Nothing _looks_ wrong with the throttle linkage, other than the obviously disconnected accessories. But it sure doesn't feel right, and sure doesn't act right. The red "Stop" label is gone too.
The accessory vacuum hosing is a mess, as one would imagine. The ADA is hooked to the central locking, etc. I think the only thing actually hooked to vacuum (besides the brakes) is the key shutoff. Central locking and the AC flaps are not. Put car on charger. Didn't take any charge, so that implies that the charging system was working yesterday. Tried to start the car, and even after three glows didn't get more than the occasional puking fire attempt. Lots of white vaporized fuel around, smelly. Bad glow plugs? Tight valves? Will look into it. The missing condensor, AC hoses, and fan may be harvested from Smelly, the woods car. Smelly (300D) also has a transmission, if it should turn out that way. Back on charger during breakfast, I brought in the glovebox receipts to paw over during same. Nothing too good in the receipts. A typical fillup was perhaps 30-37 gallons. The car did sell for $1500 a few years ago. Checked the glow plugs after breakfast, and while they were getting power one of them (#3) was dropping 2.8V (vs approximately 1V rated) and the one upstream (#4) was only dropping 0.8V, so something was amiss there. I pulled the wiring off of them and cleaned it, but #3 still had measurable resistance. (It shouldn't.) I pulled it out and found that its connection collar for the block-side connection was rusty, so I pulled it apart and cleaned it too. Putting it all back together I found that it was better, but then another one spazzed out some. I ended up pulling three plugs to clean connections before I got the system dropping about 1V on each plug. Lots of smoke boiled off of the toaster racks that had gotten all oily from handling. Next I adjusted the valves. Seven of eight were very tight, including all the intake valves. While putting the valve cover back I cleaned and lubed the throttle linkages in the area. Examination showed that it was unable to push the mechanism against the full-load stop due to the link to the transmission bottoming out. A careful look showed a mark in the adjustment slot where the bolt head used to be, so I moved it there and tightened it back down. That let the whole linkage move much better. During the valve adjustment I managed to break one of the brittle injector return lines (an extremely common occurrence), so I replaced it all with new line. Ready to start. I gave it one glow cycle and it fired right up, unlike this morning's pukefest. It died pretty soon after that, but the second time it stayed running. Of note is that the engine is so gutless right now that it can't even seem rev to redline when cold. I then backed it off the trailer and took it for a short test drive up the hill. The automatic transmission engages in gears, both forward and backward, quickly. Gutless. The shift linkage correction made the pedal and shifting behavior more in line with what you'd expect, but the engine has no power. Fuel filters? It drove OK, the wipers worked normally in the rain, and the heater fan did its job (though the control for it is stiff). The engine warmed up quickly and heat was good. I noticed no flaring or slipping of the transmission. -- Jim
