Dave's Life

Let me start by saying that yesterday I reaffirmed that wisdom often comes from unexpected sources. We pulled out of BMRA about noon yesterday and started west down 154 out of Gilmer towards Quitman. About 10 minutes into my ride my temp gauge started climbing, which was pretty disconcerting considering I had to drive all the way out to Lake Texoma to drop my camper and then head back home, which is about a 4.5 hour drive. I pulled into a little gas station 17 miles before Quitman and found a small but forceful stream of coolant shooting out of the top front of my radiator. After asking a few locals if there was any chance of getting a radiator repair done on Memorial Day around there I quickly learned that I was on my own.

I went inside the station and asked the pregnant cashier (with her pack of smokes on the counter behind her!). She said "Why don't you put some table pepper in there?" Ummm... "Like black pepper?". She confirmed that is what she meant and sounded surprised that I had never heard of this fix. She continued by reassuring me that it is a common fix for small holes and won't damage anything. Given my situation and knowing that I had very little to lose in this situation I skeptically took a large bottle of black pepper to the counter and she rang it up along with a jug of coolant. After letting the engine cool off a bit, I refilled the coolant and proceeded to put about half of the bottle of pepper in the radiator.

Knowing dang well that I was likely to be stopping on the side of the road in about 5 minutes, I started back on my trip home. 17 miles later the engine was still cool and I stopped for a moment in Quitman to see how bad the leak was. Nada... nothing! Not even a wet spot on the radiator where it was shooting out 20 minutes before. I decided the next goal would be Greenville. If I got at least that far, it wouldn't be that bad for my wife to come rescue me. In Greenville, it was still dry! The engine continued to stay cool the rest of the way home and I had no further issues.

So... next time a pregnant cigarette smoking woman from East Texas gives you auto mechanical advice, don't immediately discount it. She may have torn down more engines than you!

I have never been one known for going to car lots and purchasing a shiny new car that loses value as soon as I turn the key. In fact, just this morning a friend was commenting that my vechicle collection is somewhat eclectic in the fact that other than the ones I own, you very rarely (if ever) see the same model on the road.

Case in point is my previously most recent addition - my 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, complete with woody panel sides. I truly love that truck and it is surprisingly awesome to use as a daily driver, except for one issue. Its 11MPG is an absolute killer, especially when coupled with my 62-mile daily round trip commute. Based on this morning's gas price of $3.15, that is $17.75/day just to get back and forth to work assuming I never take a detour going to or from the office.

This week, a coworker showed up in her new Prius that gets somewhere around 40MPG. Additionally, I have seen numerous articles this week talking about how gas prices will quite easily peak (assuming the ever actually do peak) substantially higher than they are today. My problem with getting a new hybrid is that the break-over point before I would actually see any real savings would be years if ever! I started looking into other options and quickly narrowed my sights to the early Mercedes diesels, specifically the 190-D and 240-D models. Both get somewhere around 35MPG as opposed to their gas versions which are in the low 20s. Both have motors that have numerous reports of a million miles. I found several somewhat decent used vechicles in the 1200-2000 range. Non-running vechicles in these models were still getting around $800.00. I did a lot of searching for owner satisfaction and couldn't find anyone who didn't like their 240-D. In fact, my favorite testimonial was "I've had my '83 since 2000 and it has helped make me a better person." Who doesn't want to be a better person?!? :)

So, knowing the general target of what I was considering, my friend Aaron whipped out a spread sheet to help me calculate cost analysis. I wanted to see how long it took before I was saving real dollars only using the new vechicle for my Monday-Friday commute while still using my Jeep the rest of the time, and I was really surprised at what we found. Here are the variables that we took into consideration:

• Miles per Day: 62
• Gas Price: $3.15
• Diesel Price: $3.89
• Current MPG: 11
• Projected MPG: 35
• Work Days per Month: 21.72
• Car Purchase Price: $1200.00
• Worst-case re-Sale Price: $850.00
• Registration/Inspection: $60.00
• Monthly Insurance: $30.00
• Monthly Maintenance: $50.00

First, what it told me is that my current Monday-Friday gas cost is $385.63! What in the world?! If I swapped to a 35MPG diesel even at $3.89, my monthly gas cost alone would be down to $149.67! Now before I get all crazy I need to bring in some reality by throwing in insurance, maintenance, licensing, etc. Even after factoring all that in, I am still at a monthly cost of $229.67, netting me a monthly savings of $155.96.

