steve,
hehe, not touching stuff has actually helped me in the past...
i am certain the thing will have to come apart eventually but using the wise
words of PEH, ''if it ain't broke don't fix it".
i will try to post some pics when and if i need to disect it
as you are in NH you can appreciate what the salt does to our cars here in
new england. wires, heck everything gets corroded in no time.
again fwiw i recently replaced the down pipe on my car and can tell you was very very careful when removing the stud nuts on the engine side.
turned out MB in their wisdom made them out of bronze? so i luckily was able to remove them without a problem.
good luck with your '84.