ED73BC79F at me.com>
Content-Type:  text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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  !!



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text  attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_9693.jpeg
Type: image/jpg
Size:  119595 bytes
Desc: not available
Url :  
<http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/mbcoupes/attachments/20110612/bff132b2/attachment.jpg>
--------------  next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name:  IMG_9699.jpeg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 84840 bytes
Desc: not  available
Url :  
<http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/mbcoupes/attachments/20110612/bff132b2/attachment-0001.jpg>
--------------  next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name:  IMG_9709.jpeg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 70209 bytes
Desc: not  available
Url :  
<http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/mbcoupes/attachments/20110612/bff132b2/attachment-0002.jpg>
--------------  next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name:  IMG_9708.jpeg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 141257 bytes
Desc: not  available
Url :  
<http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/mbcoupes/attachments/20110612/bff132b2/attachment-0003.jpg>

------------------------------

The  MB Coupes Website!
W126 SEC Coupes
Postings remain property of MB  Coupes, L.L.C.

End of MBCOUPES Digest, Vol 85, Issue  12
****************************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/mbcoupes/attachments/20110614/15f8ae08/attachment.htm>