1963 Mercedes Benz 190DC Fintail. On the road.

[Dyslexic Viking]

I forgot. There is some play in the front wheel bearings and in the steering, especially on the right side. I got a comment on this at the mot, but it was within the rules then.

They then said that older Mercedes wheel bearings can have play in them because the type of bearings they have, I don't know if that is true.

So It's getting close to having to go thru the front wheel bearings and front brakes. The exhaust system is not the best either, so it will also have to be replaced in some time.

So there will be more to do in the future.

[egg]

13 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

So there will be more to do in the future.

Well, old cars are always work in progress aren't they!

[Dyslexic Viking]

19 minutes ago, egg said:

Well, old cars are always work in progress aren't they!

Yes they can be and especially when they are as tired as this one is. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

First drive in 2024 is a success. Good to have it back on the road again.

[Vimesy]

What a lovely old bus, in a nice scenic setting.

[danthecapriman]

Great to see the Benz out on the road again. Good to see winter gone too!!

It’s such a solid distinguished looking old thing. Enjoy the spring and summer.

[Dyslexic Viking]

And it drove very well, but I need to tighten the fan belt before the next drive, that's the only thing. And this one had an idle speed adjustment on the dashboard, need to see if this works and if I can connect it again as it is a bit grumpy when cold and likes slightly higher revs then. 

And I have a fascination with taxis and now that I own this one I often look for pictures of these from when they worked as taxis and I have found this great picture where a taxi company gets 50 of these new delivered to its taxi fleet. The flag looks Finnish and Taksi is taxi in Finnish so this is from Finland. Lucky drivers who got these as a workplace.

[EspenO]

I remember occasionally seeing cars with that type of oval registration plate, as a child.

Always thought they were from Switzerland. May have been finnish all along?

Edit: A little further googling points to them being German export plates, which makes sense. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 hours ago, EspenO said:

I remember occasionally seeing cars with that type of oval registration plate, as a child.

Always thought they were from Switzerland. May have been finnish all along?

Edit: A little further googling points to them being German export plates, which makes sense. 

We used to call them 'Zohl' plates when I was plod - you'd see 'em driving around and the rules were (pretty much) that a UK owner was meant to get them DVLA registered asap otherwise they would be seized by HMRC.
Non-UK owners had a six month grace period to either register or get it out of the UK.
BAOR guys used to try and take the mickey with them (and red framed UK plates that were our equivalent of the Zohl plates)

[Dyslexic Viking]

40 km trip to the post office this morning went without a problem.

[Dick Longbridge]

2 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

40 km trip to the post office this morning went without a problem.

May just be me, but I don't think I could justify driving this old girl in jeans and a t-shirt. It looks like it would command more respect than that.

[Dyslexic Viking]

37 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

May just be me, but I don't think I could justify driving this old girl in jeans and a t-shirt. It looks like it would command more respect than that.

I see that but I don't feel like dressing up to drive this so my typical jeans and plaid red lumberjack shirt it is.

And if it were to go that far, I guess the only correct thing to do is to dress up as a Norwegian taxi driver from the time this was working.

[artdjones]

On 16/04/2024 at 20:07, Dyslexic Viking said:

I forgot. There is some play in the front wheel bearings and in the steering, especially on the right side. I got a comment on this at the mot, but it was within the rules then.

They then said that older Mercedes wheel bearings can have play in them because the type of bearings they have, I don't know if that is true.

So It's getting close to having to go thru the front wheel bearings and front brakes. The exhaust system is not the best either, so it will also have to be replaced in some time.

So there will be more to do in the future.

They probably have taper roller bearings, which can have play when not moving, but automatically take it up when the car is moving.

Although testers often have a problem with that concept. Even back in the 80s it was easier to nip them up to a no play condition, get the test done, then go home and slacken them to the carmaker's figure for play. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

17 minutes ago, artdjones said:

They probably have taper roller bearings, which can have play when not moving, but automatically take it up when the car is moving.

Although testers often have a problem with that concept. Even back in the 80s it was easier to nip them up to a no play condition, get the test done, then go home and slacken them to the carmaker's figure for play. 

I was then lucky with my tester last year who knew this. But I will probably have to change them in the near future or at least look at them and change the grease.

[Me9]

That's a lovely old thing, you've did quite a bit of work on it well done. I just like seeing old things like that still getting used it's great.

[hairnet]

Oops lmao

Harsh

rykter om at Viking var foran er ubegrunnet 

 

 

[hairnet]

He stooped later to charge and........

Cooincidence

[Dyslexic Viking]

Few people work on May 1 here so it's quiet in the morning so I thought this would be a good day to test the Mercedes by driving down towards the coast which will provide a lot of hill climbing for the old Mercedes. And I have been dreading this due to its low power.

But little did I know that today I was going to get one of my biggest surprises ever.

The trip down was only downhill and went without a problem, then I had to drive up a hill I've been dreading. This is a big bastard of a hill and with a roundabout at the bottom, so it is not possible to get up to speed before it either. I had expected and imagined that this hill would be in first gear and at walking speed. So I came out of the roundabout and got it up to 3rd gear and the hill started and I expected to start downshifting. But to my great surprise, this one managed the whole hill in 3rd gear at 40 km/h as if the hill didn't even exist. This is very impressive and I was a bit shocked.

At the top of the hill I turned at the roundabout there and drove back again and went down the hill calmly in 3rd gear without touching the brakes before I hit the roundabout at the bottom again. Then on the way home there were a lot of hills and I didn't have to downshift and the Mercedes didn't even work hard on the hills and I'm starting to understand that something has happened, this feels more powerful than what I can remember. This year before this, I have only done quiet driving on flat ground, so I have not noticed this until now.