So based on this information and based on the fact that at any moment I could walk away selling the vehicle for $850.00, here is what the accumulated savings look like over the next 12 months:

• - $254.04
• - $98.08
• $57.88
• $213.84
• $369.80
• $525.76
• $681.72
• $837.67
• $993.63
• $1,149.59
• $1,305.55
• $1,461.51

That's right, after 1 year I will save almost 1500 bucks by purchasing an additional car! Plus, I love the fact that I am not wasting good miles on my Wagoneer by driving it to and from work every day.

So, last night I went and picked up a new-to-me white 1979 Mercedes 240-D. It is by no means a looker, but then again it is a 30-year-old car I got for 1200 bucks. but it is pretty comfortable to drive and feels even better knowing the effect on my wallet. Here is a shot of it that I just took out of my office window...

If anyone is interested in using the spreadsheet helped create these numbers and helped me make my decision to purchase the Benz, you can access it here and modify it as you need to suit your needs.

 

This past weekend I grenaded the inside of my t-case, so last night I spent the evening in the garage pulling it out. I thought I would share my steps here since there were a couple of gotchas.

First off, the space is really tight around that t-case. I had been spoiled with the easy access to my Dana 300 in the CJ - of course I could sit straight up under the CJ as well! Without the space issue to contend with I probably wouldn't bother posting this, but hopefully this will ease someone else's frustration down the line.

1. Start by removing both the front and rear drive shafts. Remove the axle end of the rear shaft and slide it out of the slip yoke on the t-case. Then remove the t-case end of the front driveshaft and let it rest on the crossmember.
   
   
2. 
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   Next you will want to remove the 4 nuts that secure the transmission to the crossmember from the bottom.
   
   
3. Remove harness connector from the t-case, and the t-case shifter linkage. I have heard some say to remove the speedo cable and vacuum line as well, but neither of those applied to me.
   
   
4. Now you will need to put a floor jack under your oil pan. I put a short 2x4 board on top of the jack lengthwise on the bottom of the pan to help distribute the weight a bit. I placed the jack as far forward on the oil pan as I could so I would have room to place a jack stand behind it (more on that in a moment).
   
   
5. 
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   With the floor jack supporting the back of the drivetrain, you can now safely remove the crossmember bolts from the subframe and drop the crossmember.
   
   
   
6. 
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   With the crossmember out of the way you will need to remove the tranny mount from the bottom of the transmission.
   
   
7. 
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   Now it is time to lower the rear of the engine/transmission. You will want to pull it down as much as you can to give yourself some room at the top of the transfer case. *SLOWLY* lower the back of the engine until it stops dropping, then raise it back up a small amount to relieve pressure. Now place a jack stand under it to support the back of the engine.
   
   
8. 
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   Now, find the 9/16" wrench in your toolbox that you like the least and get out a dremel or die grinder. Cut off about 1/3 of the open end of the wrench (at least on mine this was the right length). As close as you can to the chopped off end, grind out a small notch. Now take some strong wire about 1-2' long and tie it to the end of the wrench placing it in the notch. This will allow you to pull the wrench using the wire and will give you decent leverage. I found a small 1" diameter pipe to wrap the other end around to serve as a handle. Since some of the nuts are harder to reach than others, you may want to leave your handle only loosely secured so you can vary the length from the wrench. Now you can use your new wrench contraption for all the hard to reach nuts around the transfer case.
   
   
9. 
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   Once all nuts are removed, you can gently slide the transfer case off and lower it to the ground. Please note that it is not exceptionally light. While it is a simple bench press for many people, you may wish to use a jack to lower it down when you slide it off.
   

 

 

Good luck!