Wow...and I thought I was clever fitting a small swivel eyebolt to a nut on each end and then threading onto the factory rod, opening the eyes and then lightly crimping them around the neck of the ball on each side. Yours look a heck of a lot more factory than mine but I'm not gonna complain to loudly it...it works and doesn't look out of place. Years ago I had somewhat of a reverse problem with our lil 190. The goofy plastic block that is fitted to the end of the throttle cable and is then snapped into the linkage broke off. I got that rebuilt with a slotted cable clamp, a pair of side cut nuts and split two washers to fit them on either side of the throttle linkage. I was able to get it fitted and retain the factory buffer spring. Like you said about your new ball ad socket links...you won't have to worry about them ever again. Over the years I've seen these ball and socket linkages used on bindery equipment built by Mueller-Martini. Sadly our publisher sold the mueller martini 3-knife so I no longer have a spare parts box to compare parts and pieces from my 190d to mueller parts. Many of those linkage parts I've found are interchangeable.

Jim

I definitely wouldnt call it a POS, cmon its got 262k miles on it, runs veg oil, and can still pull 120 mph. A broken 20yr old throttle linkage (actually it was for the cruise), is a misdemeanor.

But I hear ya. Can you imagine what they are doing in the new benz's nowadays, 20 yrs after they REALLY got the bean-counters involved?

But yeah, if you want something to fire a .50 caliber at, the earlier 123/126's are it.

__________________
Paul
Benz-less
I need an SDL !