Sooo aggravating!!!

scottevest

scottevest

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So I brought my coupe into the shop to have my new wood nardi steering wheel installed. And I get the car back with 4 new problems that didn't exist when I brought the car in. Firstly he informs me that I now have a major oil leak that clearly was not there the day before. Secondly, he decided to tune my carburetors even though they seem to be perfectly tuned beforehand. As a result the car runs rougher than it ever has. Thirdly the tachometer now is jumping all over the place, which it had never done before. Lastly, he was unable to do fix the windows. And, he disconnected the fan for my AC since he said we need a new switch and knob which I was unable to obtain. It is so frustrating having an older car serviced locally. The good news is that the steering wheel looks great and the horn even works, which caught me by surprise in light of the foregoing. Oh yea, he told me that he was able to fix the oil leak by tightening something or another. All told it was $500 to get the steering wheel installed and get all these additional problems. Again so frustrating
 
You need another mechanic - is this the same one that messed you up before? The problem is most of the average local shop mechanics who worked on these cars back in the day are retired or no longer with us. You need to search for someone who has experience with old german cars.
 
bummer Scott,

screwing up carbs that were working great is inexcusable, you do need a new mechanic. i'm lucky, the owner of the shop started out when these cars were young, so he works on mine + doesn't let his guys touch it. you should read the thread by thehackmechanic (rob) about trying to sort out the tundra coupe and what he went thru - sometimes the wires get put back on wrong.

its generally hard to create a leak, although they can happen - especially if the PO hid something - but any decent mechanic usually knows how to fix one or at least identify / describe where the leak is coming from.

in regard to the windows, i think its worth diving in with the good words on this forum. take it apart and clean the old grease out of the tracks. i'm going to be doing the same thing this winter - probably starting next week.
 
Any thoughts or ideas regarding the jumping tachometer are much appreciated

This is the mechanic that was able to get the car running properly that I trusted. If anyone has any ideas regarding the the jumping tachometer it would be much appreciated. In sum it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't work and sometimes jumps all over the place. I have no idea what could've caused that.
 
Check the green and other wires at the resistor by the ignition coil - if they are loose it can cause jumping:

IMG-20101211-00043.jpg
 
Check -
battery voltage and connections
coil voltage and connections

You either have a bad ground, a bad positive, or a bad signal from or to the coil.

keep in mind that the tach runs from a single black wire from the minus side of the coil and around the front of the car. Disconnect it and see if the engine runs better- if it does you have a short.

Any car showing a bad tach signal and running rough - I wouldn't waste my time with the carbs. Fix the obvious problem first.
 
agreed

agreed. I just talk to the mechanic, and he agreed the engine performance issues are likely related to an electronic issue.

sfdon said:
Check -
battery voltage and connections
coil voltage and connections

You either have a bad ground, a bad positive, or a bad signal from or to the coil.

keep in mind that the tach runs from a single black wire from the minus side of the coil and around the front of the car. Disconnect it and see if the engine runs better- if it does you have a short.

Any car showing a bad tach signal and running rough - I wouldn't waste my time with the carbs. Fix the obvious problem first.
Click to expand...
 
Old Benz cars of similar age used the same carbs. Ergo, if you find an old Benz mechanic, he may be able to effectively tweak yours. Usually these experienced guys will have opened their own indie shop if they're any good. If they are good, they will still be in business, and there will be a wait to get work done.

Aside from that, you need a new mechanic, although several of your problems could have a single root cause.

