The Mercelboo / Take Two...
 

Hello eveyone!

Towards the end of this last winter, I purchased my second Mercedes!
This one being a 1981 300TD, sporting 200,000mi when I purchased it.

Seeing that it is now approaching fall, I've got some catching up to do!

So for the next week or so, I'll be editing the first post, and then following up from there.

There are a couple of things I would like to get out of the way before continuing.

1. My first Mercedes was a 1981 240D Automatic, which only have own for a few months, was stolen one evening. My friends and I joke about what the police chase would have looked like :D

2. Mercelboo, not too sure how it acquired this name, but my girlfriend and I started calling it that one day. It just kinda stuck, as with any good name!

3. This isn't going to be much of a full restoration build thread, rather a moderate build / re-fresher thread. I've had a couple of build threads in the past, with old cars I used to own, and love going back and looking at some of the things I have done! I started wrenching at a young age, and in the past was an Old VW / Audi Technician, but since have moved on to computer crap. :P

I'm all for some pointers, hints, tips, and tricks. So please, feel free to comment along the way!

Here are the first pictures I took of it, which was purchased off of an older fellow how was being harassed by the city for having to many "clunkers" :D

https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8036/2...a5bd8578_c.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8275/2...03376ecf_c.jpg

Welcome aboard, we can make it go fast :)

After getting the car home, I went ahead and ordered some of the common maintenance items for the car, Filters and such, but also bought a little jar of Mother's Metal Polish and went to town on the old oxidized bumpers!
https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8215/2...042405c4_c.jpg

Got the bumper all cleaned up!
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8102/2...9763184a_c.jpg

When I bought the car, the rear of it was very bouncy, coming from only owning Sedan W123s I wasn't aware of the Wagons rear suspension! Looks like the previous owner attempted to "fix" this :D

https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8402/2...461cbeda_c.jpg

Passed Emissions with flying colors! Waiting to find a 300TD door for sale.... :P
https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8181/2...506af68e_c.jpg

Around the early summertime, my girlfriend remembered me nerding out about how I would like to eventually get some Euro headlights, and she ended up finding some on the internet and got them for me for a birthday present!

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8257/2...9b575f68_c.jpg

My friend and I installed them, went super breezy, now I just need to find some 6-pin headlight connectors. I made my own for the time being, but would like to use OEM connectors instead.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8527/2...96741de3_c.jpg

Did a valve adjustment, all of the exhaust valves were a little too tight,

https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8276/2...370cfe5e_c.jpg

Also cleaned up the valve cover and installed a new Oil Filler Cap Seal, as the old one was pretty worn out
https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8654/2...b29f6f05_c.jpg

Fast forward a couple of months, my girlfriend and I were house sitting, and I took the Mercelboo up.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8238/2...da830d6f_c.jpg

The house we were watching was buried up in the Colorado mountains, and the Mercedes was shifting a little too early causing it to have some trouble climbing the hills, so when I got there I adjusted the Bowden Cable, I took the car for a test drive, and it worked flawlessly. I came to a complete stop on a steep hill and gave it a bit of gas, and it took off perfectly!

I went to stop and the power brakes were gone! Sure enough, it didn't shut off either. hmmmmm, no vacuum....

I turned the car on again (after shutting it off manually) and the problem didn't happen again until 5 minutes later, and was intermediate.
I took the car back home, and did some tests with the Mityvac,. Everything was pulling a good amount of vacuum, I was testing individual components, and everything was looking good, some slight leaks here and there but nothing too serious.

After running a series of test, I eventually plugged my MityVac directly into the vacuum pump and went for a drive, everything was working fine pulling 15-20" of vacuum, then suddenly just lost ALL vacuum, and was having trouble rebuilding it.

