How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

So I drained down the radiator enough to remove the thermostat housing. The thermostat is a 160 deg one. It is operating fine and there was nothing causing an blockages. I did drill a tiny hole in though. Even having a hole is mentioned in the MB-C2 manual. I checked my original bellows style thermostat and it had the small hole. When I was reinstalling this I noticed that the fan pulley seemed to spin easily. Bingo.....the fan belt was very loose. I tightened it up to the proper 1/2” of play as mentioned in the manual. What a difference in how it sounded as you could really hear the fan pulling the air through the radiator now. I suspect that was my problem at the higher RPM the fan was slipping and not spinning the water pump as well as needed.

As for the speedometer, I pulled it out and the cable was fine. I think something either seized up or let go inside the speedometer. I put on the NOS spare I had.

I also pulled out my fuel gauge as it didn’t seem to be working. I tried out the spare and it worked so it was installed. I also sanded all the paint off the rim on the dash panel to give it a much better ground. I then added new fuel to the tank and the gauge moved as it was supposed to.

I took the truck for a test drive around the block. It’s a 10km round trip. The truck got close to but never went over 200deg on the long sections of road. Today the weather temp is around 28deg and feels like 32deg. I did have it up to 40mph in some spots but it seemed to like crusing nicely at around 35mph. There is absolutely no wobble and the steering is very responsive.

Does anyone have a part number for Napa for a new fan belt? I’ve got the wide pulleys on the truck. There seems to be a few different sizes listed online. The one I have is very old and sits down in the bottom of the pulley. It’s looking a little chewed in spots.