Sheila's evisceration and birth of an HJ62 -> Tofudebeest

[Tofudebeest]

Just bought myself some time by buying a 3rd vehicle. Photos by week's end.

[Project60]

Originally Posted by Henry James the 47th

That has to stay on the same side, unless you wish to reroute your fuel lines to the other side as well, right into the area where the hot exhaust pipe travels - not really a good idea.

I just got done welding new inner frame rail patches into my frame on my 83 60 and there were no threaded holes (no nuts on the back side) on the driver side as there were on the passenger side frame rail for the fuel/brake lines. This would mean you would have to tap out some holes to a larger size on the driver side if you want to run fuel lines on that side.

[paulwolf350]

the hj60 fuel lines run up the drivers side in aus, passengers side in US so no mods there


tofu, where are the pictures, just went through nine pages to find this thread, post man, post

Paul

[Tofudebeest]

I'm picking up my spare vehicle, an '87 MB 300D, which will be my DD until Tofudebeest is on the road.

My new pedal bucket arrived yesterday. I get my clutch master cylinder soon as well. I'll take a few photos tonight. Sorry. Not much progress.

[Christian]

Merc DD and a Cruiser in the build, I like that!

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by paulwolf350

the hj60 fuel lines run up the drivers side in aus, passengers side in US so no mode there

Paul

In other words, they go along the same side of the truck. The trucks with the 2H keep the exhaust on the left and the fuel lines and sedimenter on the right. With trucks using the 3B engine, which dumps to the right side, the trucks end up with a highly convoluted exhaust system, as the pipe travels around along the floor pan, jogging up and over the driveshaft, over to the left side of the vehicle, thus avoiding the gas tank lines. It seems that the fuel tank systems are set up one way only, regardless of LHD/RHD, and fit the engine and ancillary systems, fuel and vacuum lines, etc, around that. I imagine it's because of the tanks fit to the sheet metal pressings, like the fuel filler inlet and the shape of the floorpan the tank presses against.

I'd love to know why Hino designed the B series engines with intake/exhaust reversed to the H series engines - what's the reason?

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by Henry James the 47th

I'd love to know why Hino designed the B series engines with intake/exhaust reversed to the H series engines - what's the reason?

Me too .. but it's clear ( at least IMOP if is important ) that 2H design it's better suited in a land cruiser plataform

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by Tapage

Me too .. but it's clear ( at least IMOP if is important ) that 2H design it's better suited in a land cruiser platform

Interesting...what leads you to conclude that? I hadn't really thought of which engine may/may not be 'better', so I would like to know your reasons.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by Henry James the 47th

Interesting...what leads you to conclude that? I hadn't really thought of which engine may/may not be 'better', so I would like to know your reasons.

Out of Joke .. and I need to sai I love my 1HDT engine that run exhaust in the passenger side ..

Why run the exaust in the most complicate side of the frame .. ? in my HJ-60 I have all fuel lines in the pass side, along with DS .. nice and in the other side clean the e3xhaust with enought space in rear to my other water radiator and track bar ..

[Tofudebeest]

Exhaust and fuel lines should not be on the same side of the vehicle, for obvious reasons, especially in gassers.

As for my new ride, it's our second MB diesel. My wife drives an '83 300TD (the wagon) and loves it. It has 325,000 miles and runs as well as my buddy's '85 300TD with 122,000 miles on it. The new one (the '87) was the updated body style, which we don't like as much as the older more classic lines of the 240 and 300 series of the late 70's through '86. We own these because they're proven to be the most durable motors ever built in a passenger vehicle and we can run B100 in 'em.

[Tofudebeest]

...

[candograge]

Long Live RADIO FLYER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tofudebeest]

Baby steps, fellas, baby steps...

Installed the pedal bucket. It went in easier than the original one came out (no pedals ). Drilled holes in the firewall for the c.m.c., uneventful. Put steering column back up, installed the c.m.c... half-hour job, 20 of which was getting the two bolts in at the top of the pedal bucket. That's a hard job without removing the defroster vent, which is even less fun, yikes.

[lowtideride]

Slap your MC from the HJ on there and bolt up the brake pedal to it. Clutch pedal might bolt up as well

Glad to see your still working on it. Still think your gay for not showing up for the trail ride

[Tofudebeest]

Originally Posted by lowtideride

Slap your MC from the HJ on there and bolt up the brake pedal to it. Clutch pedal might bolt up as well

Glad to see your still working on it. Still think your gay for not showing up for the trail ride

Dude, can't break my mom's heart...
But she surely owes me one...

And why do I need the MC from the HJ, as opposed to just using the FJ's? Are they not the same? How about the booster? Which one should I use?

[Wayneraintree]

I used the FJ master clylinder, needed the HJ cap and wiring connector to match the HJ harness though....

[Tofudebeest]

Despite 5 days of no work for the Thanksgiving holiday, I was able to claim a mere five hours of "alone time" to wrench, two of which got wasted running around looking for eight bolts (and going back to fetch my forgotten wallet).

So...
Crossmember in. Pedals in.

I had to use a combination of 3/8" and 7/16" x 3" long, grade 8 bolts to mount the crossmember in its new forward location. I drilled through the frame for this, which required a new tool, a close-quarters right angle drill (bought the Ryobi cordless).

I like this installation better than welding the crossmember in place.

Edit forthcoming to add pictures tonight.

