A great day...
 

.. in the junkyard. A '94 600SL showed up in the LKQ U-Pick yard inventory last week. Figured I should get there soon as the scavengers were likely to strip it clean with a quickness considering this is the first 129 I've seen at a U-Pull yard, ever.

My target would be the front calipers which are for 320 mm rotors. I figured the soft top module would be good for a quick flip too. It took forever to find the car but eventually I located it. A quick look over the car revealed every single module in the car had been pulled already. The wheels were still on it so I was relieved that the calipers that I originally came for were still there.

So off on a search for a tire iron to get the wheels off. A couple rows over a Volvo turned up a nice crank handle 17 mm lug wrench. I head back to the SL and start pulling lug bolts. 4 came out without much fuss but the 5th turned out to be a wheel lock. It was at this time that I realized that somebody already tried to get the other wheel off but gave up at the wheel lock.

I don't give up easy. I figure that with enough leverage I could break the wheel lock. Off to find my leverage. Eventually I found a meaty sway bar (about 1 1/2" dia and 4 ft long) just lying in the back of a van. I lugged it back to the SL and wedged it into the 8 hole wheel. I rocked against it with most of my weight a couple times. Lo and behold the wheel lock pulled out the hub and the wheel was off. The lock only had about 3 threads engaged so I attack the other wheel with confidence and soon its off too. Well sorta, the stand the car was on was too far forward on the right side and only sitting under plastic. This caused the wheel to wedge against it as the car was slowly falling down on that side as the plastic broke.

Off to scavenge a jack, which is rare to find in the yards as they are Nazis about not using jacks in the yard. Hence every car has its jack removed as prep to enter the yard. I remember seeing one looking for my leverage. It was in the junk stored inside of another van. I get it back to the SL, scrounge a crank for it and proceed to jack the car up and put two wheels under a more stable point.

Now I can reap my bounty. Well reap may be a bit optimistic as the bolts are torqued and loc-tite-ed. I've only got my cheapo 19mm wrench to work with. I tried using a nearby alternator as a makeshift mallet to break the bolts loose. All that earned me was a busted knuckle. Back to my leverage. It's heavy, awkward with several bends, but I do eventually manage to wedge it in place to break all 4 bolts loose. It was also handy to rip one of the brake hoses off. I ended up using my alternator mallet on the other side to cut the hose against the rotor. With my meager tools and a few scrounged items I manage to knock the pins out so I dont have to pay for the crappy pads.

I collect my tools :o and calipers and head to checkout. I'm only charged the base caliper price, about 10$ less than I expected per each. After the core charges, enviro fees and the 40% holiday weekend discount I'm out the door for less than 40$.

It was a great day in the junkyard. I'll order in new pads and rotors on Monday and get em in the coupe as soon as I can.

I got my pads and rotors in and will install them this evening. While I was pricing parts I pulled the list on these calipers. 1040$ each!!!

It was a great day at the junk yard:D:D:D

An after Christmas present........

There's probably a thread based on your experience......"What's your best score at a junk yard?".......if it hasn't been done already.

Installed the 320 mm brakes this evening. It was easier than I thought it would be. I kinda expected to have to cut the dust shields to fit the new calipers. They bolted in without any trimming. The whole job was just nuts and bolts. No modification at all.

The 320 mm rotors are 30 mm thick, which is quite a bit thicker than the original. They are also left and right rotors due to directional venting. Its going to be nearly impossible to overheat these brakes.:cool:

The original calipers easily had an inch clearance to the wheel at any point. The new calipers have about 10 mm clearance. Closer for sure, but still plenty of clearance. FWIW, I'm running the 170 ch. staggered 17" wheels on the coupe.

In the pics you can see the before and after, the clearance between the wheel, and rotor comparison.

The drive home isn't that far so they aren't broken in good yet, and I haven't really gotten on them hard for that reason. The initial impression is that the first bite is noticeably better and normal braking force is available earlier in the pedal travel. Not night and day but noticeable. Definitely a great return on the bang per buck scale.

Finished up the mods to my coupe's brakes this evening. Deerfield Engineering braided stainless brake hoses and a bigger booster round out the package. The brake hoses took over two weeks to get in but the fit and finish is 2nd to none. The fittings are all correct and mount like stock hoses. 5 stars.

The larger booster is from a '95 E420, 124.034, and fit easier than I expected. The original booster, thinner and larger diameter, was a real pill to remove. I feared the replacement would prove just as difficult. Turns out its smaller diameter trumped being quite a bit thicker and fell into place with little resistance. The stock master cyl is wiggled into place before the booster is bolted up and the lines bent to match. A new booster hose replaces the crumbling original and the brakes are bled.

I'll admit that I thought that this combo might be a bit too much. Replacing the rotors and calipers with the larger units made a staggering difference. Adding the lines and booster rounded out the package nicely without going over the top. The lines firm up the pedal feel and the booster reduces pedal effort. The brakes are now very strong but with a natural pedal feel. Much better feel than my turbo wagon with just the larger booster.

I mis remembered earlier. It's not Deerfield engineering its Deerfield precision.

What did you use for a master. I had to use the SL600 master or my rear wheels just locked up.

I'm still using the stock master cylinder for the 300CE. The car came stock with 4 piston calipers, just for the smaller 295mm rotors. The new calipers must be very close in displaced volume, if not the same as the stock calipers. They even use the same brake pad. I'll admit that it is a much better balanced setup than I expected the collection of parts would be.

FWIW I have stock rear brakes with just the braided lines. I used the vented rears on my turbo wagon and they warp way too easy. Holding the brakes and spinning up the rears probably doesnt help:rolleyes:

I use the stock master with c32-c55 amg calipers. I also know that the Porsches use the same master as the 560sl in early cars and have a friend that has a nice brake package on his race car with a stock master. I would assume that if the rears were locking up something was wrong with the master cylinder.

The rears were locking up with the stock 560SL cylinder when I put the big SL600 front calipers on. The 560SL has 4 piston calipers but the 600SL has 4 larger pistons. The SL600 master balanced out the brakes nicely. But you need to bleed the SL600 cylinder with the BAS solenoid valve first energized and then not energized.Then drive the car without the solenoid connected.