300TD Turbo 1982 W123 (with a 1985 engine)
 

Oakland Craigslist Benz Hooptie Wagon
A 1982 wagon with a 1985 engine for $100 (plus parts)

*Updated 2014-10-23*

To do:
replace rear left door strap
right rear door strap is not good either
replace cracked blinkers and brake lights
get backuplights (or rig something up)
troubleshoot trans kickdown not working
get front license holder
get rear motor and wiper
find exhaust leak under air filter
buy missing courtesy light switch for rear door
Steering belt is close to upper oil hose, may be engine mounts or the radiator is not mounted right.
Passenger door lock needs the magic 'override' spring
Do something about the messy relationship between the crankcase and the air filter
Fix odometer
and tripometer
the tachometer almost always works, perhaps a drop of light oil would help
shifter light might not be getting power
buy upper screw for passenger armrest
buy screws for glovebox internal latch
buy tire chains
get a cross reference of MB lubricants and modern equivalents
buy a hood pad, and hood springs or bumpers or whatever is supposed to be there
fix AC? Remove all the AC stuff?
Rig up third row seatbelts
Get a front wiper fluid reservoir
Install aux battery, 12vdc generator, air compressor, sound system
tow hitch
trailer
trailer lights
wooden stake roof rack


Oct 23 It's been pouring. Although the car has taken on a bit of water it's much less than before. Snaking al the drains may have helped. I replaced the front left turn/running lamp because the running filament was broken. But when I replaced it the turn filament stopped working! I disassembled the lamp holder and "fluffed" the three conductors and now it's fine. Oiled the hood hinges, door hinges and all the locks with sewing machine oil. I washed the engine with a lot of cold water a few days back and now it's lightly rusted. Thinking about using ospho.

Oct 22 Checked glowplugs. All plugs resistance is good and all getting DC from the controller. Snaked rear sunroof drains with rigid vacuum hose and they do drain.

Oct 21 Cleaned lots of rich compost out of the engine bay drains. Front sunroof drains work, rear ones maybe not. Cabin leaks through left side sunroof. Found the missing $25 rod that connects the driver door lock to the master vacuum actuator (I previously made one out of an Oakland street sweeper bristle!)

Oct 1-20 (light massage)
-Fixed broken driver door lock.
-Replaced missing connection to master vacuum actuator (with a street sweeper bristle bent to Mercedes spec!)
-Installed vacuum parts for trans: orifice, damper, vacuum(!).
-Deleted egr+ac vacuum lines.
-Replaced broken interior door handles and knobs.
-Replaced various bulbs inside and out.
-Hooked up the stock speakers which were disconnected at the fader.
-Added almost a quart of transmission fluid!
-And a half quart of sls fluid.
-Found out my engine is a 1985 (in a 1982 car).
-Replaced both headlights.
-Cleaned crud off the tank sensor. Broke the magic wire. Resoldered it, reinstalled it. Seems to work.
-Bought jackstands, wheel chocks, and a jack

After giving proper vacuum to the transmission, the car seems to shift great!! I'm guessing the EGR delete is helping too. I haven't taken it more than a few miles though.


Oct 1 (jogging)
Drove it from Oakland to HQ (about 500 miles). I thought I did 80 most of the time, but an electronic speed check showed my speedometer to be 5 MPH high, so I maybe just cruised at 75. Solid. Shifted brutally hard and at annoying times (classic vacuum issues). Got approx 24 miles/gallon. Either didn't burn any oil or the seller overfilled it and it burned down to the right level by the time I got home. Cold idle is pretty nasty. Could be a bit of air. Or it could just be old. Blowby is medium.


Sept 26 (initiation)
Bought & Registered in Oakland off of "the Benz guy". He got it off of "some other Benz guy" so it comes with no history. Got it for $100 and the registration was only $5!
For the next few days, the seller:
adjusted valves
replaced chain tensioner
replaced brakepads
changed oil & filter
replaced oil filler cap
adjusted shift cable position
installed 3rd row seat from his own car(!!!)
adjusted idle

Welcome...
 

