140 mile round trip highway blast
 

It seems the check my wife sent in to for her nursing license renewal never made it there for one reason or another, and they're too backwards to take a card over the phone. Since it expires tomorrow, I ended up taking the 70 mile trip down there and back with the Mercedes, while she went to work.

Despite the amount of time the car has sat in the recent past, it shook off the cobwebs pretty readily. It just kept running better and better as I cruised down the rainy highway at 65 MPH. I pushed it up a few notches to 75 for a short burst here and there when the rain and traffic allowed, and the car performed fairly well the entire time.

Now that I'm a little more familiar with how the car rides and handles on the highway, I was finally able to focus on exactly how the car felt, instead of worrying about the wheels flying off, or any of the other nonsensical things that run through my head the first time I put an old car on the interstate. For example, I noticed for the first time today that at speeds over 45, the car won't downshift no matter how hard you press the pedal to the floor.

The trip wasn't entirely without incident. I had to stop and work on the left side wiper arm when it decided to begin acting up and skipping widely across the windscreen, and found that the spring tension pivot point has become rather sloppy, so I suppose I'll need a new wiper arm. I managed to tighten it up by squeezing the joint with some pliers as a temporary measure.

Before returning home, the passenger headlamp began to look a little dim, and of course, it failed completely on the way home. Now I have to go buy a bulb for it, which is almost a waste of money since I intend to upgrade to euros in the next couple of months. I'm certain that the slightly used 7" bulb will be kicking around my place for years afterwards. :rolleyes:

And finally, I can say without any question in my mind that at least the early W123 sedan seats with the funky old-school headrests are the most uncomfortable things I have ever rested my hiney on! My driver seat is as fresh as they come, and does not sag. The pad is in fantastic condition with no compression or deterioration at all. It just doesn't support the backs of my legs at all. I wonder now if the later spring boxes with the 126 part number and pads are better.

Can anyone tell me if the two coil springs at the front edges of the later W123's and all of the early W126's make an improvement in support? Does the padding make a difference? I might just be better off trying some W126 buckets up front, as they seem to be sculpted with the idea of support in mind. The seat I have isn't even a step up from a park bench. The car is so uncomfortable, that I'd sell it if I weren't the kind of guy that could handle seat swapping.

That's strange... I prefer the seats in my benzes to my BMW X5 with 7 adjustable zones and lumbar control.

480k+++ on original engine?

Ah, but your W123 is an '85 model year, and it apparently has slightly different seats than stuff built prior to '82. I haven't sat in a W123 newer than '81.

Everyones body is different, too. I'm 6'4", which could explain a lot of the trouble. I have the seat adjusted all the way rearward and down, and can't straighten my legs out in front of me, even if I snake my feet past the brake pedal. That's why my butt is the only thing touching the seat bottom, and that's why it hurts to sit in the thing. I need support under my thighs.

Edit: Premature clickage... sorry.

Yes, 480k. The engine number verifies it is the original, so I'm guessing the motor has been in there the entire time. Believe me, it has some wear. :)

A scene from Police Academy comes to mind, when the High Tower character needs to learn how to drive. The guy won't fit into the compact car he's driving, so they rip out the front seats and he fits perfectly using the back row. :D

Wow, I think that the seats in a W123 are the best seats ever put in a car and I know two other people who have the same opinion. I have driven a number of different cars at length for business and most of them I want to stop every hour or so just to get up from the seat. I can ride in a W123 seat for four hours and it does not bother me.:2thumbsup

I enjoyed reading about your journey. Isn't it fun to take something that has not ran in a while and take it out for a 'shakedown'? My first 300D sat for a year. Got her started and put her on the interstate. She was fantastic.

I wish I could say that these seats are comfortable. After about half an hour, I'm pretty well dying to get out of the car. Once I find something better and can afford to replace them all, Someone is welcome to the relatively nice tobacco brown seat I have now. I won't want to ever see the the thing again.

Taking old cars out for a shakedown is a lot of fun, once you get past the initial paranoia. After a little while, I felt rather secure of the fact that the car would just run. This car just feels solid!

I agree with you Keith. I never get over the paranoia if my wife takes it out. Believe me, if something is going to break down, it will happen with her in it! :P I'd be lucky to be able to keep the car.

John

Ha! that would be my luck, too. My wife offered to take it to work the other day, and I had to say no. She's not mechanically inept, but she doesn't know the car like I do, and even I don't know it very well at this point. She would have flipped out when the wiper acted up, and might not have been able to figure out how to squash the metal just right to get it to stay together.

Today, the car started pulling hard to the left when panick braking on the highway, and with the slop in the steering box, I had to fight for control of the vehicle for a moment. Not sure what the problem is. I'll have to limp it down to my friend's house to get it up in the air and check things out. This is just the sort of reason why I'm not comfortable letting her go out in the car. Until I've logged enough miles in it to find and eliminate the quirks, she's not allowed to drive it.

hmm... a recent thead comes to mind. A good example of letting your wife drive a car that you don't have all the bugs out yet.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/208906-tragedy-strikes-1986-300-sdl-overheats-interstate.html

At least he was in the car with her when it happened.

I'm not great at diagnosing, but have you checked for brake fluid on the right front? Maybe a caliper is bad. Not a bad job to replace gasket.

John

I'll find the problem as soon as I limp it back down to my friend's house. I can do a few little things in the parking garage, but pulling brakes isn't one of them.

Fluid levels look good. No leaks that I can see. It's odd, because if a caliper goes bad, they usually lock up with the piston extended, not the other way around.

I'd almost want to say it could be a guide rod mount, but how likely is that after I checked the entire front suspension out? The car's moved about 260 miles since the entire front end was gone through. I checked everything out myself, and besides some questionable shocks and rotten LCA bushings that I replaced, it all looked serviceable. I can't imagine one just instantly going bad like that. Never know, though.

I can't really declare what happened until I get it up in the air and take things apart. The job should be a lot of fun in this cold, wet weather. :rolleyes: