stan's 240D

stan

Holset

328

05-12-2021, 12:30 AM #241

doing some work and figured i should update the thread. crazy to see i've had this car over 10 years now.

a while back someone rear ended me while i was stopped in the driveway of a gas station, breaking the left tail light and denting the corner. that stayed busted for a while, but just recently i picked up a new tail light lens and replaced it. wedged things back into shape enough to fit the light, but the trunk still sits a little oddly and there's still a dent. maybe a fix for the future to make it fully pretty.

a couple years ago i failed to latch the hood properly and it flew up at around 30mph, breaking the windshield. i got the windshield replaced but the hood now sits low at the rear edge and scrapes. i loosened the bolts and moved it forwards on the hinges but that did not resolve the issue. in doing that, i discovered that the hole in the body where the hinge center pin sits is rounded out much bigger, which is not a big deal but eh.

while doing the tail light i also replaced the broken speedometer cable, the grill (with a new part), the stolen hood ornament, and a traced down the intermittent issue with the right front turn signal (dodgy connector making blinker think bulb is dead, not fixed yet).

recent big trouble was the alternator bracket. the area where the adjuster nut sits snapped apart at freeway speed causing the battery light to come on and the car to start overheating as the belt no longer had tension. pulled over and used a hose clamp to cinch the adjuster nut against the remaining bracket with a hose clamp i found sitting on the fender inside the engine bay (idk, random crap!). this allowed me to use a leatherman to tension things back up and is currently holding things well until i have time to install the replacement bracket and adjuster bolt (new parts, probably this coming weekend).

in the interim a new issue has popped up - fuel and temp gauges dancing around which made me immediately suspect electrical. throwing a multimeter on the power while driving allowed me to see that it looks like the charging system is in a semi failed state, with voltage at freeway speeds falling under 13 at times, but getting back to 14.4 if the car is allowed to idle for a bit. turn signals or headlights cause voltage to droop around. my guess is voltage regulator brushes are on the way out, so i'll be ordering a new one now as a proactive measure even though i probably won't get a chance to pop the current one out for a few more days. will be interesting to see what the brushes look like since my last post here was about replacing that part in 2014.

the interior is sadly not looking as good as the early pictures in the thread. drivers seat base has split at several of the seams from me sitting in the car. i've got half an eye out for a new driver's seat but hitting junkyards has not been high on the list these days.

anyhow, over a decade since this car was brought back from being a rolling chassis and it still runs. the back injury sustained in transporting the engine home has become a distant memory, and i'm very pleased at what is probably my longest time owning a single car - even if i've also had several others in that time period.

This post was last modified: 05-12-2021, 12:33 AM by stan.