If you know there has been a vacuum leak for a few years, the engine's performance is dropping, and finally the brakes are not as good as they used to be, just fix the vacuum leak. I've finally cut the tip off the hose from the oil filler to the vacuum port on the inlet manifold (older models are from flame trap to manifold), and all of a sudden there is more vacuum for the brakes (sharp again, was soft for last 3 months), idle improved, and the engine is more responsive. I wonder why? The crack in the (original) hose has been there for a few years, but lately got larger. And with the ventilation working again, perhaps I'll get less oil in the air filter box!

If the steering is loose because of worn bushes and joints, don't try to improve things by tightening up the adjuster on the steering box. You just end up not feeling any difference when you do replace the bushes, and then wonder why you've spent all that money. After adjusting it properly, I now have light steering with a solid front end (remember my recent post on wheel alignment?).

What can I say, I'm an electronics guy not a mechanical guy. But it's all part of learning and expanding your horizons, and having a very forgiving car.

...when your car is running badly, you first check the float levels, or injector spray patterns, or wheel bearings, or work on getting the seats the right height, or touch up the paint, or do a complete left front suspension overhaul.

Then you figure out your timing is a little off, and that doesn't fix it, so you go back to the fuel system, then worry about the exhaust mounts, then change the oil and decide to try to find new wiper blades.

Then as you're driving in the rain, and your wipers start to slow down, and the engine starts to skip, and the lights seem a little dim, a light goes on in your head.

You tighten the fan belt and the battery connection, and it runs fine. And you got all that other stuff out of the way.
--
'74 145e T-5 'Orange Alert'

I'm with ya there. My rules are:

Dash gauges lead a tough life. Never completely trust them.

If the engine isn't running right start with a complete tune-up and then get exotic from there.

If I have a funny chassis/suspension noise/vibration/etc., I check mentally... Has something been recently worked on? Then I look, Is anything "funky?" Has a service interval passed (that I missed... front wheel bearings are a favorite of this item)? Are my tires OK (pressure, wear, balance)?

Lastly, How's the nut behind the wheel?!

Mike!

Niel, that's excellent!

My universal advice (not that anyone asked me): First Fix What You Know To Be Wrong. I don't know why many people resist this idea, and go to great lengths to make other "repairs" that don't solve a problem caused by a defect they already know about.

Because people think "it can't be that simple". My excuse is that I've had a B28E 760, sold it, and only a year later have recovered emosionally to have the courage to touch my 144 again.

The other thing I did was to adjust the rear shocks very hard to compensate for the rear bushes that were bad. Now after replacing the bushes the car fishtails under certain conditions. It helped a lot to lower the tyre pressure from 30 to 22 PSI (which was the recommended pressure when my car was made in South Africa), but it is still there. Will set the shocks back to normal when I get a chance. They are adjustable to about 8 settings, and are universal for the 140 and 160, so can be adjusted to carry a load. I think they are currently set to the hardest setting, which was just about right with the bad bushes. So replacing the original bushes was not really a complete waist of money!

Have fun...

I would think that harder shocks with bad bushings would just hammer them
worse.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Central US

If I remember correctly, it was the torque rod bushings that were the worst. They were just enlarged with lots of play, not broken. They were 115 000km (73k mi) old with about 10 years of storage on them. Stiffening up the shocks was to get the ride right when I've replaced the shocks, to allow some more time before replacing the bushings. But yes, that is probably what filled the bushings in the end.

Have fun...