Looks like you got a nice project ...and a good start on it. Keep us updated.

Some pictures
 

Here are some pictures!

More Pix
 

Has a radiator from a 1982 126 (? that's what it says).
A lack of motor shocks :-/

The lack of engine shocks is probably related to that

SOMEONE STUCK A 1985 ENGINE IN MY 1982!

and didn't even tell me.

Thanks vstech for pointing that out.

The engine could also be a 1984 Cali. If you can get the engine number located behind the oil filter housing at the block, I can let you know the year of the motor.

Thanks DeliveryValve. The engine number is 617 952 12 089 490. How do you look that up?

The engine is a 1985. First installed in a car that was manufactured in 10/84.

I know this info from my own personal research on w123 turbo vehicles.

I never had engine shocks in mine, there was some vibration but not enough to make me worry. Felt closer to a regular car than a super luxury car, but oh well.

Updated oringinal post 10/23.

I replaced the bulb in the trans shifter indicator.
I took off the air filter to explore the exhaust leak. It turns out there is no down tube for the oil, connecting the air filter to the oil pan. Instead, there is a hole in the bottom of the air filter housing. The blowby gasses were puffing out the bottom. My car has a 1985 engine with a 1982 air filter. I hear the '85 engines routed the oil drain from the air filter to a different location, but I do not know where (into the turbo?). I may just attach a few feet of clear hose to the oil drain on the air filter, and put a stopper on the end. If/when it fills with oil, I can unstopper it and drain it out.
I also noticed that the U tube that connects the air box to the turbo is missing one of its rings! Ordered it and also a missing filter housing mount.
The primary filter has little tiny bubbles flowing into it which may explain the missing at startup. I'll clean the tank strainer, replace the primary filter and see if I'm still sucking air.
Got Liqui-Moli and new fuel filters and will do a purge after fixing the above.
Ordered Alumilite products for casting parts. I'm going to start by casting new backup lights and then do the rear stop/turn lights.

Replaced both rear door straps.

Replaced both fuel filters. Replaced soft fuel lines on both sides of primary filter. Idle seems much smoother. I was going to pull the tank strainer but then I noticed it requires emptying the tank, so not today.

Ran it on a can of Liqui-Moli. An impressive filth cloud came out at first. I ran out of fuel on the highway :-) There was no noticeable residue left in the can.

Starting to plan a catch can for the blowby.

Car seems not to leak rain inside anymore, hooray!

The HoopTD is getting better every day.

Thanks forum!

It's been awhile, but I still have the car and it's been my daily driver since I got it.
-4 new tires
-replaced transmission with a used, low milage one because the front seal was leaking pretty badly
-replaced the engine with a very low milage one because compression was low and it ran very poorly when it was cold (assuming I could get it to start at all)
-installed engine shocks with the new engine since my car didn't have any
-replaced SLS high and low hoses after springing a leak and spraying SLS fluid all over my engine bay while on a 2000 mile road trip
-rebuilt SLS pump after running it dry (see above)
-rebuilt power steering pump because it leaked
-replaced radiator because it weeped at the top
-replaced both rear axles (or whatever they're called) as the boots had torn, all the precious grease had washed out, and they made horrible klunk-klunk-klunk sounds when I drove.
-replaced both rear brake calipers after one siezed
-installed "speed bleeders" in all 4 brake calipers

Odometer fixed!
 

Today I fixed the odometer. I pulled the instrument cluster and removed the speedometer/odometer. I removed the shaft for the odometer and roughed p the shaft where it contacts the first gear. Then I reassembled it and shoved a shim near the first gear. Then I used a needle to put a little blue loctite on the shaft.
Since my new engine was rebuilt ~60000 miles ago, I reset the odometer to 60000. It took some fiddling to get the gears all lined up correctly but it wasn't too bad. I have a few miles on the car and it still works.

