The best car in the world - $5,000 - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

bodyart27 · #16 06-04-2003, 10:53 AM

Well got the following done:

* new improved fuel handpump
* new improved air filter / valve cover breather tube
* **************.com dash light upgrade kit and tools (wow big difference - I also dissasembled everything in the gauge pod to try to clean up as much as possible and replaced the reastat)

The parts are in for the leaking rear diff including a new mount (while I'm there). That this weekends big job

I have a 46mm socket that I bought off ebay on the way to hopefully break loose the fuel sender. It might not fit the hole, but I could not break it loose with vise grips.

Doctor Diesel on the way from Performance Products (thanks Thomas for the vendor info and the most amazing 126 website that has given me a lot of wrenching confidence!)

Since I have the rear seats out, they are now in my living room awaiting my Leatherique shipment! The fronts seats are pretty damaged and the driver seat has a serious sag, so I'm thinking once the credit card recovers I'll investigate new hides for the front seats.

Anyone know how to access the lights behind the center console and down by the shifter? (Does the shifter even illuminate? - my window buttons do, but not the shifter).... I bought some Factory Service Manuals off of Ebay, but still have not found the location (did find the ash tray bulb).... still researching!

Blu 420Sel · #17 06-04-2003, 01:52 PM

Shifter lights are easy. Remove the ashtray cup, below it are two screws. Remove those and he entire units pops out. This will allow you to remove the change pocket below the ashtray. Then the shift coverplate should filp up easily. The light is fowards the front of the plate and has a small black lead going to it.

To do the front, center console I think you have to remove the stereo bezel or possible the whole stereo (I forget). I think there are two screws at the bottom holding it in and it pivots out at the top.

good luck!

bodyart27 · #18 06-05-2003, 10:03 AM

As you can see the wood cover removed just fine. All the window switches I see have their own illumination. To the top right you see the power to the cigarette lighter and the light for the ash tray.

So, now looking at the shifter in the picture, there is a black tube that looks like in the picture it is going straight into the shifter but actually goes up from the bottom where the "P" is marked. I felt this tube / sheath and it is very thin, but I did not feel any wires inside it that might be powering a bulb. I didn't want to tug too hard where it goes in near the "P". My next step would be to take the whole shifter apart and flip it over to see what the bottom looks like to see if I can I find a bulb.

Could it be possible that my 84 300SD does not have an illuminated shifter? The other wires / cables seem to go right past the shifter console to power the window switches.

The center console (with the AC controls etc) I had loose at the bottom, but I was afraid I would break the wood and be heartbroken. It didn't really let go at the top near the vents, and I was getting resistance either pulling out at the bottom or pulling dowm. Is suspect it's not swinging for enough out from the bottom. My stereo has a detachable face so it is clearing the bezel, so I'm not sure if removing the stereo 100% would help much more. Those lights work but are dim compared to my new guage pod lamps.

Thoughts?

bodyart27 · #19 06-08-2003, 12:47 PM

I did the rear motor mount / front flex disk and then tackled the leaking diff. At a 181K miles I couldn't see any reasonable wear on the front flex disk and therefore blew off the rear flex disk after inspected that one (a lot more accessible than the front).

Maybe I't because I have a Texas car but I have yet to have any bolt horror stories thus far on all my wrenching, and though I have been replacing mounts all the way through - most visually look real good except the motor mounts and exhaust hangers.

For the flex disk, the kit that I had replaces all the bolts and washers and used hex/torx bolts for all six bolts which made torquing (sp?) the bolts easier. I used marked all the pieces in alignment (supposedly the drive shaft is balanced according to the FSM). Taking the parking brake off (car on 4 jack stands) and putting the tranny in neutral you can rotate the drive shaft very easily with your hand. You have to pull the tranny mount out to get to the flex disk, so might as well do that while you are there.

The rear diff was difficult as well. Maybe because I spent nearly the whole day sliding in and out from under the car for tools, or maybe working on my back under the car, but it was an exhausting day.

The rear diff was a pain. The drain and fill plug were a 14mm hex (not the 17 that Thomas P has on his site - http://www.pindelski.com/ - lowes, home depot, and sears do not have that size. I ended up finding one at AutoZone of all places - it was in a set of 1/2 sockets for differentials. That blew a good 2 hours of running around (Sears actually had a 17mm, but I had to go back and return it).

I don't see how anything was venting out the breather on the top - that thing was covered in crud. Ah - brake cleaner blasted it all the way.

Thomas wasn't kidding when he said gorillas put those drain plugs on! Somehow I broke the drain and fill plug free (it's hard to get leverage laying on your back), and the fluid was green and nasty. The 22mm on the diff mount were kicking my tail so I went back to Home Depot and bought a 1/2" breaker bar - ta da!

Cleaning everything up was pretty straight forward. I use brake cleaner to make sure the bolt threads were spotless and made a mess in my sink with the diff cover using castrol super clean. After scrapping the old gasket goo off I hit it with some heavy steel wool. Everything went together well. Replaced with Syth gear oil.

That day kicked my tail! Most of the major wrenching is done and I’m going to just enjoy and drive for a while. When the next oil change is due, I’ll replace the oil pan (it’s had some hard knocks), the timing chain, valve clearance, maybe the belts and water pump for good measure. For now I’m pooped and I need to give the credit card a break….

bodyart27 · #20 06-08-2003, 01:15 PM

flex disk (hidden - it's sandwiched in there) and tranny mount

bodyart27 · #21 06-08-2003, 01:16 PM

Ok, so I had some goo ooze out

jbaj007 · #22 06-08-2003, 03:47 PM

bodyart27,

The black tube/sheath is a fiber optic bundle that flattens out as part of the PRNDL graphic to the left of the shifter shaft. There is NO bulb at the shifter on the 1984 300SD (this is a hoax perpetrated by the 123 crowd

, who have bulbs). The bulb to illuminate this bundle is at the "octopus", behind the climate control wood on the vertical part of the center console (upper). The small tube/sheath has probably pulled loose there, if the upper switches (rear dome, sunroof, antennae, rear defogger) are lit at night. If none of those have light from their respective fiber optic "tubes", then you have a burned out bulb at the octopus.

bodyart27 · #23 06-09-2003, 09:30 AM

Maybe at the next Texas get together someone can show me how to remove the center consol. Mine had a lot of resistance about midway up. I could free the bottom and start to pivot it out, but I don't think it was pivoting far enough away to pull it down (I think it's tucked in at the top?). I was afraid I was going to break the wood.

