Parking brake question
 

I have had a scraping noise coming from driver side wheels on my 85 300D. At first I thought it was from front but couldn't find anything wrong. So, decided it was more likely from rear.

Today I removed the rear disk and found that one e-brake shoe was tilted outwards. The hold down spring was broken.
Attachment 163504

It should look like this:
Attachment 163505

I am not sure if I will be able to get one of those springs quickly. Cant see a good way of re-using broken spring. Removing E-brake could be an option. Any better ideas?

With parking brake shoes removed, what is the situation? Pushing on ebrake pedal no doubt won't stop car from running downhill. What about when car is put in Park? Does that actuate e-brake or lock rear wheels in some other way?

Park is independent of E-brake system. Change the E-brake shoes if you can, they frequently fail from the glue not holding the lining to the shoe vs the lining wearing away. Adjustment is through a lug bolt hole with the rotor, caliper and wheel installed.

Good luck!!!

Selecting "Park" locks the transmission; it has nothing to do with the brakes.

Ok thanks for the input. If I can't find springs quickly, sounds like I can get by without an e-brake. In fact, I cant recall ever using it!

Linings are still good and adhered. But I did find a kit that includes shoes and springs for $25+shipping so may order that if dealer doesn't have springs locally.

For the E-brake hardware kit only, search for HOLSTEIN 2HWK0537.
"Rock" has it listed for $7.24.

Yes, I had seen that and it would have been a bit cheaper once delivered than the full kit including shoes that I could get here in Canada. Local MB dealer was another option. However, a friend who has tons of old W123 parts found a used spring amongst his stuff. Just about to go pick it up!

Next thing is to install - I made the installation tool- Cut an old 1/4" diam driver down and cut a slot in the end. Works fine. I removed the other spring as a trial. The manual says to turn 90deg and then make sure spring is "correctly attached"! Seems like that may require X-Ray vision :)

Attachment 163513

Put a mark on the exterior of the spring so you know when you turned it 90°

That's the easy part - It is the check for "correctly attached" that is hard ;)

The hook looks like it needs to go over a ridge. From diagram, it looks like spring should be rotated 90 deg (either way?) so hook points to outer side for the hook to be "correctly" retained.

It has been years since performing that but I really don't recall any difficulty in seating the spring. I'm confident you will figure it out quickly. My recall is that you could see the spring seat from the backside but I'm not sure.

Remember to work through the lug hole, not around the hub flange.

Good luck!!!

I didn't have any trouble although it did take me several tries.

The slotted tool I made was a must have.

Noted the spring hook orientation to determine which way it should be turned so the hook pointed outwards - away from center of hub.

Had last gasp of good Fall weather here, so I didn't finish this job. Had visitors and played golf instead. Today I finally got it all buttoned up and decided to go for a road test.

Turned key - Nothing!! Checked battery - 0.891V !! Tried to charge with smart charger - It wouldn't even start to charge. Hooked up one trickle charger - It got battery up to 0.91V and then displayed an error light. Used my other, newer battery maintainer. It got battery up to 5.6V before signing off! Hooked up my main 15A smart charger. It now worked. Currently up to 70% charge.

Found out the problem. The map/courtesy light came on once voltage had recovered up a bit. I must have left it on the last time I drove the car :(

Battery is 11 years old. Will be interesting to see how well it recovers from the full discharge.

Fixed & Dead Battery
 

I'm keen to see if you can save an 11 year old battery .

I have the 1,000 CCA battery in my W123's ans keep them well tuned so they start on the first crank yet I usually loose the battery every 5 or 6 years and almost always far off in the Desert when it's hot .

Your title "parking brake" is the best term. Always set it when parking. I think that is a law in hilly San Francisco, plus must turn your wheels to the curb on hills. I haven't had many batteries last more than 5 years lately, and some failed in just a few months. Quality must be down. I think there are only ~3 factories in the world, sold under almost 100 brand names. I have a Battery Brain on most of my cars. It will trip if the battery gets too low, leaving enough to hopefully start. Some models can also be turned off so more assured your battery will be OK after parking a long time or in a critical place (remote camping).

That battery brain could be useful! These modern cars deplete the batteries quite quickly. I have trickle chargers on the less used cars.

Lot of discussions about which battery brands are better. But, as you say, they mostly come from the same sources! Some no doubt have higher specs than others.

So far my 0.89V battery has fully recovered. 300D starts right up every time. We will see how it performs in the winter.

The original Battery Brain is best and you can find on ebay occasionally. Later ones (grey?) were made in China and I had one fail. The Gold model is best since has a remote for easy turn-off, which doubles for security. I think they went out of business, partly because new cars don't like disconnecting the battery since loses all their presets.

Like many here, I use the H8 battery in my 300D's, instead of the correct "Frame 74" size, since H8 was $40 cheaper and 10 lb lighter for about the same CCA rating. I put a "Battery Mat" underneath to neutralize the slight spills which always occur (why most steel battery trays are rusted thru). I've bought batteries from Autozone the last 10 years and always get the Gold-top warranty since I've used that many times. Some people speak well of Walmart's brand (EverStart?), even though about the least expensive, but get the models with the longest warranty.