The pic of the resistor smack dab next to the coil is just asking for problems (seems to me, anyway) with the HT lead so close to other conductors.
 
rsporsche said:
bummer Scott,

screwing up carbs that were working great is inexcusable, you do need a new mechanic.
Click to expand...

scottevest said:
So I brought my coupe into the shop to have my new wood nardi steering wheel installed. And I get the car back with 4 new problems that didn't exist when I brought the car in. Firstly he informs me that I now have a major oil leak that clearly was not there the day before. Secondly, he decided to tune my carburetors even though they seem to be perfectly tuned beforehand. As a result the car runs rougher than it ever has. Thirdly the tachometer now is jumping all over the place, which it had never done before. Lastly, he was unable to do fix the windows. And, he disconnected the fan for my AC since he said we need a new switch and knob which I was unable to obtain. It is so frustrating having an older car serviced locally. The good news is that the steering wheel looks great and the horn even works, which caught me by surprise in light of the foregoing. Oh yea, he told me that he was able to fix the oil leak by tightening something or another. All told it was $500 to get the steering wheel installed and get all these additional problems. Again so frustrating
Click to expand...

echappe said:
I look for lots of gray hair,thats usually a good sign!!
Click to expand...

gray hair....really a good sign also in Italy.
working on something that was going well without telling me is unexcusable.
ruin carbs tuning is unexcusable.ask 500 bucks for a steering wheel swap and not needed options like oil leaks.
as far as i know e3/e9....my 3.3L tacho was jumping and needed only a new cable to fix it, as it is not electronic......
I disconnected my fan only that time I have connected the swicth wiring badly....and the time that the resistor on the fan failed.....
Francesco
 
Bummer

Sorry to hear about all the troubles. Would love to see pictures of the new Nardi. What size did you decide on? Did it also require a new adaptor? Where did you purchase? If you can't find an experienced mechanic in Idaho, I recommend talking with Pacific Motorsports (http://www.pacificmotorsports.com/) in Portland.
 
Electronic conversions are great but not necessary.

I have 7K miles on a set of points that have been in the car for 5 or so years and the car has run great the entire time. I checked the dwell and gap last Fall just to see if anything had moved, and no issues whatsoever.

Points / condenser are cheap, and it's really not difficult to get things in order with the distributor. For any competent mechanic, setting the points / dwell, and setting the timing should be a no-brainer.

Point of this post-- If the car can't be made to run correctly on points, an electronic conversion is not going to solve your problems.
 
Dump your mechanic....Going to a pertronix is not a fix per se. If you have a problem with points or coil it might fix that problem but you shouldn't install the pertronix if you have unknown electrical problems as you just might fry the pertronix; It is installed to make a good running car run a little smoother. In the process of installing the new steering wheel he could have dislodged an ignition wire in the steering column
Good luck,
Try to find a mentor as all of the issues can be fixed yourself, saving$$ and contributing to the pride of ownership
 
Post

a picture of your coil wiring and a video of the tach acting up so we can see what's up.

Just for grins- take the air cleaner off. Find the brass jets on top. Next to those , on the side closest to the valve cover, is a small ( tiny) hole in the casting. Put your finger over that hole or use a pencil w/ an eraser to cover the hole, briefly. Tell me if the engine speed goes down or up. ( Stumbles or get's better.) Do both carbs and report back. That little hole is all that controls your idle air. By closing it you make the mixture richer.

Chances are that the guy who adjusted your carbs did something to cause a miss. That miss ( usually cylinder 5 or rear carb) is probably doing something wacky to the tach through the coil.
 
One other thought-- Not sure what carbs you're running, but the only running issue I've ever had was due to a malfunctioning anti-dieseling solenoid on the my 32/36 front carburetor. I can't remember what color wire it is, but it will be wired to a solenoid near the base of the carb, and will be on the pass. side.

The pin was dropping into the carb while the car was running, and causing it to cut fuel. It acted like a fuel injected car with a fuel pump issue...
 
Curious

Sort that I am. I swapped steering wheels this morning. My 320i wheel to an Alpina/Momo and timed myself. 10 minutes exactly. And yes, the horn and turn signal cancellation worked.
Hate to rub salt in your wound, but you got screwed. Hope you get your ignition issue ironed out. With the tach acting up, I would say you have a problem at the coil.
 
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