Bump...anyone????
 

Just a friendly bump.

I'm still looking for that plastic piece if anyone can help.

Today I put the evaporator back in the box, and closed it up...DAMN that was a PITA job, trying to line everything up, with that rubber piece that goes around the copper pipes. It's still not 100%, but I think it's sealed, and I'll just wrap some extra dumb-dumb tape around it.

So, all the banging the thing about trying to get it to work, I began to worry I'd caused a problem. Then I remembered I'd bought this really cool Mighty Vac kit, and sooooo, I decided to put the thing under some vacuum and see if it holds. It's been a few hours, and I'll leave it over night, hopefully the temperature change won't cause it to lose vacuum. But, after 3 hours, it's been fine.

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Good news: was still at 15 this morning...so have reassembled the heater box actually three times, cause I kept forgetting something that had to happen before you put something else on. Duh...

In the benz world, the third time is the charm :P

Back to some tear down...
 

Now that I've put the heater/evaporator box back together, and feel pretty confident it'll not leak (crossing fingers). I foamed the back of the box to replace the foam that was there, and then put a felt coating on it to make sure it doesn't squeak when rubbing against the firewall.

Just foam:

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I worried that the foam, being of a different consistency than what the factory used, it might squeak...so a layer of black felt.

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Began to tear the wiring harness for the manual climate control system from the 82 Euro car. A friend came over, and we were able to entirely isolate the 2 major harness' that control all the AC, and fun functions, we only cut a couple of ground wires but pulled the entire harness out through the firewall. The plan is to wire this harness into the 1983 US spec car wholesale, and delete as much of the ACC associated wiring as we can from the US car.

Didn't take too many pictures of the harness, but will later, my friend took it home to study against the schematics of both cars, the manual system and the ACC system, to have a plan of attack.

Some tear down on the 83 US car too:

Pulled the front door panel to figure out what a blue speaker wire was running from relay box (Bosch) for an aftermarket alarm that would make James Bond proud at the time.

Turns out it leads to the green plastic box which has the long rod that comes up to the door lock mechanism. No longer attached to the door lock mechanism, but I think it was and would trip the alarm if someone pulled up the door lock knob when the alarm was set.

In the process, the hackers that put in the alarm besides using two Bosch relay boxes taped together with a piece of cardboard between them for insulation...hacked a chuck of metal out of the door so their stupid door lock sensing rod wouldn't get jammed up in the works. Grrrrrrrr I hate hack jobs.

In the process I also found out why the door handle was hanging low and was like pulling on the broken chicken wing...it was broken.

Speaker wire and makes shift wiring block used for electrical wire for the door lock alarm sensor:

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The cut out in the door, and the metal rod for the door lock motion sensor (the silver rod with the slight bend).

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And the broken door handle bracket...I'm glad I own two of these cars, it's so nice to go pluck a part.

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Some more progress.
 

I'm not sure anyone is reading this, no one posted since my last update, so maybe it's just not interesting enough.

I got the manual HVAC box and controls all installed in the white car, and Fatmat put in on the firewall, and floors.

Next was to tackle the engine bay, and get it prepped to receive the engine.

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Lovely hood pad glue was all that was left of the crumbled hood pad.

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After several hours, and about a half gallon of acetone.

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Here the engine bay is painted...YEAH! It was my first ever paint job, and I really wish I had not done and engine bay first, it's very difficult. I had a few runs, but one is behind the battery, and one is on the underside of the hood, so they'll never been seen. And since the factory finish had runs on the right strut tower, I don't feel too bad.

I'm reading... keep the updates coming!

Iam reading too.:) I have been following along with your project

The rear door inside door pull will fit the front doors on the same side. usually the rears will be like brand new. There is a round pin that will work down out of the hole it is press fit into. be sure to tap it back into place if it has moved. I use some Loc-Tite to hold it, at least it makes me feel good.:rolleyes:

This will make you sad, there is a 84 300TD in one of our PNP`s up here that was donated. Not a thing wrong with it I could see, fair to good interior, new front Shocks, good rear Hyd Shocks, NO RUST, No Damage to the body. Did have cracked dash. Dark blue with black interior
Too bad it wasn`t put on CL. :(


Keep on posting your work.


Charlie.

DIY. Use a bicycle pump, rig up to heater core, submerge core in water and look for bubbles. Don't pump too much if you don't have a pressure gauge rigged up. You don't need much pressure, don't go over 15 psi. No bubbles= no leaks for now. Depending on how much metal has been lost due to corrosion, determines how much life it has left.

I rebuilt the manual shifter today, replacing the internal bushing, which I found to have totally disintegrated to bits. As with every thing on this car, I found "repairs" done by previous people, that were shall we say creative...or more like f***ed up. Missing washer (because I guess it'd be too hard to squish all the pieces back in the housing)...etc.

It's back together now, and shifts better than I've ever imagined.

Sway bar and UC arms
 

I pulled the sway bar, and in the process replaced the UC arms. OMG, I can't believe anyone was driving on these UC arms...scary. The right one had totally disintegrated, and was rubbing on the inside of the tower.

I cleaned and wire wheeled the sway bar mounts, sprayed them with cold zinc coating, and then put them back in with new sway bar bushings. I decided to use the Febi ones, as they had GERMANY stamped right on the bushing, and there were grind marks where I suspect the three-pointed star was once.

I painted the sway bar gloss black...and then proceeded to scratch it up a bit getting the engine back in.

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Repainting faded gauge needles
 

I tore apart the Instrument Cluster, and repainted the needles, and hopefully repaired the rheostat (I won't know till I get it powered back up). Of the 2 clusters I have both have a wonky fuel gauge for the same reason (broken mount for a wound wire thingy ma jiggy). One had the rheostat with the soldered jumper already...so again, another "easy" fix to an issue.

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Engine back in
 

Big day last weekend, reinstall the engine...and most of this week hooking things back up, not a simple matter. Changing some things, involves making some modifications to reattach things. The manual climate controls with manual monovalve, means not being able to use either metal heater return pipe. I used standard heater hose, and routed it under the battery tray over the shock tower and back to water pump housing.

Another surprise is the exhaust pipe mount bracket from the transmission mount. The non-turbo pipe is 2 inch, and the turbo pipe is 2.5 inch. Only the manual bracket fits which was intended for the non-turbo...so, drill another hole to accommodate the larger u-bolt.

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So sad...a black interior would be cool to have...I did use the rear door handle from the brown car, is just like new.

Made that decision a while ago...decided it was good to go. The reassembled heater box is no residing in the white car's chassis. I guess soon, I'll have stop referring to it as the white car, since it's becoming blue-green.

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