[Tofudebeest]

Damn. The new (for me) 300D in post #101...
I own it for what, a little over two weeks? This past Tuesday, I got in it to drive home. I began to back out of my spot on the 3rd floor of my parking garage, turned the wheel, heard a loud POP, a splash of fluid, and the front end of the car rises up about 6". I put it in D, rolled forward about two feet, put it in park and got out. Yup, power steering fluid all over the ground. Wheels pointing in opposite directions! Popped hood, saw that the steering box was, um, not right. Called my MB shop, they were calling a wrecker for me.

My MB mechanic and the service manager surprised me by coming over personally (@5:30 PM!) because the wrecker company they use said they couldn't get to the 3rd level of the garage due to clearance problems (we found one hours later that could, and did nab it), and they wanted to see if it was still drivable. Well, they looked and couldn't believe their eyes. All three bolts holding the steering box to the frame had sheared off clean. As a result of this failure, the steering coupling and some lines were destroyed as well. They had not seen or heard of this failure before. All they could figure was a PO had work done and that shop didn't tighten those bolts, they came loose over time, the play created fatigue and it was just a matter of time before they broke and once one went, the other two were toast.

Important fact: I bought it from the co-owner/widow of the MB shop. Spoke to her the next day. She said, and I quote: "Don't worry about it, we'll take care of you." Her late husband Walter, the former co-owner of the shop, who had an impeccable reputation had purchased this car from a guy who had just moved to Gainesville and got a new S-class. Walter thought it needed a new paint job (it had faded from 20 years under the FL sun), so he turned over the keys to his regular paint man to do it. This 300D was the 5th in a group of vehicles getting a respray from Walter, and a low priority as it was not anyone's DD. Walter then promptly died and the car didn't come back from the paint guy for about 6 months, and when it did, it was a surprise to the newly-widowed woman and she wanted to unload it as well as about a half-dozen other vehicles Walter had collected over the years (but she kept a couple of the best). The point: while it was sold to me by my mechanic, it's history was second-hand knowledge to them.

So......I got it back today.
$359.17; 4 hours of shop time at their discounted service rate of $70/hr, a few parts (coupling, lines, new bolts, etc.). All I got was parts at cost and a reduced labor rate of $70/hr. as opposed to the normal $85/hr and some greasy fingerprints all over my hood. I am upset. If that had happened while I was driving down the road, I could be dead. That's not a huge shop bill, I realize, and I was "lucky" it wasn't much, much worse, but c'mon, I owned it for 17 days!

I was expecting her to cover the bill, or split it or SOMETHING meaningful, and her words led me to that presumption (along with a sense of decency). Is this overly optimistic? If I ran that shop and made that kind of gesture, would I be a shitty business person? What would you do? I don't know, but I think I'd cover it 100%, but I am sure I am looking at this from a biased perspective.

What I do know is that the 5-cylinder MB powertrain for sale here on mud (that I had negotiated the purchase of this morning!) is now an unfunded purchase. I was going to have to finagle the shipping to be able to afford it, but now... DAMN. Now I have to deliver this shitty news...

[hks3sgte]

Sucks, man. W123 was the last well-built Mercedes.

[Christian]

Bummer! unforeseen shopbills AND bad customerservice, not a good day, sorry for you mate!
But as you said, be glad it did not happen at 60MPH!!!

Originally Posted by hks3sgte

Sucks, man. W123 was the last well-built Mercedes.

Wrong!!! That's the W126

[hks3sgte]

Originally Posted by Christian

Wrong!!! That's the W126

I disagree... W126= cheaper quality everything.

[Tofudebeest]

Originally Posted by hks3sgte

I disagree... W126= cheaper quality everything.

As the owner of both (albeit the W126 for only about 3 weeks now), I must concur.

Nobody tells the tale of a 500,000 mile W126.
I know first-hand at least a half-dozen W123s with 500,000 miles+.

[Christian]

Originally Posted by hks3sgte

I disagree... W126= cheaper quality everything.

Originally Posted by Tofudebeest

As the owner of both (albeit the W126 for only about 3 weeks now), I must concur.

Nobody tells the tale of a 500,000 mile W126.
I know first-hand at least a half-dozen W123s with 500,000 miles+.

I cannot speak for the US, since we never had the opportunity to buy the dieselversion, but, correct me if im wrong, isn't it exactly the same engine as the W123?

The series here starts with the 280SE, like mine, and no, I haven't seen any that have done 500.000 miles, but the reason here is that the W123 diesels were used as taxi's, the W126 not, because of the gasengines.
As for the rest of the component, a lot is similar between W123 and W126, and having restored my W126 and worked on W123 using the expertise of a good friend who, like his father, is a trained merc mechanic I have found no differences in built-quality.
As a matter of fact, in restoring mine I changed NO mechanical components at all, I had the rust made, changed the interior from blue to black and had it painted. It has 233.000 miles on it, and doing just fine! I have not seen any other cars that are pushing 26 years with ALL electric add-ons and options still working, from power windows to ABS... (btw ABS, who had that in '82? Oh yes! Only the W126)
I am not putting the W123 down at all, just saying that big brother is just fine too!

[euclid]

I'm speaking as a mod of the 60 forum, not as a w123 owner. Move this discussion to chat or the "other" vehicle tech section. There is some leeway on "build threads" for folks to tell their story, like Tofu did above.

Back on topic, please. Whats up with the beast, tofu?