Yes, a member here made mention of this excellent product some years back, IIRC he'd used it as a 'Hail Mary' pass : if it didn't work the tranny was dying anyway...

So, when I began to really dislike the sloppy shifts, adding a pint of ATF a week and the mess in my driveway, I hied my self to my F.L.A.P.S. where I discovered they had at least FIVE different TRANS-X choices, each in a differently colored bottle.... oh, my .

I chose the yellow bottle after reading each and every one, they all seemed to claim the same properties to me (?) .

I don't ever allow my ATF to be brown or black nor to stink like burned coffee, I'd not recommend adding anything to bad fluid - HOT CHANGE IT FIRST .

In any case, the result was noticeable as soon as the fluid circulated .

Some years back I was working on my brother's neglected 1982 300SD, it was curb parked cross my driveway, I was repairing an inner passenger side door part when the car suddenly shifted about a foot directly on me, I'd been sitting on the driveway slope .

The neighbor across the street had backed her car out without looking, she stove in the driver's side door (and gave me quite a scare) .

Her insurance paid, she was upset and glad she'd not managed to kill me .

This car is that lovely cream color, same as my coupe .

We went off to the LKQ in Long Beach, Ca. and walked the rows until I found another W126 in the same color, an '81 IIRC, I removed the door , cutting the cables and vacuum tubes after pulling them as far out of the 'A' pillar as I could .

The door is heavy but not impossible to handle, I'm old, fat and crippled yet I managed to get it off the car and unto the shopping cart I'd piled with old nasty floor mats without scratching it .

Took it home and removed the door card, carefully washed, dried, polished then waxed it before installation, no one has ever noticed it's not the original door .

For me, using a trolley jack with a small slab of wood on it is sufficient to hold the door up,I balance it with one hand whist t'other starts two bolts, one in each hinge, from there it's all down hill ~ you insert all the bolts and lightly snug them then remove the latch striker and close the door, see how well it lines up, I use wooden paint stirrers t shim the door up as necessary, once the door is centered and has the proper amount of lean in to ensure no wind whistles then it's a simple thing to loosely attach the striker plate (used ones that don't have the bumper gone missing or yellow are fine) and adjust it so the door latches closed properly .

YOU can do this ! a one owner W126 is nothing to sneeze at .

I don't recall which Bay Area LKQ I used but they're full of good old W126's always .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

The possibility of making that product work enhances the notion of getting it running again. The leaky tran is too much. Always freaked about ruining it. Running well and with a new front end overhaul? Whoa ...

It was one owner before me but a broker, guy named Blue I think it was, got it from them (with all paperwork) and told me that the sons had been treating it like a hot rod the last year or two. It had 300K, the lady couldn't figure out (or her mechanic) how to get the vacuum motor shutoff to work, had to be done with lever under hood. "Here boys, have fun ..."

LKQ?

The W126 representation around here is OK, sometimes dries up, at Pick n Pull anyway.

They have a Moss Landing yard, south of San Jose, a 70 drive for me. I spied an SDL on the site, but it was 3 weeks old. I'd like to go for a looksee anyway. OMG, look at that trashed rear wheel and cherry front body.

https://www.picknpull.com/vehicle_details.aspx?VIN=WDBCB25D8HA341682

I'll bet the engine and tranny are gone already. I couldn't have mustered the time and money to go get it if I'd known about it first day anyway. That's the 3rd or 4th SDL I've seen at a P n P. Also saw a 350SD with smashed rear end and 14 head. Must have been a second engine. Odo read 240K. I took off the IP. Didn't have the time or strength to get the engine/tranny I hate to say. Need to be ready for such things.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

LKQ is a huge corporation that bought up as many Pick-a-whatever yards across America as possible ~ they bought ECOLOGY lock stock and barrel and still use them but as scrap only ~ no parts, no yards to stroll through .

After buying up more than 2/3rds of the So. Cal yards they began closing some down even though the never lost a dime on a single one .

The way they look at it is : YOU pay THEM to dismantle the old vehicles and yes, they make some profit off the used parts, most of their $ comes via scrap metal sales .

Here's their store finder : https://www.lkqpickyourpart.com/

They bought up HUGE commercial land tracts and are developing them as the become better suited to warehousing etc.

There are still some independent self service yards, do take the time so search them out . many are not quite 'Pick-A-Part ~ I pick, you pull (Russians, nice guys in my experience) , we pick, so forth and so on...

As far as "been there too long" don't you believe it ! .

When I needed an OM603 head, the cheapest I was offered here was $800 + shipping for an untested, no guarantee one (as if) one, instead I went to LKQ in the middle of Los Angeles (their busiest yard in fact) where a 1987 300SDL had been sitting for THREE MONTHS ~ the I.P. and a few other things were gone, I think I paid $150 for the head, no exchange .

You need to do the foot work and beat those bushes .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Nobody really takes anything but the injection pump anymore. I have a whole shelf full of heads and haven't even pulled them all that I have seen and most of those cars had been there a while. I pulled the injection pump, turbo and injectors from a wrecked 87 300D with 108k miles that had been there for months untouched.

How much for a good #17 or 22 head?

I have 2 extras, a complete #18 for $375, or a #22 missing the cam (I left it at the yard cause it was rusty) for $475. They are as pulled from cars in the junkyard, and probably need at least a slight cleanup of the surface before installing. For another $175 I could take either to the machine shop and have it checked too.

About the last good indie yard down here - Dorris Wreckers in Hayward on Depot road has been getting whittled smaller and smaller. Development, has to be. It was pretty big.
.
The Pick N Pulls here are all owned by Schnitzer Steel. They seem at times to want to move them through the yard a bit too quick for my liking. A couple of times cars I knew were not common and had good parts were moved on. OTOH, all of the yards except the S. San Jose yard have been around for years. S. San Jose wasn't all that great, too remote for me though I did get some good parts there.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K