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A few more details....I like labeling
Cut some custom stickers for the passenger seat base.
Time for Adventure Van Expo! Headed down to St. Helens OR for this years AVE. The event was quite a bit smaller than last year, I'm sure it was due to Covid, the event being pushed out twice while they tried to find a venue and it being later in the year. I told Simon I would park my van in his Vanmadegear vendor booth and we had an awesome time. Got to meet a ton of really cool people at the show, thanks to all who turned out.
Hanging at the show.
Setting up camp on the first day, the forcast was calling for rain and more rain.....ugg. Had to make a temporary gap seal between the rack and the awning to keep water from dripping into the van when I left the door open. Here I used a garbage bag but up into strips, worked perfectly. I'll be fabricating a permanent solution to this in the near future.
While at the show I pulled the Maxxfan trim rings and installed rare earth magnets on the back side of the covers to accept Simon's insulated fan covers. The magnets get taped in place then the trim rings re-installed. The fan covers are great and just like the other covers they can be folded and left in place....nice!
Stopped at the WW1 Stonehenge memorial on the way home....always a cool stop.
While heading to the Adventure Van Expo in Oregon I was heading down the highway when a truck ahead of me started loosing large sheets of plastic out of their trailer. I tried to avoid them but one went under the van and I didn't see it come out, as soon as I was able to pull over I did so and found the plastic wound tight around the rear driveline. I cut the plastic off with my knife and all looked good, fast forward a bit and I get back home and start smelling burning oil, pull to the side again and yep...oil everywhere from a failed pinion seal and nice burning oil on the muffler...eewwww. Plastic must have made it to the seal......dang!! Time to replace the Pinion Seal.
I ordered an OEM seal, nut and 4 replacement driveline bolts (these are set with stretch and non reusable).
I followed the Mercedes procedure and all went smooth. I used a 0-3.5nm torque wrench to measure the rotational drag torque both before nut removal and after I was finished, right on the money. The pinion nut is torqued to spec (30nm) then advanced in two stages at 15 deg each with 30 axle rotations (15 in each direction) between each step.. Zero axial play verified and then check again for proper drag torque, .1nm more than the starting torque....perfect.
Hard to see here but the entire underside of the van is wet in gear oil.
Up on the jack stands.
You can safely use a floor jack to lift the rear of the vehicle, just make sure you don't bend the diff cover. My jack has a rubber pad in the lifting surface and I place the jack just forward of the cover.
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