Accelerator Repaired

The accelerator is fixed. Turns out that there were three pivot points with plastic bushings that were binding. The steel shafts in the bushings were rusted. I separated them, removed the rust, put in some all-purpose grease and re-assembled. Now the accelerator works great. Now on to the modifications.

Routine Repairs First, Conversion Second

The conversion of my Mercedes Benz 300D to run on vegetable oil is currently on hold awaiting some repairs. Seems my little jewel has chosen this cold and wet time of year to develop a problem with the accelerator. The linkage on this model passes from the interior through the firewall, runs across the face of the firewall, down the passenger side of the engine, over the valve cover and then down to the injector pump. Somewhere in this myriad of levers, pivots, and rods, something is binding. So much so that pressing the accelerator in the car results in only the slightest movement at the injector pump. I have sprayed everything with penetrant, but no luck so far. I've got the car in my building semi-out of the weather, but with Christmas coming and the preparation that requires, I just haven't had the time to rectify the problem. Looks like now it may be after New Years before I can start on the conversion.

Rain Delay

Seems most of my projects are being delayed by the rain. I did manage to get to Pensacola yesterday and bring the motorhome back. Rained all the way down there, Sunny on the return trip, until night fall anyway. Veggie car project has been waiting on the rain to let up. Secondary fuel pump for that project came in yesterday. I suppose that the holidays will slow me down from now until early January. Maybe then I will start making more progress on my many projects.

Firefox , three days later

Well I have been using Firefox for three days and it seems to be working fine. The initial problem that I had with opening additional windows appears to have been a problem with my computer. This is an old machine running Windows 98SE (I don't update until I absolutely have to.) It actually works pretty well, but during the day, it gradually uses up the available memory. I finally reach a point where opening an additional browser window results in a download screen or sometimes it opens and the down arrows are actually the number 6. When that happens, it is time to reboot. Not too long after I was unable to open the third Firefox window, I had to reboot. Since then I have been able to open multiple windows with no problems. Of course I have had to reboot a couple of times during the last two days. I am hoping that Firefox won't eat memory as fast as MSIE. Maybe I can go a couple of days without rebooting.

Firefox 1.0

Today I downloaded Firefox 1.0 at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

I find MSIE to be slow and tedious and am always on the lookout for something better. I've tried Opera and Mozilla, but so far, I like Firefox better. I am having a problem getting it to open more than 2 windows at once, but I suspect I will figure it out.

If you want to try an alternative to Explorer, I recommend Firefox 1.0

Greasel Kit is Here

The UPS man just pulled out of my driveway. He delivered two packages from Greasel. I had received an email earlier in the week saying that my conversion kit had been shipped. I have not opened the packages yet to see if every thing is in there, but I am excited. Veggie oil conversion, he we come.

No conversion kit yet

I ordered a kit from Greasel.com on October 31 but have not received it yet. Now I find that they are redoing their web page and making some major mods to their kit. I sent them an email Friday to check on the status of the order, but haven't heard anything yet. I choose Greasel because they we the only ones that had a tank that I thought would fit my truck and still allow spare tire access. One of the changes they are making to their kits involves the tank so I don't know if I will be able to use it. I did notice that they are making vehicle specific kits now, so if they don't have the tank I ordered, maybe they will have one specifically designed for the 300D.

Looks like this time we won't have to secede

For the second time in as many days, I just read an article making the case for Northern secession from the union. This particular article was located at slate.msn.com

In this article, as well as the previous article, the author made the point that the south is a net recipient of federal money where the north (and coastal west) is a net donor. I think that one of the main points that both authors missed is that the money the federal government is sending south is not stuffed into burlap bags and handled out to us po' confederates at train stations and post offices. Most of that money comes in the form of federal programs that don't improve our life at all. On the contrary, it enables and empowers meddling bureaucrats to find more and more ways to try to control our lives.

If the south is a problem to the north, they have no one to blame but themselves. The original 19th century secession would have gone off peaceably had not Mr. Lincoln decided to invade the south to try and maintain the influx of tariff money. As for this story of the invasion being necessary to free the slaves, slavery would have ended without the war, just as it did in virtually every other civilized nation in the world.

My thought is let them secede. I would rather be poor and free than under the control of some bureaucrat on the federal governments payroll.

Got a Mercedes for Veggie Conversion

Well, I found one. Tuesday, I was watching several prospective Mercedes on Ebay. One was of particular interest to me. I had sent a couple of questions to the seller and his answers indicated that this was the car I was looking for so I used the Buy It Now option. I left the Greyhound station in Birmingham at 9:00 PM Tuesday night and arrived at Pittsburgh at 3:00 PM Wednesday. The seller was there to meet me and took me back to where the car was located, near Kittanning. We got the transfer paperwork completed, filled the tank with diesel and I started down the road.

I originally intended to stop for the night in Cincinnati, but got sleepy early. When I got too sleepy to continue on safely, I was in a remote area with no motels so I pulled into a rest area and slept for an hour. When I woke up, I started back driving and drove until about 4:00 AM this morning. I got sleepy again and pulled into another rest area and slept for another hour. After that, I drove the rest of the way in and arrived home about Noon today.

