New Anti-Theft Device

Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been driving my gas-guzzling backup vehicle, a 96 Ford Ranger. Feeling none-too happy about fueling my travels on the "blood of Iraqi children" (as my biodiesel friends tease me), but my Escort has been out-of-service for a couple months.

Yep, I couldn't get it started. Y'all may recall me asking the YahooGroup (DieselEscortOwners) for tips on this problem, back in early September. It was a late August trip that I noticed the car having trouble starting. So I checked out the glow plugs. Noticed I had a burned-out connection between the power and the glow-plug harness. So I replaced that, and it still wouldn't start. I had already replaced the fuel filter, and checked for fuel flow by cracking the nut on top of one of the injectors. And I knew I had good power because I'd fully re-charged the battery. But just by myself, I was not able to check to be sure there was actually power going to my new glow plugs.

Today, I finally got a buddy to give me a hand. Sure enough, there is an intermittent problem somewhere in the wiring harness, between the ignition switch and the glow plug harness. We hotwired from the Jumper connection (inside the engine bay) to the block and got a spark. So then we went from the Jumper connection straight to one of the glow plugs: Yeehaw! it started!

First time my baby has run in two months!

It's dark out now, so, the next chance I get, I will be hard-wiring a new circuit for my glow-plugs, with a switch on the dash. My step-dad heard this and said, "Hey, maybe your insurance company will give you a discount with that new anti-theft device!"

Here's some more pix of my new beauty. She's pretty hot for a 20 year old, don'tcha think? Okay, okay, no more anthropomorphic jokes.

But what do you think I should name her?

;-) 

Check out that sweet little 2.0 liter beauty! Wow I love this car. I've still not emptied the tank from when I bought it (the prior owner filled it up to prove to himself that it was still getting 50mpg). Until I see numbers otherwise, I keep braggin that my car gets 50 MPG! Sigh! Happiness in the 21st century! 

Escort Owners Unite!

Welp, I've just bought a 1986 Ford Escort Diesel. Before buying, I looked far and wide for a US Diesel Escort Drivers' Club, fanbase, or users-group -- to no avail. So I figured I'd better go ahead and set one up.

So, here goes! Feel free to contact the owner of this blog if you have any questions about Diesel Escorts. I hope to post info on my ownership saga.

Also, feel free to join the yahoo discussion group: The following link takes you to the Yahoo DieselEscortOwners group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DieselEscortOwners

I'm hopeful that the few of us diesel Escort owners out there will come together to help each other out. If you find this blog a little slow, please bear with me: I'm a pretty busy guy, but the more folks who subscribe to the yahoo group, the more likely I will be to be inspired to post to the blog.

Thanks, and here's looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

John

A Puzzle

The following images are part of a puzzle I'm trying to figure out. I'd appreciate any input anyone can offer.

These parts are for a 1976 Mercedes 300D. A friend performed a compression check on the engine for me. I'm grateful to him for giving me a quantitative evaluation of the compression in my engine, but unfortunately he uncovered a puzzle. It is such a puzzle that neither he nor I are comfortable putting this vehicle back on the road.

You see, after removing the injectors from each of the five cylinders, he also pulled out what he thought were heat shields (from underneath each injector). These are the top-hat shaped thingies.

Oddly, the new heat shields for my injectors look nothing like the parts my friend removed. (See the bright yellow-metal colored washer-shaped thingies.)

These washer-shaped thingies are what we've both seen, and installed successfully, as replacement injector heat shields.

Whatta puzzle!

Please contact me directly with any guesses, explanations, or other information that might be of help in getting my Benz back on the road!