W126 Climate
 

I have been working on the climate of my '83 300SD. I've taken off the dashboard and the center console to see how is it that this thing works. Very confusing I must say. I can't honestly say I like the way they set it up to work with vacuum, I suspect I have more of one of the little pink vacuum actuators malfunctioning and a vacuum leak somewhere. I'd really like to switch the whole thing to something where I can manually set these things instead of relying on vacuum. I found this part ( Mercedes W126 Euro Dash Climate Control Unit 1268330014 | eBay ) and that looks a lot like what I have in mind. Looks like there would be a lot of $ and work involved in doing this though. Kinda wondering here if anyone has undertaken such a task and what your experience was; either fixing and troubleshooting the whole thing or switching to the other system? I'll post some pics of how the poor car looks today as soon as I upload them...
Thanks!

Swapping that CCU in is only a fraction of the work needed. You would need to find a manual CC W126 for parts, first gen, and swap the whole vent assembly in. Where vacuum pods are, there would need to be control cables.

When the climate control system functions correctly, like in my 83 300SD, it is a dream. You can basically take the Ron Popeil approach and "set it and forget it." I like having an early 80's car with automatic climate control. It was way ahead of its time. A lot of cars today don't even offer such an option. No cranking and wanking on manual knobs. Push one button and be comfortable. That's the Mercedes way!

The klima in my 1989 420 works perfectly and its awesome, the only thing I ever have to change is whether I need A/C or not, and sometimes extra defrost. Thats it.

I do have weak heat from a bad monovalve diaphragm but its a summer car so its not important. :D The heat in my 190 is insane and excellent in the winter. :)

Fix it and enjoy it! As was said, the auto climate control is a sweet option....one button and your done....

This one should be a breeze to get working again, just try that with an early w123 Chrysler climate control.....

You might want to look at my 1984 300D with Red interior thread before you undertake changing to a manual climate control.

Said it before, I'll say it again.... the "manual" system isn't manual. You select the fan speed and the air direction, but the system still controls temp. There are still vacuum pods moving the air doors. In addition it's dual zone. I imagine everything is different from the heater core, water valve, control units, air dampers.... if you're looking to save money it would be cheaper to get the fully automatic system working again since parts abound.

The automatic system really isn't all that complicated... a few temp sensors, the pushbutton unit, the control unit, water valve, the vacuum valves, and the blower.

-J

Getting the automatic system back to functionality is much less work than trying to convert to some sort of manual system. This is especially true on the W126 as dash removal is definitely not necessary. I've repaired, or changed every vacuum pod of the ACC system and now am enjoying it! The only difficult vacuum pod is the center pod and it isn't that bad.

Repair is quite simple really. Repair the pushbutton controller and replace the vacuum pods. If it lasts another 20-30 years, like the original, what more can you ask for.

Concur with keeping it original. Also, everything is abundantly documented (any issue most likely exhaustively discussed) so you're not on your own.

I'm convinced :D Thanks guys! As long as I took the dashboard off I'll be replacing it along with the center console. I'm finding lots and lots of broken plastic. POs didn't do my poor car any favors in the past as it seems...