What’s the latest with the Freeman Chumpcar?
Alright here goes, with our old rear drum brakes completely destroyed and not worth repair, we decided that replacing rear brake drums and changing to rear disc brakes would greatly benefit us. One trip to the local pick and pull, and we were well on our way. Rear discs are beneficial for multiple reasons, better stopping power, better heat dissipation, and far simpler to work on.
Our new apprentice, installed the new/used brakes and bled the brake system for us. This was quite the task, because the trailing arms must be replaced with the disc brakes. Our lead technician installed the driver side axle, and attempted to install the passenger side and found that it would not mesh with the new trailing arms. Realizing there was a potential problem, we decided to try installing anther axle from a spare set of trailing arms we had. This posed a bit of a problem as the axle nut would not come off which kept us from removing the spare axle. After soaking it in lubricant the nut will still not budge. This unfortunately require a bit of force. We grabbed an impact driver to help us remove the nut. An impact driver is designed to be used for this type of problem. It works in conjunction with a hammer moving in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction depending on user settings. When it is struck with a hammer it moves in the preset direction dispersing the force of impact from the hammer in the intended direction on or off. After a few swings, Colby did not have any luck, so Nick who’s always up for a challenge asked if he could give it a try. Nick is a skilled technician, in this instance though, he misjudged his timing with the hammer and struck his hand. Which brought our day to a halt. Since this incident we have not been able to get the axle in and will be removing the trailing arm and pressing the new axle in.
May 19th, 2012 at 4:39 PM
Hi my name is Levi Talbot and I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding parts for my Merc 300 SD turbo diesel. I was basically wondering if anyone on here knows where I could get used parts for the transmission or somewhere with good deals. Thanks e-mail me if you have info and again I appreciate it…
May 19th, 2012 at 4:40 PM
Thanks
May 22nd, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Levi,
For old Mercedes stuff I go to http://www.peachparts.com/ . They have many parts for older Mercs, and also have a forum linking other enthusiasts so they can buy and sell each other parts. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/index.php If you are a do it yourselfer they have an excellent DIY section. I am not currently aware of anyone who is dealing with used transmission parts at this time in the Portland area, MBI in Portland might have what you need, they had a large amount of vintage Mercedes. However, I believe they have been getting rid of them as of late. MBI’s phone number is 503-231-0444 ask for Carl. Hope this helps -Colby (FMC Technician)
May 23rd, 2012 at 1:43 PM
Thanks for the help