The joys of doing a brake job. A Drum Brake job that is ...

[lyman]

I hope you don't have the 6.0 L diesel. Bad engine with a lotta problems. Discontinued.

My MB had the alternator mounted on the bottom of the engine. You had to have it on jacks or a rack to get to it. If you drove through a mud puddle it would be the first thing that shorted out.

it is a 6.0, and have had 0 issues with the motor, just the fuel system (known defect with fuel tanks)

[Allen]

it is a 6.0, and have had 0 issues with the motor, just the fuel system (known defect with fuel tanks)

Good.

Hopefully you can avoid the fuel injector, egr and head gasket problems and not have to install the "bullet proof" kit. Unfortunately, many did.

https://dieselresource.com/diesel-resources/6-0l-powerstroke-problems-and-fixes/

[dryheat]

I hope you don't have the 6.0 L diesel. Bad engine with a lotta problems. Discontinued.

My MB had the alternator mounted on the bottom of the engine. You had to have it on jacks or a rack to get to it. If you drove through a mud puddle it would be the first thing that shorted out.

That reminds me of the AMC Pacer Wagon I once owned. AMC made the worlds worst cars and I owned one. The distributer was on top of the engine but still, if you drove over a mud puddle it would drown it. I got to where I could jump out, raise the hood, take the cap off, wipe off the points, slap it all together and be on my way in less than a minute.
Same thing with the gas filter: the gas tank had rust in it for some reason. When the fuel filter got clogged up, I could jump out, raise the hood, yank off the filter, bang it on something, slap it back toghether and be on my way before the light turned green. Owning and AMC product was something to experience...once.

[Allen]

That reminds me of the AMC Pacer Wagon I once owned. AMC made the worlds worst cars and I owned one. The distributer was on top of the engine but still, if you drove over a mud puddle it would drown it. I got to where I could jump out, raise the hood, take the cap off, wipe off the points, slap it all together and be on my way in less than a minute.
Same thing with the gas filter: the gas tank had rust in it for some reason. When the fuel filter got clogged up, I could jump out, raise the hood, yank off the filter, bang it on something, slap it back toghether and be on my way before the light turned green. Owning and AMC product was something to experience...once.

Some of that rust in your fuel filter may have been settlement from gas station fuel tanks. Back then most stations didn't use a filter. When you pumped your gas it picked up everything in the underground tank. When the storage tanks had a low level you were more apt to pick up decades of accumulated crud.

To this day I will not fill up my tank if I see a tanker truck unloading fuel at a service station because everything is being churned up.

AMC best sellers of the time was the Jeep and the Javelin. My state used the Javelin AMX's for state trooper cars back in '71 or so.

[dryheat]

A buddy of mine took me with him to a used car dealership. We test drove a Javelin. A bearing or something was going out and a wheel nearly fell off. We barely made it back to the lot.

We couldn't figure out what was wrong with the boat. We messed with the carburetor and changed the plugs. We finally syphoned the gas out of the tank and found there was an inch of water laying on the bottom of the bucket. This was down in Guaymas, Mexico so no big surprise. But it's certainly happened in the states too.

[Allen]

That water more than likely came from the mentioned gas station underground tanks. At most places there's not much keeping rain water out.

The biggest deal about water in the fuel is when you have a diesel. Not all diesel vehicles have a water separator filter. Water does not compress and diesels have an extremely high compression ratio. Diesels fire under there own compression, not ignition, so water in a diesel engine can blow head gaskets, bend rods, etc.

[lyman]

water is not an issue any longer, in modern (as in built the past 25+yrs) that have been maintained,


most have a system called Veeder Root that will tell you how much water is in the tank(s) and is fairly accurate, an inch or 2 is not uncommon,
and the guys dumping the gas will often verify by running a long rod down the tank with a paste on the end, that turns color if water is present,

keep in mind, the pickups are not on the bottom, they are several inches if not a foot or more up,

and with the Veeder Root type system, the pumps will shut down if the fuel level gets down to the pickup
not uncommon to have tanks shut down at 100 gallons left in the tank
I am not sure of some older small stations, but most now have had filters on the pumps for ages,

the question is how often are they changed,,,,

when I was running grocery stores with fuel centers attached, it was common to have someone say that the fuel they bought had water or trash in it,

so once in a while I would have to find a clear bucket or gallon milk xxxx and go fill on up to show somebody,
then pour itn back in the tank,


ran 4 stores, did that test more than I care to think about, and never had anything other than fuel show up in the container,