The car is a 1979 Mercedes 300D with about 283K on it. It runs good and I had no problems during the nearly 900 mile trip home. Tomorrow I start evaluating the car to see what changes I have to make to my custom WVO conversion plans to use them with this specific vehicle.

Still No Veggie Vehicle

Finally got a response from my Thrifty Nickel ad. It was a lady with a 1981 Isuzu Pickup. The truck ran out nice, but the paint was in bad shape, a lot of bare rusty spots. It really needed too much work for me to undertake it. I certainly am not looking for a pristine vehicle, but I would like for the exterior to at least be stable, so I can concentrate on the veggie mods.

Word from my sisters mechanic is 'stick with the German diesels.' I suspect he is right. I intend to zero back in on the Mercedes 300D and the 240D. Extremely reliable vehicles, a lot of parts available and good results already being reported from folks who have done veggie conversions on them.

It's Hard To Get a Receipt

Every so often, I get up a load of things that I no longer need and donate them to a local charity. Usually it is the Hannah Home / Kings Ranch. They do good work and are located only a few miles from me, so it is convenient. I always get a receipt because when I do my taxes, I check to see if I am better off itemizing, usually I am. The only trouble is that I seem to always go when the attendant has walked off. This morning I left around mid-morning going to Coosa County. I had a load of things that my daughter had gotten up yesterday to donate so I went by the donation location for HH/KR in Alabaster. Trailers were all there, wide open, but no attendant. No problem, I'll just come back through Sylacauga on my way back and leave it there.

In all fairness to the guy at Sylacauga, I went by there around 12:20, so I guess he was gone to lunch. I've never known for sure what days and hours the HH/KR donation locations are manned. I suspect that there is someone there most of the time, I think that I am just very bad at picking my time to donate. If anyone out there has some insight on this matter or has a similiar experience, I would like to hear about it. Is it just me? Is my timing bad? Do most people who donate have this problem, or is it just that most folks don't get a receipt?

No Diesel Yet

Well my efforts to find a diesel vehicle have not yet met with success. No calls on my Thrifty Nickel Ad. I've missed a couple of fairly good prospects on eBay. One while we were gone to Florida and another, down the road in Thorsby, that was posted as a Buy It Now and snapped up. Now I have started checking the recently listed items a few times per day so maybe that won't happen again.

This extended search time has enabled me to do more research and to come up with some plans of my own. I've done some online searchs for thermal transfer rates and other data. Based on what I have found, I think I will use coiled copper tubing for a heating element. It will enable me to have no joints in the tank itself and be a lot less likely to leak coolant in the veggie oil tank. Also I may use copper lines for coolant instead of the normal rubber lines. I figure if I use copper for coolant and copper for veggie oil and encase all of them in thermal pipe wrap, I can eliminate the need to put the fuel line in one of the coolant lines.

Linda and Ken's Big Adventure

Linda's close friends, Jan and Tony, live in Gulf Breeze, FL. Hurricane Ivan did unbelieveable damage to their neighborhood. Tuesday morning, Linda and I took off south to take the GMC motorhome down for them to use while their home was being repaired. We were pulling the little blue Nissan as a towed. The trip went exceptionally well until we got on Hwy 113 between I-65 and Flomaton. Going up a hill, the GMC sort of hesitated and then started to slow down like it was not getting fuel. I patted the gas and it picked back up but then slowed down again. Finally it picked back up and started to run OK. We made it over to Hwy 31 and stopped to turn right. Everything was still ok. We proceeded down through Flomaton and got to where 29 and 113 turn left and 31 proceeds on to Atmore. We were sitting in the right side left turn lane (there are 2). The engine died. I tried and tried to crank it to no avail. A city policeman came and directed traffic while I attempted to set the GMC started. No luck. I went over to a little convienece market and got some starting fluid and fuel tank antifreeze (thought I might have picked up water when I bought fuel.) Still no luck. Suddenly, a tow truck appeared. I suppose the policeman had called him. He tied a chain to the front of the GMC and towed us do to the High School parking lot, about 300 yards south of the intersection.

I have Good Sam's Roadside Assistance, so I called them. They could not locate a tow vehicle in the area on Tuesday due to the storm disruption, but were able to locate a company called Wooten Tire and Repair Service who dispatched a mechanic. He came, diagnosed what he thought might be the problem and returned yesterday morning (Wednesday) and made the repairs. We were back on the road to Gulf Breeze around mid-day. We got down to Jan and Tony's, got the GMC hooked up to electricity and made the trip back here last night. Got in around 11:00 PM.

Trying an Ad

Well last night I decided that the search for a "grease" truck needs a little boost. What I decided on was to run an ad in the Thrifty Nickel. Maybe some one who reads the Thrifty Nickel is sitting out there with a little 4 cylinder diesel pickup that they would like to sell. I am still watching eBay, Cars.com, Autotrader and al.com but I thought the ad might help. Back when I was hunting MGBs, I learned that there are people with vehicles that they really don't want, and would like to sell, but never go to the trouble to advertise them. My "Wanted" ad back then shook out several vehicles like that. Maybe this one will do the same.