While I was in there, I replaced the dash lights with red LED lights. Have to wait until dark to see if they work.

Now the seatbelt light flashes all the time though, but I'll open a separate thread about it if I can't find a solution.

The LED lights fried my circuit board. I didn't notice that the LED lights are not quite identical to the OEM lights and cause a short. I repaired a three visibly fried traces on the board and everything worked except that the turn signal bulbs were both lit anytime I had the running lights on. They'd blink when the turn signals blinked so they only problem seemed to be that they annoyed me.
I didn't feel like soldering the circuit board anymore so I bought a used one.
The used one has a few differences from the old one (which quite possibly isn't the stock 1982 cluster anyway).
The new one has the multi-pin connector in a different location. It's above the oil line rather than below.
The new one lacks the small black box (which I *think* is a buzzer).
The new one has the temp in F rather than C, and has the pressure in PSI rather than whatever the metric units were. I sort of prefer the SAE units since I live in the US.
I was concerned that I might lose the buzzer that happens when headlights-are-on-while-car-is-off-and-door-is-open but all the buzzers still work fine.

In other news, I replaced all my fuses as I noticed that they appeared to be at least 100 years old.

I noticed a small leak from my low-side steering pump hose and replacing the clamp may have fixed it. I'll replace the hose if it gives me any more trouble, as it's no spring chicken.

I was leaking a little oil from my fill cap. A new seal seems to have fixed that.

I ordered a few dozen sets of clips for the chrome door trim. Two fell off and another is halfway off.

I ordered new switches for the front windows as the passenger switch stopped working.

I found aftermarket tail lights for ~$50 each including shipping from some former USSR country, so I'm probably going to get them. Interestingly, the turn signals on them are clear. Haven't seen that before. I'll probably get clear front turn signals to match.

LED dash lights
 

I replaced some of my dash lights with LEDs. After frying the circuit board and attempting to repair it a few times, I gave up and bought a new one. After making sure it worked I put LEDs in it (after wiring the LEDs to be compatible with the stock bulb holders).

I used red LEDs and while I like the way they look, they were no brighter than the stock bulbs. Maybe even dimmer. I put the stock bulbs back in and ordered a different type of red LED bulb. It has all of the SMD LEDs on the tip of the light and I think that will work better with the light tunnel setup on the dash. I'm just replacing the two T10 lights. In the future I might replace the T5 for the highbeam indicator and also for the reserve fuel.

The new T10 LEDs also come with twist holders that are wired to take regular bulbs, rather than the special MB bulbs. I'll report back when I install them.

Current status (excellent)
 

Just Found This Thread
 

11.30.2018

I'm subscribed and looking forward to reading all the niggly little bits as this is what I do too ~ resurrect junkers .

Replaced the steering box with a remanufactured one and put new front tires on.

I had about 6" of play in the steering wheel and wore my front tires on the inside shoulders. It also started pulling to the left. Now the steering is nice and tight!

More fixes
 

Installed the wiper arm for the rear wiper.
Installed the relay for the rear wiper.
Installed a rear wiper blade.
Installed a grommet for the rear window, where the wiper rod passes through it.

My car came with the rear wiper motor, but no grommet, no wiper arm and no wiper relay.
Now it has all of those and the rear wiper works great!
The rear window washer works now too!

The motor does flop around a little, and I realize that it's supposed to have a bracket that helps secure it. That's next on my "to-do" list.

I also realized that there's supposed to be a switch in the inside of the hatch that turns on the interior light when the hatch is opened. My car does not have one, so that's also on my "to-do" list.

I just took the car on a 2000 mile trip and it was great to have a working rear wiper and washer.

Thinking about hooking the cruise control up. The new engine came with the module, but I don't have the interior control arm, and I'm not sure if any other bits are missing.