I ended up taking out the Vacuum Pump, and check valve to find this:

The check valve that goes betweent he pump and the main line.
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8521/2...41e851be_c.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8164/2...94d47f5a_c.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8468/2...597eb442_c.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8216/2...d52c8a0e_c.jpg

I've been spending the last few weeks trying to find a new pump, I originally bought one (a new unit) off of a guy on eBay, but took the guy almost a week and a half to ship it, and when it came in it was a M10 BMW oil pump, and am currently fighting for my money back.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8457/2...604ec6a3_c.jpg
So I'm bought another one from Pelican Parts. Currently waiting on that!

While waiting on my parts, I had a customer of mine send me some samples of their interior products, and I decided to go to town on the interior!

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8893/2...820f7203_c.jpg



I also used some Mother's Metal Polish on the ash tray, dear lord it looked good.
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8337/2...618bb3fc_c.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8885/2...1014f5c9_c.jpg

Anyone wanna buy my Honda? hahaha
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8639/2...ce856b98_c.jpg

Also decided to clean the radiator fan and air cleaner lid and give em a fresh coat of paint!
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8416/2...e8f380ee_c.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8117/2...744e38d4_c.jpg

I found some 6 pin connectors off of a W108 that was sitting in the junk yard, and installed some yellow H3 bulbs for the fog lights!

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...d767d40cc9.jpg

Nice work. Any interior shots before and after cleanup?

Thanks! I'm surprised I didn't have any before pictures. I love the Adam's Leather Conditioner, it does an incredible job of protecting the dash. I've got an old Shepherd dog, and when her slobber makes its way o to the dash it just wiped right off!

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...4731ff7a85.jpg

Once this Special order vacuum pump shows up from Pelican Parts and I get it chugging along again, I'll be polishing up the exterior too!

I also have a dent in the back right door, still trying to find a good one for sale!

Here's a picture of my first Mercedes, 81 240D!
I bought this one for $400 off the original owner.

She was no longer capable of driving it, and let is sit for 5 years, and would no longer run.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...3764c5ea7c.jpg

Got it running when my friend came back from his first tour in Korea.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...dac385a122.jpg

It was an incredible winter car!
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...ef66915619.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5c0088551e.jpg

Ended up getting stolen one evening, and got this in the mail a month after it was taken.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...416d1ad088.jpg

Someone stole an '81 240D??? :confused:

Would make a hell of a police chase ;)

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...28bb85e078.jpg

Got the new pump! Went back together a lot easier than when I took it apart! Was able to replace those pesky 10mm radiator fan bolts with some stainless 13mm ones.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...e60c355af9.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...72759dd705.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...589967f89c.jpg

Ended up flushing the cooling system; replacing the thermostat, radiator cap, and using Zerex G05.

Also changed the oil, changed from Rotella T to Rotella T6 to help protect the engine during the colder months, and keep the turbo safe under extended use.

I heard something interesting from my boss, who is a total oil geek. He was telling me that sometime in the last couple years the EPA was requiring car manufacturers to increase their warranty on emissions equipment.

The car manufacturers came back and said that they were not able to warranty the catalytic converters, as (any engine) will consume a certain amount of oil, and the zinc content inside the oil will damage the cat.

The fix? Removing the zinc. Which is unfortunate as zinc is a incredible lubricant. The zinc will bond to the metal surfaces inside of the engine, but if you look at bottles of Rotella now, they advertise 30-something% more lubrication. How did they achieve this? With a calcium based additive, which does provide great lubrication, but was away at the zinc coating that has been built up over the years.

I was very disappointed to hear this, as this is what I believed to make Rotella such a great oil, it's former high zinc content.

But I was also told that this mandatory change in formula only affected oil manufacturers who produced very high volumes. So smaller manufacturers like Amsoil, Schaeffer's, Driven, Motul, blah blah aren't affected by this, and have very high zinc content.

So in the future I'll be switching over to a smaller oil manufacturer. Might get some oil analysis done do measure zinc content.

Any opinions on this? If anyone has any good reads on this topics feel free to send them to me!