I was in Leipzig in July once. I don't know what the temperature was exactly, but I'd classify the weather as "slightly warm". I noticed that none of the buildings around seemed to have air conditioning (lots of open windows). Mercedes used to only really design for their domestic market and lagged behind on those things such as air conditioning and automatic transmissions that weren't very important in their domestic market. They finally fixed the transmissions around 1977, and it sounds like they fixed the AC about ten years after that.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

My Lincoln Town car had an R-12 system that I converted to 134. Even on 134 in Georgia in the summer, the thing would still freeze you out if you put it on full blast.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Maybe I need another SHO
They have nice a/c as I recall.

I had a friend in HS that had one of those old Volvo wagons, he said if you turned the a/c on the engine would over heat. They bought it new in the 80's, couldn't use the a/c since day one

Old MB a/c could be worse I guess

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08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D

System capacity and lack of ability to remove heat from the system (condenser).

My 750iL is almost 4.3lbs of R12... best the W126 had was 2.9lbs. Significant difference.

'85+ W126s at least received a better condenser (tubes are smaller) and a bigger aux fan. Late 126s had dual aux fans. Also the size of the main cooling fan plays a big part into pulling air across the condenser too

Tint makes a world of difference too.

Stick with R12 on these cars or go the extra step to a parallel flow condenser if you plan to use an alternate refrigerants. I am actually curious how a parallel flow would work with R12.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

Ditto on both accounts.

In my TE on a hot/humid cloudy day, the a/c will run me out. On the exact same hot/humid day but with sun, I am cool but not cold. I like to be cold on hot/humid days. I need tint.

I have plenty of R12 and too have wondered about using a parallel flow condenser.

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08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D

My 240 with a york compressor cools very well. 95 today, 6 hours of driving, and never put it more then about half way on the dial, low fan speed too, wife put a jacket on...

Must say the 300 never did very well though.

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1977 240D turbo

Thanks for the info guys. I'll be sure to clean the evaporator, I'm sure it's all gunged up. I *think* my SDL has a parallell flow condenser... or at least a flat tube kind. It looks different than older cars, and the EPC says its specific to the 350SD(L), just like the 3 piece driveshaft

-J

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

Make sure both of your aux fans work, too. These are a nice PITA to break down from the front of the car, so take your time and prepare to be amazed at the amount of crap that is trapped!

If you have the time, buy a fin comb to straighten them all once you remove all the dead bugs and rocks.

The condenser is specific to your car due to their dual fan mounts. Otherwise a 3.0 SDL or '85 SD condenser should bolt up fine. I know this as I considered going to the 3.5L condenser when I had my SD's system open.

__________________
I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]