“Your alternator is shot,” reads a rather short text from my dad, which includes the photo you see above. My van is going to have to be towed back to their house, and why? Who the hell knows. Do I really think a bad alternator would shut down a vehicle that requires pretty much no electricity to run (it’s an old-school diesel with a mechanical fuel pump)? Well, there is a solenoid that needs 12-volts to allow fuel flow, but the current draw is basically zero. I suppose if the headlights were on and the car were driven long enough, the battery would drain to the point where fuel would shut off, but I remain skeptical.
More than that, I’m anxious. I want to get on a plane to Germany right now and fix the ailing machine, which just passed inspection after a previous shop dinged it for weak headlights and a leaky CV boot. My brother and I cleaned the boot and replaced its clamps (my mom actually pulled a hose clamp off her washing machine as we wrenched late into the night of my departure back to the U.S.; so clutch), plus we replaced the headlight bulbs. The van still failed. Recently, though, my parents told me that a different shop replaced the bulbs again and gave the vehicle the pass you see above, so my van is now legally on Germany’s roads until August of 2024!
I don’t know if the van didn’t feel adequately rewarded after its excellent marks (it could use an oil change), but it’s clear that something upset it, because right after passing inspection Project Krassler shit the bed, and now my parents’ view of the van is, I feel, just not representative of what the 32-MPG road-trip beast truly is at its core. This van is great! Sure, it’ll have a few issues here and there given that it has 260,000 miles on the clock, but I bet with half an hour of wrenching I could have the thing back on its feet, even if that means swapping an alternator. The van is fairly easy to wrench on, after all.
This all comes after a fuel shutoff switch killed the van while my dad was driving the car to work last year. Just a month or two ago, I rewired that switch, and road-tripped the K-car-based van to Frankfurt, Jena, and a few times to Nuernberg for a total of about 750 miles over a span of just a couple of weeks. I never had a problem!
It seems the mercurial van behaves itself only when I’m behind the wheel. It’s a sign that, at some point, I’m going to have to move to Germany permanently to take care of this geriatric machine, which will by then be old enough to be registered as a historical vehicle (this means I will have to pay fewer taxes and I’ll be able to drive into cities that prohibit diesels). Just hang in there a few more years, Krassler.
And that is when DT knew he done messed up, being late (or even the potential) for anything is a cardinal sin.
Maybe he could add a deep discharge secondary battery, and isolate it on a circuit with a different external regulator, to a higher target voltage. If that is permitted.
Lunch and beer on me!
Hint: life is actually short.
with love,
Bo
with love,
Larry.
Something about an eye, something something beholder.
“Hint: life is actually short.”
Good point. Life is way to short to spend working to earn the funds needed to buy automotive “art”, much less the climate controlled inert gas bubble the art spends its time in when not on display nor the rig needed to tow it back and forth, nor the insurance, the maintenance,… Or worse, spend your life working so others – like those folks at Pebble Beach – can buy all the art (and other toys).
Work just long enough to buy a decent shitbox, then quit your shitty job to actually enjoy said shitbox.
Just as it would be kink shaming for your parents to discourage your automotive weirdness, it is a similar situation for you to force your weirdness upon your parents.
At your age you should be making your parents’ live easier, not appointing them caretaker to a vehicle their local government thinks should have been retired a decade ago. You have already produced the content this project had to offer. Give it to the German Caravan whisperer. Give it to a Ukranian refugee assistance organization. Sell it at market value just for the sake of comparison. Just don’t leave your poor parents by the side of the road next to this thing. Unless, of course, this is also your dad’s thing (or mom’s. I suppose moms can have weird worn-out minivan fetishes also).
For some weird reason, I can completely laugh at you stranded by the side of the road, but I feel guilty when it’s your parents. If we get a statement form your dad saying he knows what he signed up for, it would be much easier for me to enjoy these stories.
All the Best, and please delete if I’m being a jerk.
p.s., Love the move sub-equatorial to Australia too. Just remember that deserts are like kryptonite to your rust empire. But conquer the Down-Under and there is no stopping you.
Even though that fuel shut off relay may not be drawing much, I’m almost 100% sure it’s a normally closed circuit so when all power is lost it kills the engine. It was done likely to help prevent a run away diesel engine.
If you replaced the headlights with new OEM spec bulbs then the sockets may be to blame. The plastic housing can get brittle and warped out of shape slightly from heat cycling. Pop the bulbs out and shine a light down the socket. If it’s blackened or severely browned and the metal contacts aren’t wanting to sit flush you’ll likely greatly benefit from splicing in new sockets. Here in the US you can get replacement sockets at most parts stores. Not sure if it’s the same part for a European variant though. Great job on getting the van inspection passable!
More importantly, what vehicle is that the the German AA man was using?
