The subject pretty much says it all. Is this okay to do? My alternator is both frozen up and frozen in, and it would speed up the process if I could just skip taking care of it for now. I wouldn't be running it for extended period -- just enough to flush the system and then do a compression test. I realize the battery won't recharge, but is it bad to run the car for less than ten minutes without the fan on?

Sorry if I rambled -- I'm trying to hurry & get to bed...

Jooseppi

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

it's not just the fan that won't turn... it's the water pump.
NOT A GOOD IDEA...
10 minutes at idle might be ok, but I'd not recommend it.
what exactly are you attempting to do?

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Driving 10 minutes or more without a water pump, not a good idea. If need to move the car, tie a shoe lace between the main pulley and the water pump, and cut the excess. This will allow the water pump to circulate the coolant until you get to your destination.



.

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

You don't need the car running to do a compression test, you turn the motor by hand.

There is no point to starting it up to flush the coolant if the water pump isn't turning. Just flush it as best you can with the motor off.

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Assuming the car ran reasonably well before the alternator froze, take care of that first before worrying about the coolant flush and compression check. Soak all the fasteners with PB Blaster (or similar) several times before attempting to take the alternator off. If you hit them all with PB once or twice a day for several days, you may find they aren't frozen anymore.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

um, no. the motor cannot be turned by hand for a compression test, but it cannot be running for one either. the starter spins the motor for a compression test.

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I am trying to figure out what situation makes the Compression Test and Flushing the system is more important than fixing the Alternator?

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

But if you have wheaties (TM) for breakfast you could turn the crank over with your teeth! You lot just don't try hard enough...

...er back in the real world...

...if you really really need to use your W123 diesel and the alternator is bust you could get one of those emergency belts and just loop it from crank shaft pulley to water pump pulley - they always used to sell them at petrol stations but I haven't seen one for years - probably because of all of those flowers and sandwiches and magazines and bags of BBQ charcoal...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Just use one of the large O rings for the oil filter housing lid.
They make great temporary belts.

__________________

76 240 D. Bought in 1998 for $25.
85 300D. Got it for free with a bad engine. ( Sold )
60 Unimog 404. What was left of it, was given to me. Now powerd by 617A.
88 560 SEL. Bought without engine and trans. Now powerd by 617A.
67 250 SE. Cuope. For resto or sale.
64 220SE. For resto.

When can it be turned by hand? Not by any hand that I have seen.


That would depend entirely on the manner of testing.

Not so hard. 2 hands on the balancer, and get your he-man on.

I've turned motor over w/ wrench to locate TDC for leakdown test. Don't forget to lock it before you put air on it! Compression test requires motor to be turned over much faster than you could w/ a wrench or by hand. Combination I think of keeping up w/ leakage & heat transfer.

__________________
CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

I'll try and remember that the next time I change it - keep the old one for emergencies - however I guess it is best to leave it in place if you only have the one (fitted to the car) and you are stuck on the side of the road!!!!

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Oh, it runs the water pump too. Duh.

I misspoke -- I meant a diesel purge, not a radiator flush. I though I remembered reading somewhere that compression could be affected by a dirty motor (am I wrong?).

I'm attempting to get to a point where I can start it (it hasn't run in two years) and perform a compression test (to see whether the engine is still good), and am wondering if I could put off fighting my frozen alternator 'til after I start the car. Thank you for your advice -- I apologize that I have not been able to say thanks for the help that I have received here so far, but I really appreciate it!

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

So you want to see if the car is worth fixing before you try to fix it. I get it.

If you can simply get the thing to start and run on all cylinders for 30 seconds or so, then it's probably in good enough shape to be worth fixing the alternator before proceeding to the other stuff. 30 seconds without coolant circulation isn't going to hurt anything.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

DOH. I was typing compression test and thinking valve adjustment (from a previous question he asked).

DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH
etc

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22