At least I know what that tube thingy is by the shifter - thanks!

Sounds like if I can get to the bulb in the center and replace it with something brighter I'm going to impact a lot of the center and shifter instruments!

If someone can post a pic or two on how to do this correctly (remove the center wood panel) I would appreciate it!

I think I'll make this a separate post as well.....

Thomaspin · #24 06-09-2003, 04:02 PM

....for pointing out my error on the size of the of the differential plugs - 14mm not 17mm as I wrote in my pictorial. I have corrected it. Apologies for the extra trip you had to take to the parts store, Shell.

bodyart27 · #25 06-09-2003, 05:32 PM

A few hours running around doesn't compare to the $$$ you've saved me on maintenance and repair. Your site is a lifesaver!

RG5384 · #26 06-10-2003, 01:08 AM

Tom: thats a beutiful car. I'd be ashamed to park my 300SD(same color etc as yours) anywhere near yours. Mine has come a long way since a bought it though, here is a breif list of what i have accomplished in the 2.5 years i've owned the car(wow, it's been that long....crazy).

When i first bought the car, the sunroof, back window, a/c, and cruise all were either completely non functional or in sad shape. The sunroof had been painted over and not opened in what i figured out to be over seven years. Over the past years i have replaced the following

Tires(twice, lesson learned the hard way)
Motor mounts
CC amplifier
dashboard
almost all wood trim
front seats(with newer 89-91 model seats)
Charged A/c system(got really lucky)
repaired aux fan
radiator
alternator
vibration dampener
rack dampener pin
valve cover gasket
put on 4 new bilstein HD's.
sunroof motor/worm gear/switch
new slides on rear windows
dash vacuum elements
countless lights deep in the dash
sunvisors
glow plugs/relay
new ball joints/tie rods/steering shock/drag link/wheel bearings
Instrument cluster(out of an 85, with the outside temp display

)

Thats about all i can remember at this point. Currently the car desperately needs to be painted, needs the sway bar links in the rear, track rods in front, new driver's side door lock assembly, new driver's side window regulator, vacuum pump(central locking), and the rear seat could use some serious help from an upholstery shop, as could the headliner. I do not plan on fixing all of these things, but hopefully when the time comes to sell it, i'll sell it cheap to someone on this forum and *hopefully* see someone with more funds turn it back into being a nice S-class benz. I've put too much work into it to just be content to see it go to a crusher, plus the engine is still very strong, and the tranny shifts perfectly even though it is original. Could also use some new headlights, the ones on it look terrible. Alright, enough of my rambling, once again GREAT car, i wish i could make mine look that nice, on yours the brown actually looks nice instead of just old like mine lol.
Ryan

TN-W124 Diesel · #27 06-10-2003, 09:28 AM

Thanks to Thomaspin, I would like to trade up to the W126. This is a great post. I am still looking for a low mileage SDL

Thomaspin · #28 06-10-2003, 10:34 AM

Ryan -

That's very impressive. If I had an advantage it is that I bought the car with just 46k on the odometer in 1987, reckoning to keep it forever. Then again, I paid a high price for it. I am the second owner.

The other variable to take into account is that, for most of its life, the car has had the benefit of California's benign climate and has always been garaged. That, and regular hand washing does much to keep up the original paint quality.

Yes, there are parking lot dings here and there, but I have never had those fixed as they keep coming back, just like the IRS. Digital pictures, as many unfortunate buyers of eBay cars will attest, tend to make everything look better.

And yes, I still reckon to keep it forever. Maybe a top end job at 350k, but that will be quite a while - I only have 196k on it and drive it some 5k per year.

GA-W123 -

You will not regret the decision. The W126 is a superior car IMHO - while many of the mechanical underpinnings are similar, the design aesthetics and overall look and feel of the car are superior. But like all older cars, they do need regular maintenance. As Ryan's post discloses, it's very easy to let deferred maintenance ravage a car of this age.

I would look for the very best car I could find. There are many out there. If long term ownership is your goal, then a few more weeks spent looking will not matter. I tend to pick out cars that have been serviced by dishonest factory dealers for mechanically ignorant owners. These are easily determined from a quick perusal of the service records. You know the sort of thing. Brake calipers are replaced where only new pads were needed, etc, etc.

Try for a dry warm weather car with undamaged upholstery - AZ and CA are good in this regard. I would not hesitate to pay up for the right car. $5k for an early W126 300SD is perfectly reasonable if you can find a <200k car which should run another 150k before major engine work. Better to get a car that needs maintenance than one that has to be rebuilt.

Of course, you know to do your research on the troubled six cylinder engines in the 300SDL (overheating, blown head gaskets) and 350SD/SDL (bent con rods). Search on 'gsxr' (Dave Meimann) - he is expert on the problems experienced with these engines and can guide you how to find a 350 with the right serial number - indicating a replaced or late model engine which will not self destruct. It seems the 350 diesel motor is like smokers - we all know two packs a day guys who never got cancer, but we also know smoking kills. There are early 350 engines out there with 200k on them, but why risk it?