I really need a rural estate so I can park dead rigs in back. I love getting an oddball bolt from the junkyard that is exactly what I need.

Oh well, if all you had was one back-up set I could see wanting to hang onto them. So I fabbed my own. I was right, it took a while but one hopes this will avoid a scene out on the road someday where I discover a small and growing puddle of fuel under the car.

I've had some large aluminum scrap for some time, have been whittling on it for years. It's about 3/16ths thick, was part of some mounting bracket for God knows what that I found discarded. At first I decided to keep a curved part on the edge each piece, adding some geometric strength but then I realized it was needless overkill. Holding them with vice grips to trim them in the table saw worked nicely. I do get the galvanic corrosion thing, I've seen it more than a few times where some hack wanna-be plumber attached copper fittings directly to galvy pipe.

But I still wanted to use the alum - quick and easy to work. I had some remnants of flat gasket material - a hard rubber about 1/16 thick. Also have some 1/8 thick but I went with the thinner stuff. I attached some of it to one face of the alum pieces with contact cement. Used 1/4 bolts with the nylon bushing lock nuts to attach it. Speaking of over-kill, I even used thin nylon washers at each end of the bolt/nut to separate from the alum. The zinc plating alone was probably enough but the washers were really cheap.



One reason I liked the rubber dielectric face was the fuel lines would bear into it a bit, ideally preventing drifting around. The stock items have little curved bits for that, my approach is easier as a little bit of clamping pressure from the bolts will custom make channels to grip the fuel line.

No idea how bad it might be to have alum bearing directly on the steel injector lines but really no upside in finding out.

At first I made all of them as large as the ones up in the top range of the pic but then made some of them smaller when I realized I needed the room. Also, some portions of these lines are nicely parallel to their neighbors, others not so much, and then they might look parallel from above but be in a different plane. A large flat square might put unwanted pressure on the fittings by pushing or pulling while trying to make the lines equal lattitude. We can see how skinny the stock items are, perhaps with an eye to that issue.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

I get a kick out of fabbing stuff but stock sorta looks better. Next time I see some at the boneyard I might get them. I'm not seeing a lot of 617s lately though.

I didn't have any red silicone on hand so I used a dab of CRC red brake anti squeal compound on two more that I took off to skinny up. Might be similar. And the color is right.

This shows the indent in the rubber. Was glad to see it. I was a tiny bit worried about too much pressure on the fuel lines but they seem unperturbed in the clamping locations. And you can see the ruts in the rubber for home position action.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

Very nice ! .

I've not lived in the country for decades and in the mid 1960's the county guy would come around looking for old dead pickup / cars and then bill you a 'luxury tax' on them....

Many farmers took to piling old brush around and on their 1920's & 1930's junkers forcing them to become small animal farms and rusting away.... .

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-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

Thanks! Wish I'd used 1" bolts instead of 1-1/4" but none of it is really in the way.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

Wow, that's harsh.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

I didn't offer up a set because my spare set is holding my spare set of hard lines together.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

My take is that most people might have one spare. Doesn't bother me in the least that no one offered one up.

I have a small walking issue for the next few weeks - the Newark yard has a '70 300, not sure if it has a suffix but it's a W123, looks nice in the pic, but it's a long walk back to the Euro section. Long walk to make if that stuff is already gone especially. So it was easier to go my hillbilly engineer route.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

A 1970 won't be a W123 .

I don't know if the clamps would be the same .

I thought I had some spares but haven't been able to find them....

__________________
-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

I’m sorry, typed that wrong. Should have been ‘77:

https://www.picknpull.com/check-inventory/vehicle-details/RNDV3cWPakmNxBULa0NsPvDrG

Nice looking in the photo. Who knows. They refer to it as a 300. Not sure if that’s right. Same color as mine. If I needed a body part, a door for example, I’d be making a beeline.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

I'm pretty sure I have some of those spacer clamps.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I need some if the OP doesn't want them.

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1983 300D Midnight Blue
4 speed, W115 intake mani, non-EGR exhaust mani, KKK K26, 3 pc Euro bumpers, Lo-spec Euro headlights, AL129X, hubcaps, custom A/C

1987 300TD Smoke Silver
Euro headlights, thermostat relocation, coolant bypass mod, rebuilt Becker + Jehnert + Helix audio, OEM Oris roof boxes and surfboard racks, Euro towbar

1983 300TD Reed (Moss) Green / Dark Olive MB Tex Euro spec

1983 300TD Silver Blue / Blue cloth Euro spec, OM648 and 722.6, 15" hubcaps, W126 S2 brakes

Thanks Tom but I think I'll be good for now. I feel certain I'll see some at a boneyard someday.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

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

Damn ! .

I went to my favorite LKQ yard , they had FIVE old Mercedes Diesels and only two badly worn clamps .

I figured to grab a full set for you .

They didn't have any of the other parts I needed either .

__________________
-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

They get picked over here pretty quick also.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

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