Questions about my 84 380SL

[benz05]

Newbie here! I recently purchased a 83 380SL car is in decent shape but needs a little bit of TLC.

1) The orginal radio was removed and replaced with a aftermarket radio that doesnt work anymore, well the genius who installed it clipped all the original wires and did not use a harness. I want to install a new radio but is there anything i should know before i go in and try to repair this horrible nightmare???

2) The a/c compressor doesnt work doesnt even have a belt going to it, i want to know if any one can tell me the model number of it. I also want to know if i can use a compressor from a diffrent MB of the same year?

Thank you in advance for your time im excited to be part of this forum!!

[timm9]

When I tried to order a wiring harness for my 82 380SL I discovered that no one manufactures a harness for an 82 SL. The only option was to cut and "hard wire" the new stereo. I did find instructions/diagram for the existing wiring after a search. I might suggest you carefully label the wiring on the Becker and save it for a future buyer. Some are "funny" about aftermarket stereos.

I also had to replace the A/C compressor and dryer as well. Most of the on-line parts suppliers have them.

[benz05]

cool thanks for the info.

[ctaylor738]

You need to poke around in the cut wires. You should be able to find the following wires and colors:

ground - brown
hot with key in ACC - red/green, sometimes black
always hot - ?
antenna - blue
speaker wires - green/black to the stock speakers in the dash

As for the AC, it's very likely that the belt is missing because the compressor is frozen. I THINK all 380SL compressors interchange, maybe sedans, 560's etc will work as well. But if you have a blown compressor, you will need some work to flush the debris out of the system. In any case you will need a new drier bottle.