Thinking about getting 9003/HB2 headlights for my car and also replacing the headlight doors as they are cracked to hell.

I get great heat for a minute or two and then it peters out. I know it's not the monovalve because I bypassed it. I'm guessing the heater core is clogged, so if it ever stops raining I'll flush it with water, soapy water, more water, citric acid, and more water and see if that helps.

Moving Right Along !
 

The plastic headlight surrounds are called "doors" .

Uro brand actually had decent ones, MB stopped making one side a while back .

Check the auxiliary electric water pump and the thermostat too ~ I had the same problems of heat / cool / heat / cool in my Coupe and all it was, was the 'stat going bad, installed a new one after a good flush and I now have plenty of heat in two blocks after cold start in 39* F temps, the gauge also went from 40 ~ 60* C to 83* C and stays there, the engine has noticeably more power and I gained 5 MPG so I'm well pleased .

Thanks, I edited my post to reflect that the surrounds are called "doors". I'll check out some URO headlight doors.


I think the T-stat is probably good. On the previous engine I had the same problem both before and after installing a new T-stat. And now I'm on a new engine, so I've had the same problem across three T-stats. My temp comes up to ~80C pretty quick and stays in the operating zone at all times.


How do I check the electric aux pump? Just bypass it?

As long as the temperature gauge goes above 80* C you're good to go .

The auxiliary water pump is on the right frame rail back of the headlight, it has a long cord usually wrapped around it with at staggered two prong plug ~ find it and unplug it by pulling the plug bodies -not- the wires, now that you know what it looks like, go to the nearest Pick-A-Part and look at _every_ Mercedes until you see the same plug, unplug it and cut off as much of the wire as you can, use this to make a direct connection to your battery, the BROWN wire is negative, the BLACK wire is positive, the pump when running, makes a very faint hum, you can feel it running is it's any good .

SAVE the extra plug and wire ! use it when doing routine cooling system maintenance or changing the coolant, I put two small clips on it and leave it running when I'm flushing or adding coolant, the pump running will burp out any air in the system .

Often these pumps fail .

BOSCH ones stopped production, they were $100 now I can't find them anywhere, I bought some Chinese copies for $40 each, so far not needed, this little item is important .

My car has leaked as long as I've had it. The rear hatch was grossly misaligned and that let the majority of the water in. I'm still getting a little water under the third row seat. So today I snaked all 4 sunroof drains. Both rear drains and one front drain were pretty clogged. I cleared the drains under the hood, and pulled the battery to check for firewall holes. There were no holes, but a little rust. When it stops raining I'll sand the rust down and hit it with Rustoleum or something. The plastic drains behind the front wheels were super clogged. I have never actually cleaned those before.



I pulled the air filter to make it easier to get the battery out, and noticed that the air filter bracket is broken. It appear to have broken and been welded in the past.

Today I ordered a new air filter bracket, a used bracket for the rear wiper motor, and a new switch for automatically turning on the interior light when the rear hatch is open. I pulled the third row seat and it's drying by the wood stove. I'll probably just leave it out for a month or two until the rains stop.

Just a few fixes
 

• I replaced the round, 7" (sealed) headlights with Hellas (HB2/9003). They seem brighter.
• Installed the bracket for the rear wiper and the switch that turns the rear light on when the hatch is open.
• Installed the rear hatch interior handle + lock rod. The rear hatch is now 100% functional.
• Flushed the heater box and I'm pretty sure a huge amount of rust came out. For good measure, I also bypassed the aux pump and replaced the monovalve with a vacuum actuated full port valve. Now the heater will melt my face if I like, or hold a lesser temp if I like. It's basically perfect.
• Replaced the SLS linkage between the chassis and the valve. The old one had worn out bushings.
• Replaced the main vacuum tube from the pump to the booster as it was leaking and making my brakes SUPER weak, especially on a cold start.
• Replaced a few rotten rubber Y connectors with plastic T's and silicone tubing which is cheaper and should last longer.
• Replaced a leaky vacuum pod on a door lock. Replaced the rubber lines to the pod with silicone while I was in there.

