THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

I needed to do another run to my old house in San Diego to pick up the remainder of my crap and also needed to pick up a car. I brought the wife along, who almost never goes in the Pinz because she just can't wrap her head around the fact that my 36 year old truck is reliable.

The trip from one house to another is approximately 40 miles; about halfway there, the Pinz starts sputtering, the tachometer goes all the way to redline whenever I try to pump the accelerator, but will barely actually run.

Uh... wife is rolling her eyes and laughing at me since no less than 2 minutes before, I explained to her why my truck was so reliable.

I'm thinking the coil went bad due to the weird tachometer fluctuations; the gas gauge showed 1/3 tank, and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary looking or smelling. What the heck, I'll dump in my reserve 5 gallons just for the heck of it before I start disassebling my truck in the middle of the road. Starts right up.

Even though I got the truck running in less than 5 minutes, the non-stop crap I got from my wife wasn't worth it. Lesson: make sure when you're taking the wife for a drive, make sure you have gas. Also, remember that your gas gauge is just a gauge, it's definitely not an accurate way to ensure that you have fuel.

Pinzgauers are reliable... in a mysterious, self-fixing, come and go "gremlin problem" kind of way! All three of my "perfectly tuned" pinzgauers have always had mystery issues. Usually just letting them sit will solve it.

Twin Pinzies wrote:Pinzgauers are reliable... in a mysterious, self-fixing, come and go "gremlin problem" kind of way! All three of my "perfectly tuned" pinzgauers have always had mystery issues. Usually just letting them sit will solve it.

Explain that one to the wife.

But I know what you mean

I have the secret answer to all those gremlins in my Pinzgauer - Mercedes Diesel conversion!!!! No High tension electrics, no spark plugs, no distributor, no carburettors.....nothing that can really go wrong, I,ve know this since 1974 (my first merc Diesel) By the way Gasoline Landrovers have similar Gremlins....I converted My Landrover to turbo diesel....no problems. (I,m not being smug - I am commiserating... I don,t know how many times I,ve had to reset timing/points/plugs/ carbs on Petrol powered Landrovers for other owners.) I just took some Pics of the Pinz conversion, when my wife comes home this evening I,ll get her to post them. (I just do oily things)

Michael,

You missed the opportunity. You should have (as I have) told her that it was just a computer problem with the truck. All you had to do was to reboot it (a quick kick to the center axle wheel closest) and it works like new! As soon as she realizes that you've got such an up-to-date component as a computer on board, she'll feel a lot better.

Bah-ha-ha-ha...