Got a gmail account

Well tonight I finally got a gmail account. I came accross a note with a URL for www.gmailswap.com, so I logged on. There was a forum for folks who wanted an invite and one for folks with invites to swap. A nice guy from Brazil sent me one in return for a picture of my dog, Corky. My new gmail address is pentonville@gmail.com (what did you expect from someone whose blog is pentonville?)

The Elusive Gmail Address

Well, still no gmail address for me. A real nice person from Birmingham FreeCycle (L.Singer) sent me an invitation, but when I tried to use it, gmail informed me that the account had already been set up and I should log in with the password that I used when I set it up. Since I did not set anything up, I could not log in. Don't know what the problem was, but I tried it several times with the same results. So, bottom line is that I still don't have a gmail account.

If any of you out there have an extra invite that you are not gonna use, I would certainly like to have it. Thanks in advance.

More 4 Cylinder Diesel Pickups

I have found two more potential candidates for my "grease truck." The early 80's Isuzu pickup with a 4 cylinder diesel engine and the early 80's Dodge D50 with the 2.3 mitsubishi diesel. I think that is the same engine that was in the later 80's Ford Rangers. I still hope to find a 83 or 84 Ford Ranger with the Mazda diesel, but the others seem to be suitable also.

I am still open to a very cheap VW Rabbit, car or pickup, but so far the really economical ones have eluded me. There was a Rabbit car that went for less than $200 on eBay over the weekend, but I had a conflict at the time it was closing. Seems every time something good comes along, I have a schedule conflict. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Settling Down After Ivan

Things are gradually getting back to normal after Hurricane Ivan. We were without power for slightly less than 24 hours. Few limbs down but nothing major. Lots of rain but the ground is already drying out. Now it is time for me to resume my Mule Day preparations.

How about a Ford Ranger

Well the search for a suitable Mercedes 240D continues but I am beginning to have reservations. I have discovered that in 1983 and 1984, Ford put a 2.2L diesel engine in the Ranger pickups. The engine is reported to be tough, made by Mazda under a license agreement from Perkins. My research indicates they are not all that plentiful, but seem to be reasonably priced. There are some obvious advantages that a "grease" pickup would have over a "grease" car, so while I am still watching for a suitable 240D, I am also keeping an eye out for a suitable Ford Ranger.

Mule Day is coming

No luck yet on locating a suitable Mercedes 240D. Got close to getting one on eBay earlier in the week, but I had to run a errand and it closed while I was gone. Some one snipped it for 50 bucks more than I had bid. I suppose one way to look at it is that I could have bid 50 bucks more originally, but then I suspect someone else would have snipped it. Seems there is always someone out there with deeper pockets bidding on eBay. Most of the luck I have now is with "Buy It Now." I probably won't be following it as actively over the next couple of weeks because I have to prepare for Mule Day in Winfield, AL. It will be Saturday, September 25. I'll be set up selling my usual camo items. Winfield really has a great Mule Day. The folks are friendly and there is plenty to do. I've only been to one other Mule Day and that is the one in Columbia, TN. Much bigger production, lot more mules and mule related activities, but I have to say I have never seen a more inhospitable town than Columbia, TN. Tried it three years in a row. Never made any money. They acted like they were doing me a favor renting me a space and then did their best to see to it that I had no place to park my vehicle. I'll not be darkening their door again.

Mercedes 240D

Well I have just about decided to limit my search for a 'Grease Car' to the Mercedes 240D. I am concentrating on the 1977 to 1983 model years and hope to find one with a 4 speed manual transmission. I think the manual will work better considering the limited HP of this vehicle. At slightly over 3000 pounds curb weight and 67 HP, I suspect it needs all the help it can get.

My primary reason for choosing this vehicle is its longevity. Seems these vehicles will make 300K easily if serviced properly and 500K is not unrealistic for the owner who does not mind an engine rebuilt or replacement and possibly a new transmission or two.

If any of you run accross a deal on a 240D, let me know.

Automotive Scan Tools

In the past, I have borrowed or purchased two of three different "scan tools" for use on OBD ports. Haven't had much luck with any of them. Last year after having one fail to work on my 99 Nissan pickup, I happened upon a web site for a program that runs in W98 and performs automotive diagnostics. The site was:
http://www.obd-2.com
The software was free, but you have to buy a connector cable to use it. It worked great on the Nissan pickup.

Used Car Parts

The other night, I was searching for some prices for used Diesel engines. After going to several links that turned up in my Google search, I found:

http://www.car-part.com/

It may not work well for everyone, but it produced a lot of results for the search I was running, many more than the other sites I tried.

Current Hot Button

For the past several days, actually since just before this years World's Longest Yard Sale, I have been toying with the idea of making my own 'veggie' car. I've found a lot of info at:
http://www.greasecar.com/ and http://greasel.com/

I have been searching the local want ads, eBay, AutoTrader , etc for a suitable (read cheap) diesel vehicle to use as my guniea pig. No luck so far. The search continues.

New to me

Welcome to my Blog. This is really quite new to me, but I figured it was worth a try.