Vehicle Maintenance #3of9

1978 Dodge Trans Van, driven in 1983 and 1985

We bought a 1978 Dodge Transvan from an US Army Major, who was stationed at Nellingen Barracks south of Stuttgart, Germany. When we got near Emmy’s Cousins home in Mettlach, Germany, we stopped for groceries, then heard a funny noise under the hood as we started the motor again. When I looked under the hood it was easy to determine the water pump was kaput. By this time my cold had gotten the better of me, so I spent a couple of days in bed, but was well enough to arrange for a tow truck to take the Dodge to a Ford dealer in nearby Merzig.

There is a very steep hill to climb up, then down, to get from Mettlach to Merzig, and the power and motor speed needed to climb the hill just might send the fan blade through the radiator. The flat-bed tow-truck was too small to haul the Dodge, so I had to let the motor idle to supply power to the steering and brakes, as it was towed up and down the hill. The tow-truck was a precaution. They made phone calls and found a Dodge water pump in Hamburg. A couple of days later it was repaired, at a cost “only” three or four times the cost in the US.

The Major had purchased a new pressure gauge for the propane gas system, but it was not yet connected. Cousin Josef took me to a plumber in Merzig, it took him an hour to fit the European metric sized copper tubing, with the US sized tubing in this Van.

The refrigerator was made in the US, so it ran on the vehicle’s 12 volt system, or on propane gas, but it would not work on European 220 volt electricity. We had enough problems with that on the other Dodge Van, so we decided to install a new refrigerator. At the Ford dealer in Luxembourg City, they gave us the address of the Electrolux dealer where we bought a 12V-220V-gas refrigerator. He sent us to a plumber who would be able to install it when he got home at 4:00 PM, except he didn’t get home until 5:00 PM.

Again, the biggest problem was fitting the US size copper tube in the camper to the European size tube on the refrigerator. Sometimes the refrigerator didn’t work properly on gas, and we figured that was a result of the installation job.