I finally tackled the door locks on the 240d today. Somebody screwed with every door... On the rear doors the lines were plugged, and locking rods from the vacuum boxes removed.

I do not have those 2 rods.

What do they look like?

The are not the same for the front right door, right?

As I recall, those rods are all pretty much unique for each door.. the two backdoors might be identical, but the two fronts ones are different from the rears because one has a vacuum pod and the other doesn't.

What do the rods look like? About 4mm rods with threaded ends and various bends in them. But you knew all that already. Find a car in a junkyard and pull the pieces you need from it. Those rods and rod guides never fail, so very few cars have them removed.

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'83 300DTurbo http://badges.fuelly.com/images/smallsig-us/318559.png

Broadband: more lies faster.

I think they are shorter. It's one thing to take them off, but to just toss them away?

It was enough to block off the vacuum lines right after the drivers door. They left the rear door pods though. Thats the part that actually went all leaky.

Not really too surprised. The last w123 rear door had all the window stuff gone. and a wood trust screwed in place. "Twas a nice trust!"

The vacuum pods add some resistance when you move the lock knobs. If you don't want that, then you need to remove them, or at least the rods connecting to them. They probably decided removing the rods was easier than taking a wrench to the door and removing the pods.

Removing lock system pushrods, wooden trusses, it sounds like your PO was into cutting corners on that car's maintenance. I'd make sure I changed all the oils and fluids before I really started worrying about the central lock system.

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'83 300DTurbo http://badges.fuelly.com/images/smallsig-us/318559.png

Broadband: more lies faster.

That wood window frame was on another w123.

I drove this car home in the dead of winter. When we got it, she had just enough power to move it self. Now with all of the work we have done. It fly's down the interstate doing 80!

So the mechanical things are solid now, its the little stuff to deal with for the moment.