always something

[Horst]

My 151 sits is in a dry but unheated space, so the major work I have to do (upper and lower ball joints, sealing the front differential) has to wait.

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I remember driving behind Michel Walters M151A2, he has the military LED rear composite lights. What a difference to the old style, much safer! But they are really, really expensive. So what I did today was just changing out the rear bulbs, now 48 years old (!). I got 2 LED bulbs for about 4USD delivered from China to my front door (how do they do this??) They will do their job for now, the filaments on the old bulbs where about to go. But you get what you pay for, I will keep looking for something better with a brand name.

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Next will be swapping out the old plates against those new ones, Mr Dibbles gave them to me a few years back.

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[raymond]

I got 2 LED bulbs for about 4USD delivered from China to my front door (how do they do this??)

Stolen technology, slave labor, and non existent or non enforced environmental laws.

[Horst]

Absolutely. But with all that, the price is less than the shipping cost, not even talking about the product cost.

And yes, I shouldn’t have supported it in the first place by ordering it on Amazon.

[rickf]

You are getting old Horst! I remember when we first met at Aberdeen it was the coldest it had ever been at that time of the year and all you had was a fairly light for the weather sweater. We all offered some warmer cloths but you said you were fine. The running joke that weekend was the damn tough German! Now you complain about a cold garage! Yea, I get it, I am sitting in the house with the wood stove roaring!!

[Horst]

I'm afraid you are right, Rick! Getting old and getting tired of working in the cold.

As it got above freezing, I continued some work on the 151. Started greasing the u-joints and wanted to lube the wheel bearings. Took me about 30 minutes to get that first cotter pin out. Not much room to work on this pin and I can't blame anyone else but me on the installation of it in the first place. So it was a good thing that I did not have the right socket to continue to work and I could return to the GF's flat to warm up again.

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[Hambone]

Horst
How did the LED's work out?, are they a lot brighter? Do you have info on where you purchased them? I would like to pick up a few at that price.

[Horst]

Those LEDs are not recommended. Waste of money! They don't light as uniform as the original bulbs and the brightness is not much different than the old bulbs they replaced. New military style bulbs (they have 2 filaments in parallel) are for sure brighter. Just not easy to get some over here.

These typical Chinese cheap LEDs have a light output between 200 and 300 Lumen whereas an OSRAM BA15 bulb with 24V/21W puts out over 400 Lumen, so no surprise. But I only googled that after I ordered that crap.

In my 911 I have replaced the rear and stop light bulb with LEDs. They are Philips LEDs and I am very satisfied with the light output.

I have now ordered 2 items:

a) classical incandescent bulbs from OSRAM for 5 USD
b) Philips X-treme Gen2 LEDs for 35 USD (!)

I am of course hoping that I get again satisfying results with the Philips LEDs

[rickf]

In that load of stuff I bought I did get a LOT of light bulbs.I took pictures of all of them but I never listed them. Let me know what you need and I will see if I have it. And I have a TON of 24 volt flasher units! not the military ones but the square flasher unit that plugs into a panel.

[richard]

On Facebook there was a discussion in the M35 group about the Aero-Lites, used for the bulbs in the instrument cluster. Here is a link to the site: https://www.aero-lites.com/web-store

The picture "before" and "after" is letting me think about a change ...

[Lou]

I can recommend these for the turn signal indicator and dash bulbs. Got mine from amazon pack of 2. My turn signal bulb (incandescent) failed just about every year. I think the vibration on the steering column kills them. They are so bright and well constructed (internal voltage regulator) purchased bulbs to do the dash as well. They are at least 3 times brighter then the original bulbs, you will never forget the turn signal is on in the daytime!

https://www.aero-lites.com/product-page ... ment-28vdc

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0859 ... UTF8&psc=1

[Horst]

started disassembling and cleaning the first wheel bearings. Not terrible but I think it was about time to repack them. I just realized, if I keep driving the 151 like I do so far, 6.000 mls in 14 years, I never have to do it again

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[Horst]

I exchanged the upper and lower ball joint today. I used a fork to separate them, I don't think the method as described in the TM, using 2 hammers, would have worked, there is not enough room for one of them.

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[richard]

I hope you took new ball joints that do not come from Asia. after a year the rubbers of my Asian ones were worn out. I then obtained ball joints from Reomie in NOS quality, which have not shown any leaks for several years now.

[Horst]

They were advertised as NOS but I’m not sure. Got them from Czech Republic. I avoided the usual German suppliers for exactly the reason you are talking about.

[Horst]

I had a nice job last week, at least that's what I thought in the beginning.

Pick up a passenger in Milano, Italy and fly him to Austria.

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From Munich it is through Austria and Switzerland,

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passing St. Moritz, normally the airport would be full with private jets that time of the year, not so much this time..

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The route home is through Italy flying along the Lake Garda

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So far, so good. But hell, the passenger turned out to be Covid positive after the landing (he had a 2 day old negative test when he boarded). So as a result, I am in quarantine for 2 weeks!