Next moves:

• About to have a new starter motor installed. The current one occasionally doesn't engage the engine.
• Might rebuild the SLS valve. It tends to lose it's height overnight.
• Might replace the rear springs.
• Might get a sheepskin seat cover. :-)
• Need to replace a burnt license bulb. I bought LED ones.

? Where did you find the hatch's internal handle ? .

I've been looking for one for my gray market 300TD ever since I bought it .

Vonsmog.com. I ended up not needing it! Mine broke so I bought a new one, but as it turns out, the handle didn't break, what broke is what the handle attaches to. So I had to replace the entire internal locking mechanism. :-/



That means I have an extra handle if you want to buy it. I paid $45 including shipping.

PING ! :) .

Few fixes; more needed
 

• I had a new starter installed.
• Installed Bilstein HD shocks on the front.
• Not sure if I mentioned that I installed the Curt tow hitch made for this car. It's been handy.

• The front end is seriously creaky. I figure I'll replace the whole front end in the next few months.
• Rear passenger door hinge is pretty creaky too. I have a spare and will install that soon.
• The Off button on the heater no longer works properly. First it did nothing, so the heater ran all the time. But with enough fiddling I got it to turn the heat off. Now the heater won't work unless I pull the Off button out a tiny bit (it won't come out any further than a few mm). I'll tear it apart this week.
• I might be leaking a little oil from the filter. The car's pretty tight on oil, so it's not much, but it's something that I'd rather fix before it gets messy or catastrophic.
• Looks like I've lost a tiny bit of brake fluid in the past few years; will top it off tomorrow.

Going on a 3000 mile road trip this week with the car quite loaded (1000+ pounds of soundsystem and camping gear). It's made the trip several times; should be nicer this time with the new shocks.

Still Enjoying It
 

Consider flushing the brake fluid, it absorbs water, why it turns black .

Did you try greasing the squeaky door hinge ? the good folks here told me to buy a chain saw grease gun, it fits the grease ports in Mercedes doors .

Latest mods
 

Well the hooptie has been pretty solid. I have about 20,000 miles on the rebuilt engine.

I'm now in the process of replacing the entire AC system except for the evaporator and the hose from the dryer to the expansion valve. New Sanden compressor, new bracket from Rollguy, new hoses from Rollguy, new 16x21 condenser, used aux fan, new dryer, new expansion valve. I'll do the R134a pressure test, vac, and fill myself.

The drivers seat is pretty badly cracked, might get some sort of quality seat cover.

Replaced the Climate Control Unit with a used one because it wouldn't turn off any longer.

The ass of the the car drops way down over night so I suppose I need to rebuild the level control valve. Not losing any fluid so it's not catastrophic at this point.

Mounting a home-built media player where the radio used to be. Still need to decide on amps and speakers.

Getting the rear springs replaced and taller (19mm) spacers installed soon. I drove awhile with the SLS disabled and I may have ruined the springs.

Getting the cruise control hooked up. :-)

After I get the AC and cruise control working, if I replace the missing exterior chrome this *might* not be a hooptie any longer! :-O

Progress !
 

Before taking the SLS to bits, drain the resivoir , clean it well and refill with new fluid and filter ~ the system is often full of old burned up fluid you don't want in it after you've taken the leveling valve apart and rebuilt it .

M-B still sold the kit last thing I knew .

Depending on where you're located a matching good used seat cover *might* be a junkyard item.....

We took three W126 seats apart to mix 'n match and get one really nice one for my brother's W126, he's still raving about the improved support and comfort, no pool noodles needed although I plan to install them on my W123 driver's seat in addition to the non broekn spring box .

