1982 300D Turbo White 200K+(?)

Thanks to this board for great info and links! With your help I've fixed my cluster lighting, tachometer, odometer and trip milage in addition to painting the needles and doing a general cleaning.
Here is my story and some of the things I learned.

I acquired my beauty from a recently based on a recomendation from a freind. I haven't worked on a car since my college days except for an occasional oil change or filter replacement. My freinc told me he wouldn't sell me the car unless I would learn to work on it myself, thus my finding this board.

My first project was to replace the air filter housing (successful) and flushed with success, overconfidence and the info from this board I endeavored to attack the nonworking instruments and poor lighting in the cluster.

My first attempts at removing the cluster from the front with a highly modified garment support device (hanger) was a failure. I then took a deep breath and attacked the problem by removing the underdash panels and pushing the cluster out from behind (easy). My next challenge was fitting my hands behind to undo the various wires and cables. Since this was my first experience behind the dash I had no idea what was "pullable" and what was bolted, screwed or fastened. With some trepidation I carefully removed what would pull away with out any tools and was left with only the oil pressure cable, which was undone with a 10mm open end wrench. FREE AT LAST!

When I first pulled the cluster, there were things rattling around inside... very scary. Knowing I would have to remove everything anyway, I proceeded to remove the screws and take out the instruments left to right as described in the MBZ.org site on rebuilding your cluster.

After removing the instruments several bits and peices fell out of the housing. These were a small mystery spring, two screws, a small piece of translucent red colored plastic and several bits of black plastic. I eventually identified where all of these came from!

The first thing I noticed was that the odometer and trip counter numbers appeared dirty from an oily coating. I later determined where this came from. If you don't tighten the oil pressure cable sufficiently it will spray oil! (You guessed it... I found out the hard way).

Moving along... I cleaned the numbers with a Q tip and alcohol, and proceeded to attack the odometer repair. I didn't have a drill bit or coat hanger the right size to push out the shaft as suggested from the MBZ.org article, but I did notice that the shaft that supported the trip mileage was the same so I removed that and used it to push the main shaft out. This later recquired some reasembly of that part, and this is where I determined that the mystery spring had come from. It provided extra tension on the trip mileage in addition to the spring in the pushbutton/reostat.

I completed the shaft ruffing-up/locktite technique repair, and proceeded paint the pointers with testers flourescent orange which I found at my local hoppy shop. I covered the dial faces with a cirlcle of paper with a slit in it. This dried in about 20 minutes and looks great!

I gave the silver dial centers a quick breath-and-rub, but one came off! Apparently they are flimsily held on by some brittle brown stuff. I reattached it with a mild glue-stick adhesive, and proceeded to reasemble after carefully cleaning the plastic with a soft cloth (not paper).

I also cleaned the inserts that have the symbols on them... they come out from the edges of the cluster. Don't rub on the white symbols though... they can smear.

There also is a "mystery" grey insert that removes from the bottom center of the cluster but has no symbols on it. I assume it is for different options or models other than my 300D 123. Anybody know?

I also replaced all of the bulbs, and carefully cleaned the translucent light conductors which reflect the light from the back of the cluster forward to the dial faces.

The tiny bit of colored pastic came from the hole where the reserve light shines through. This had been missing.

Assembly was simple after understanding the hooking of the trip mileage arm properly. Some of the screws had been stripped, thus accounting for the small bits of black plastic rattling around.

Reasembly was much easier... I knew my way around by then, but as alluded to earlier, I didn't tighten the oil pressure line properly and found dripping oil on my lap 10 minutes after taking my wife out for a ride to "show off" the bright new working cluster (embarrasing).... "Don't worry honey.... it's only a little oil leak! By the way, I hadn't read anywhere that actual OIL came through that line!!! Don't let this happen to you.

I hope others will benefit from this narrative. I would never have attempted this without the great help and info on this board, but now I wouldn't hesitate to encourage any other Newbies to proceed and "Go-For-It".

I didn't take any pictures this time, but I will in the future if helpful to others. Next time I will share my experience doing my first coolent flush....

Thanks again everyone.... Mr Goodfahrt (newbie)

QUESTION: Would pictures of this project be of interest? I will illustrate it if someone will teach me how to upload photos to the board. I have a digital camera. Thanks....