I have completed my 300SDL car project (for now) and wanted to thank everybody on the forum for all of the help along the way.

You can go back and read my posts for the last nine months if you want the details but in summary I have always wanted to get a 300SDL but had pretty much given up on finding one that could be restored to showroom condition without spending an arm and a leg until this one came along last December. It was a handyman's dream...a car in perfect cosmetic condition but with some mechanical issues at a very low price. Basket case cars can be very tricky but with the help of postings from the forum I was able to determine that it had a cracked head. I was able to calculate that I could get it up to showroom condition for a total cost that was less than the book value of the car.

The only work I had to farm out was the machine shop work at Metric Motors and the 4 wheel alignment at the dealer. Here is a summary of all of the stuff I was able to do to it with help from the forum:

Motor
New "22" head with new valves and prechambers fitted at Metric Motors. I added new tappets and glow plugs and cleaned out the gunk from the intake manifold. The bottom end of the motor was very clean and even had the crosshatch marks on the cylinders. The car had always had regular oil changes and the cam was perfect. I added a new vacuum pump while I was in there.

Accessories
I put a new voltage regulator in the alternator and rebuilt the P/S pump with a new seal kit. The water pump and idler pully assembly had been changed recently.

Suspension
I put a new subframe and differential mounts in the rear along with 19mm spring shims in the rear. I put new track rod mounts, drag link and tie rods in the front. Everything else including the shocks had been recently done. after a 4 wheel alignment at the dealer (which is the only thing I didn't do to the car myself). It drives like a dream! My only compromise is that the total toe in the rear is -0.14 degrees when the specified range is +0.25 to 0.75 degrees at a ride height of 26 1/2 inches with a full tank and an empty trunk. Does anyone know how much more I have to shim it?

Climate control
I had to get a new climate control unit along with a new compressor, drier and condenser and charged it with R12

Brakes
I had to get a new master cylinder, front rotors and pads.

Transmission
The tranny had a very bad leak that turned out to be a bad O ringwhere the dipstick connects with the transmission. It shifted bad because needed to get a new vacuum control valve and a vacuum modulator. Special thanks to Brian Carlton on that one.

Anyway, here I am with a car that is in better condition than showroom (I say that because it has a "22" head and a new vacuum pump) and I need to thank everyone out there for all of the helpful postings.

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Tom Hughes
St. Louis
84 300SD
92 300D
86 300SDL

Congratz!!! These SDLs have a certain appeal, don't they?

But, they should know better at the dealer; without removal of the entire subframe and the use of a huge fixture, you cannot align the rear wheels on a W126. I seriously doubt that you received a 4-wheel alignment.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Congrats Tom........wish my two had "showroom bodies".

I echo what Randy mentioned..........you can't do any alignment on the rear with regard to toe..........unless they've invented some shim that I'm not aware of.

Camber on the rear is strictly a function of ride height. 26.5" sounds just about perfect.......maybe just a shade high.

What prechambers are on the head, .96 prechambers reworked to fit or .97 prechambers? If .97, are you using straight fire .96 injectors or oblique fire .97 injectors?

Sixto
93 300SD

The best thing about this car is that it was so nice in every other way besides the mechanical problems that I could justify going first class on everything. Because it was a basket case and I was willing to take the risk the price was very low and that left enough in my budget to make it perfect without breaking the bank. My last basket case was 35 years ago with a 66 E-Type Jaguar with a blown motor that a friend and I picked up with a horse trailer. I did a writeup of that one that you can find in the archives under my name.

I thought about retrofitting it with new style injectors and prechambers but ended up using my original injectors. I sent them to Metric along with my cracked head. Mike pop tested them and said they were fine. As for the prechambers, I replaced them because Mike said that the diffusers were stuck. I had to replace 2 exhaust valves and all 6 intake valves. The springs were all good. The new head came with guides and seats and the prechambers had to be fitted to the head which involves some machine work and some shimming.

I am aware of the new style injectors and prechambers because I have a very sweet running 92 300D 2.5 (and the issue of the "Star" that describes all that stuff May/June 1990 pgs. 44-47). Mike said they stick with the standard application and I was a little bit wary of being a pioneer. It probably would have run better if I had taken that chance but if I had retrofitted the new stuff to the old it probably would have cost another $1,000 if you count new injector lines, new injectors and more expensive prechambers. Has anybody ever done that?

As far as the alignment goes, I really didn't get a 4 wheel alignment because they don't mess with the rear end but I did get a reading on the rear with regard to toe. On my original post I said that it was it was minus .14 degrees when the range is plus .25 to .75 but now that I am looking at the sheet it is plus .14 which makes it only .11 less than the low end of the range. The sheet had it printed in red to show that it was out of spec.

The rear hubs are on semi trailing arms which are mounted to an eliptical subframe. The geometry is such that the rear wheels toe out as the wheel rises and toe in as it drops. Based on that it seems that an increase in ride height would increase the toe. You can check it out by comparing the toe out with a loaded down trunk against the toe in on a car with an empty trunk. In my case, the car was really squirrely before I replaced the subframe and differential mounts. That's because the subframe had come down as the mounts collapsed from age and that caused the rear wheels to toe out more. It all worked to my benefit because the last time the previous owner took the car in for "erratic handling" he ended up buying a new set of shock absorbers because the mechanic did not know what he was doing. I could feel an additional improvement when I put in the 19mm spring shims. what I am wondering is can I put in an additional shim and get it up to perfect?

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Tom Hughes
St. Louis
84 300SD
92 300D
86 300SDL