After more testing today, this is now more powerful than what it has a right to be and drives straight up proper hills in 4th gear without a problem. This one was not like this last year, so something has happened. What has happened is a guess but I have come to think of an experienced diesel mechanic who has told something like, that on tractors that have only done light work they lose power and with putting them in heavy work makes the diesel engines wake up and get more power the same with working them in a pto dyno. 

The reason that makes me think is that last autumn, before it was parked, it was worked really hard up a really steep hill when I was stressed because of a truck behind me. I then pushed this harder than what I was comfortable with. Could this have woken up the engine? I don't know but it is possible, I also use a diesel additive that has a lot of good feedback but I doubt that they can do that much?

So since I expected this bastard hill was going to go so slow that I was going to be overtaken by cyclists, I tried a little filming. This was not so successful, have to get hold of a good phone mount as there was a lot of vibration. And the hill is steeper than it seems here. 

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

So with the nice surprise that this has gotten more engine power, I continued driving and drove up to Treungen where I filled up with diesel, which was 23.79 liters used in 347km, which is the highest consumption so far, but there has been a lot of idling on this one.

After that I took an ice cream break before hedding home. Drove a total of over 160 km today without a problem and I was neither tired nor broken afterwards.

I really love this car.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a car phone holder that can withstand vibrations and is stable?

And doesn't cost a fortune.

[Dyslexic Viking]

I have also a little while ago bought the tank cover @hairnet found. But it is missing gasket so needs to solve that when i get it.

And I'm considering painting the letters and Mercedes Logo or just the letters black I think that will look nice.

[auntiemaryscanary]

5 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Few people work on May 1 here so it's quiet in the morning so I thought this would be a good day to test the Mercedes by driving down towards the coast which will provide a lot of hill climbing for the old Mercedes. And I have been dreading this due to its low power.

But little did I know that today I was going to get one of my biggest surprises ever.

The trip down was only downhill and went without a problem, then I had to drive up a hill I've been dreading. This is a big bastard of a hill and with a roundabout at the bottom, so it is not possible to get up to speed before it either. I had expected and imagined that this hill would be in first gear and at walking speed. So I came out of the roundabout and got it up to 3rd gear and the hill started and I expected to start downshifting. But to my great surprise, this one managed the whole hill in 3rd gear at 40 km/h as if the hill didn't even exist. This is very impressive and I was a bit shocked.

At the top of the hill I turned at the roundabout there and drove back again and went down the hill calmly in 3rd gear without touching the brakes before I hit the roundabout at the bottom again. Then on the way home there were a lot of hills and I didn't have to downshift and the Mercedes didn't even work hard on the hills and I'm starting to understand that something has happened, this feels more powerful than what I can remember. This year before this, I have only done quiet driving on flat ground, so I have not noticed this until now.

After more testing today, this is now more powerful than what it has a right to be and drives straight up proper hills in 4th gear without a problem. This one was not like this last year, so something has happened. What has happened is a guess but I have come to think of an experienced diesel mechanic who has told something like, that on tractors that have only done light work they lose power and with putting them in heavy work makes the diesel engines wake up and get more power the same with working them in a pto dyno. 

The reason that makes me think is that last autumn, before it was parked, it was worked really hard up a really steep hill when I was stressed because of a truck behind me. I then pushed this harder than what I was comfortable with. Could this have woken up the engine? I don't know but it is possible, I also use a diesel additive that has a lot of good feedback but I doubt that they can do that much?

So since I expected this bastard hill was going to go so slow that I was going to be overtaken by cyclists, I tried a little filming. This was not so successful, have to get hold of a good phone mount as there was a lot of vibration. And the hill is steeper than it seems here. 

 

I can't with help any phone holder suggestions but when the noise of the phone vibrating isn't there that sounds like a very pleasant drive. Well done you. That is a very good 61 year old car.

[auntiemaryscanary]

5 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

 23.79 liters used in 347km, which is the highest consumption so far, but there has been a lot of idling on this one.

I've done the maths. That's about 40mpg. I wish I could get that in my Doblo going to work in rush hour. No wonder it served as a taxi for so long.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Trip down to town today, even though it was early in the morning, there were far too many people and cars, so I should rather go down on weekdays.

But the Mercedes copes with traffic and everything fine and there is not much else to write about apart from having to tighten the fan belt a little more and got the adjustment of idle revs on the dash connected and it has helped with a little more revs on idle when cold it is much happier now.

There weren't many old cars out but found a Volvo PV when parking. And about 250 km covered so far this week.

[EspenO]

The Mazda 626 coupe in the background there is a rare sight as well! 🙂

[Dyslexic Viking]

Yes, I had forgotten about it, annoyed that I didn't take a picture of it.

[Dyslexic Viking]

A week has passed since the last update and there is little to write about. Have improved the fan belt tensioner and while the belt was loose I felt the bearings in the water pump and they are stiff, on the original water pump one is supposed to drip oil into through a hole on the top to lubricate the bearings on this  there is a hole at the bottom so the oil goes straight through without doing anything so I haven't oiled this water pump because of that but have tried now and it didn't help anything the bearings are still stiff so will probably have to get a new water pump soon but it's not a big problem.

The only thing with a new water pump is that mine has 3 bolts for the cooling fan and then there is little to choose from with that or I can switch to a water pump with 4 bolts and they are much easier to find but then I have to change to a fan in I think plastic so I have to think about it.

Only about 100km covered this week so far.

 

And the fuel tank cap has arrived, will look at it more when I have time. But glad you found it @hairnet because it looks good and will suit the car if it fits.