Help in English?

[cesarmax22]

Hi all,

My name is Cesar. I am from Argentina, and I bought a JC 1981 a few days ago, here in my country.

As far as I know. A german couple brought it here by boat, and they went around Latin America. Some other guy bought it in Argentina, and it is now in a bad shape.

Heater is not working. Water heater/boiler not working. Refrigerator not working. Gas connection has been broken.

So i need to restore it. Apart from that, the interior/exterior doesn't look that bad.

I'm having lot of trouble finding information online, and the manual I have is missing few pages and it's in German. I have translated it with google translate but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

If anyone would like to help, please contact me at cesar.m.roman@gmail.com I would really appreciate it! I have lot of questions to ask.

Here are some pics:

imgur

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Thanks!
Cesar

[KlassikJames]

Hola Cesar,

In 2011/12 I traveled through southamerica with the same James Cook like the one you own.
It is easy to maintain, if you know how to do it.

I experienced that the " Mercedes W601"-Model is almost unkown in southamerica.
Spareparts were hard to find, especialy in Argentina.
I had to buy Oilfilters at Mercedes Grupo-Kaufmann in Chile, since Mercedes fitted the same engines in their W123 and W124-cars.

The Eberspächer Diesel-Heater broke in Tierra del Fuego.
To avoid contact with the AFIP, Eberspächer sent me the spareparts (glowplug and heatsensors) to Santiago de Chile.

Btw, the Dieselheater in your car is the "Eberspacher D2L".
Ask Google for "D2L manual" and you will find lots of documents about installation and repairs.

I can't help you with the fridge and the boiler in your '82, because my '94 is different.

Regards from germany,

Klassikjames

[CGN]

Hello Cesarmax,

can you tell us which model your fridge, the water heater, ... is? There are different models from different companys. You should find a sticker on the divices. If you can't find it, send uns some pictures.

The fridges are running with AD / DC or Gas. You can Change the operating mode. Is the fridge not running with any of the operating modes?

Do you know something about the history of this car? How did it come to Argentines?

[cesarmax22]

Hi all!

Thanks so much for the responses!

Fridge model: RM 184 EGP => I found the manuals in english yesterday! so I'll give it a try.

Some updates: i disarmed the main console (located in the back), and here's what I found





As you can see, someone ripped off the fuse box! Unbelievable. You can also see 2 cables (blue and red) are cut off.

I dont know much about electricity. But I bet that without these cables properly attached to the fuse box (that is missing) something should start working.
So I will try to fix this before going into the fridge, or heater, or anything else.

Today I got these 2 "fuse boxes". Someone suggested me to use the same type of fuse the car uses (1st picture). 2nd picture is something similar than it had.





I will have a friend help me out with the wires, and attaching them (I think the word is to weld). I will attach each wire to each side of the fuse box.
That's ok right?

Once I have that, I'll check out what's going on with the Westfalia, maybe some things start working.

[Roger]

Hi Cesar, I've owned 2 of the JC models that you have - the interior fitouts are the same. Is your model a 4 or 5 cylinder engine?

The fridge requires 12V power even when running on gas to power the thermostat. Sometimes the fridges get rust inside the boiler tube and blocks the small hole at the top of the tube. You can fix this by taking the fridge out and turning upside down for a few hours - you should hear the sound of liquid "gurgling", no sound means the ammonia has escaped (look for yellow crystals) and you will need to get it refilled if possible. Parts for the fridge are available from Gunzl Classic Parts (weblookup) and some interior parts as well.

The electric control panel that you have photos of was fitted to the Westfalia models and not just the JC so there are a few switches that don't do anything. I don't think the fridge and water heater switches are connected as they have separate controls.

The water heater is a Truma model, lots of manuals for them online. Most common fault is the flue being blocked with rust or dust and the CO2 sensor stopping ignition. Cleaning is not hard just be careful as the plastic becomes brittle and may break when you remove parts.

The gas regulator failing is a common problem, you need the 50mBar model not the later 30mBar.

Eberspacher help http://letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/Servicing.html

I find that engine oil/fuel/air filters are cheaper (even with airfreight) from Micksgarage in Ireland than from the local Mercedes dealers in Australia.

ebay.de is useful for finding parts but you often need to use Borderlinx with their service of providing an address in Germany and they then forward the parts to you.

More than happy to help if I can

Regards Roger