The SLS fluid and filter were replaced fairly recently when I blew the high pressure hose. Had both hoses replaced and the pump rebuilt. But I have a lot of the SLS fluid here so I'll drain and discard it when I rebuild the valve. I've been focused on the AC so I haven't put any time into sourcing the repair kit yet. It works fine when I'm driving but does "sit down" at night.


Alas, I'm very far from any pick and pulls. One of the few drawbacks to living in a forest.

SLS Valve Overhaul
 

O.K., sounds like you're on the right path .

I'm always amazed at how many "Mechanics" will rebuild a system leaving it full of gunk, SWARF and so on then blame the design or the rebuilt part when it naturally fails again soon .

Keep after the A/C ! my buddy has a freon leak detector tool and is going to poke around my gray market '84 wagon this week, I hope he finds it was I've dropped bundle$ of loot into it and still no cold air :mad: .

The kits are NLA from M-B, though old stock is still on ebay, it seems.
But I did better and just ordered enough o-rings for ten rebuilds, and it was only $13 including the shipping! Probably a lifetime supply; not bad at all.

Since when are the sls valve kits NLA? I just bought one a few months ago.

I guess sometime in the last few months then. All I know is that they are NLA from Pelican and from the hand full of MB parts suppliers I checked. Mercedes Source has genuine MB kits including the piston, but that's probably overkill for me and much more expensive then just buying bulk o-rings. I'm pretty happy with getting 10 kits for $1.30 each (including 2-day shipping!), and if it turns out I need to replace the piston then I'll do that too.

The o rings are most of it. There are at least two sizes iirc; dont forget the one inside the piston

Four sizes, five o-rings total!
one 2x58
two 2x7
one 1.6x7.1
one 1.6x10.1

SLS Valve O-Rings
 

? Are Viton O-Rings O.K. to use in this ? .

I've heard that they are. They're mentioned in the big write up on rebuilding the valve here on the forum. I believe the M-B o-rings are Buna N, and that's what I bought.

Good O-Rings
 

Thanx ~ I'd forgotten about the Buena-N ones .

As an air cooled Mechanic Viton has been my go -to since before the internet .

I considered Viton but it does, on occasion, get very cold here and Viton loses its elasticity <5F. Buna N stays elastic down to -22F.

As Always.....
 

Yet more priceless advice from those who have the larger world view .

I've been in the Desert so long I'd forgotten about the cold issues .

I rebuilt the AC with a new compressor, Sanden compressor, 16"x21" parallel flow condenser, expansion valve, and all new hoses (except the high pressure line from the dryer to the expansion valve). I mounted the compressor with forum member RollGuy's custom bracket and got the hoses from him too. The system uses R134a and PAG100.


I installed new headlight doors. They're URO who I generally avoid, but the old ones were comically trashed so I have little to lose.


I ordered a purple sheepskin seat cover, maroon carpet dash cover, and clear plastic cargo liner. None of those will be here anytime soon.


I finished prototyping an embedded media server with floppy drive actuated playlists. Mounting it where the radio was is a trickier than the coding and I haven't started it yet. I did buy two new front speakers and an amp.


I bought o-rings to overhaul the SLS control valve and now that the AC is done I'll have time to do that, hopefully soon.

What did you think of URO Parts Headlight Doors 123 820 0312 and 123 820 0412? They have some good reviews on Pelican's item pages.

Uro Headlight doors
 

I have them on my cars, they're O.K. so far after several years .

The initial build quality was sub par : the two pieces are glued to - gether using color matching gray glue and too much was used here & there so it mooshed out and is clearly visible .

I hope they last longer than most aftermarket plastic parts do because even if they don't fade these get damaged by small rocks and the endless sand abrasion in the Desert .

Unless they turn yellow like most Chinese lenses do I'll happily buy the Uro part when / if these get damaged .

Thanks Nate, we'll send a note to the production line about doing a nicer job with the glue.

Feedback
 

Thank you for reaching out and actually trying ! ;) .

Go away, spammer.