With that gaping hole in the passenger footwell you're always going to have wet smell issues .

Often the body is rusted through right under the battery box, allowing water to leak into the passenger compartment, soaking the carpets etc.

The carpets all look good and are easy to shampoo @ home, ridding the mildew and smells, you're going to need to address that hole ASAP .

Good luck with it, lots of good bits between the two cars .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I actually have a hole in the floor panel in the same exact spot in mine. A good bit smaller but still a complete hole. Amazingly, I one day woke up to find a 2" deep pool of water in rear left passenger floor boards, which had happened suddenly it seems. So I cleaned that out and went straight to diagnosing the issue which turned out to simply be clogged up drain holes in engine bay. Easy fix.
I will be able to address any leak issues. I suppose this 2nd car's issue with mold could just be that the owner didn't catch a similar leak (probably from the battery compartment like you mention) and it slowly developed a real mold issue as opposed to mine which I caught the same day. (The car had actually just been sitting undriven but i happened to work on it that day)

Here are the engine and transmission numbers for comparison. I didn't check for the actual numbers in person on second car but this is the factory stuff from VIN..

617952 12 101248 mine
617952 12 112522 car #2

722315 02 611038 mine factory but now actually has a 722.303 installed
722315 02 677455 car #2

Any issues regarding compatibilities? What about that electrical stuff regarding transmission?

I'm thinking I will end up putting my current engine into car #2 but that is not the first priority.

Also it just so happens that the only panels on my current car that are completely rust free are the two front doors. They're ironically in better shape than car #2's, and I also did window regulator work to both of them. And they have the speakers installed. Seems i may be in total luck there. The drivers door check on chassis side of mine is busted, but #2's chassis end of this door check is good.

How difficult is it to perfectly swap doors? Are these cars designed tightly enough for this to take place just by undoing the bolts and swapping? That would be amazing.

But here's another question... will the colors likely blend ok? I suppose if it's super close I'll be ok with it.

Swapping the doors isn't terribly hard it just takes patience to properly align them before doing the final tighten of the hinge bolts .

FWIW, replacing broken/noisy/non working door checks is a simple job, the fronts are the same as the rears .

They're available new but I just get good used ones from the rear doors of wrecks/junkers .

Once in a blue moon you get lucky and get two cars from the same paint batch and they'll match, most of the time expect at least some shading difference .

On my Brother's '81 W126 my neighbor backed into his driver's door, I got lucky and found a junker in Long Beach, Ca, pulled the door off, polished and waxed it before installing, you cannot tell it's not the original door .

Remember to re install or fabricate and install the plastic vapor barrier sheets between the door and door card ! .

they're $6 each from Mercedes or just cut up plastic sheets (shower curtains etc. from the Dollar Store) ~ they're REALLY important in keeping damp smells under control .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

That's interesting because my old plastic sheets were totally useless looking due to large holes in them. And I sat there forever and assessed what they even accomplish and couldn't figure it out. It's not like they do anything to isolate physical rain drops from dropping down into the central space where the regulator is. I would have assumed they were to protect that stuff but apparently not.
So it's to protect vapor/odor of mechanical sections from getting into the door card/cabin where soft materials are susceptible to slowly building mold?
I've had mine out for maybe four or five months with no issues in that regard but maybe it's a long term thing.
The door check problem I have is in the actual chassis of the car itself, not the hinge stuff in the door. In the car chassis there is a plate insider that connects to the hinge via a slot but if the plate inside is busted from overuse, like mine is, I believe one has to cut open the chassis and re create a new plate inside for the hinge to mount to.
Car #2 doesnt have this issue in its chassis by door, so I think that just bolting on my door to this other chassis will solve the problem.

Yes ;

The vapor sheets serve two purposes :

They protect the door cards from damage due to water ingress and the also create a dead air space inside the doors that both insukates noise and temperature .

The gaping holes in the old sheets are from DPO/DPM bodges .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

DPO/DOM bodges?
Thank you for all the help

Dang

Previous

Owner

Dang

Previous

Mechanic

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

haha yes.

So here's my one repair hangup with making the switch from one car to another... The brakes are really difficult to engage, and this likely will not pass inspection.

Owner says main VAC pump is not working properly. But i'm not going to assume that's the actual case. In either case, once making the sale i will have a 10 day inspection deadline to get them rolling since this will need to immediately be my main car if i'm going to pull the main pump from my current car.

When pressed super hard, yes they work fine. It just requires a lot of effort.
*What other symptoms would i have noticed if the main pump was dead?*
The shifting was definitely not at even distribution of timing. Seemed to run through the gears pretty quickly after hitting second.

And if it truly is just the pump that needs to be swapped.. what kind of a project is that? Is it something i can do in an afternoon?

But then there's a logistical hangup i just discovered as well...It turns out my town doesn't allow unregistered vehicles to be parked in the driveway. One of my local mechanics told me that the township reps once walked into someone's backyard and lifted up the car cover to see the vehicle and then sent a fine in the mail.

So i could be looking at having two vehicles registered, inspected, and insured for the entire duration of my combing of two vehicles. Not the news i wanted!! Was hoping to just cover the spare car and let it sit for a long time and have it for parts going forward.

The only way around this would be to find a place to store the vehicle and be able to drive up to and work on my car along side it. Maybe i can find a place that's cheaper than paying double insurance.

And then there's the option of just parking it there anyways and taking a fine once in a while. I'd have to see how much the fine is.... But still may be cheaper overall than going the formal route.

If the vacuum pump isn't working the door locks won't work and the key shutoff won't work either. You'll also have issues with the transmission shifting firm (hard) and the HVAC system won't change the vent outlets to the correct mode.

If the key shutoff is working, you probably have a failed brake booster.

If all the vacuum parts are not working, the pump is likely dead. You should be able to swap the working one off your other engine in less than 30 minutes.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Glad you mentioned that! I forgot to say..
The engine needs to be turned off via the OFF switch on it. So yes, the key shutoff is NOT working.
Hoping that means its down to the pump.

Shifting was hard for sure.

I didn't check the door locks' automatic function. I will ask the owner to check them today.

Great to know about the swap. Thanks! That gives me a sense of safety in all this. After swapping if it doesn't solve things i can just swap it back and keep my car as a daily driver if needed.

test results from the owner: locks are not automatically working at all. entirely manual.

so at least the symptoms appear to be consistent with what would occur with pump failure alone.

amazing how these vehicles can still operate even with one of its core systems completely dead. no wonder they keep running.

Often the only problem is the valve in the vacuum pump has failed ~ to test carefully remove the valve where it screws into the pump proper and inspect it ~ air should only flow through it one way ~ if not, start the engine and hold it at a steady high RPM and watch the open pump, in a few moments bits of the broken valve should come sailing out, replace the valve and have brakes, better shifting etc.

If you decide to remove the pump for overhaul, remember to clean the 5MM screw sockets 100 % first as they fill up with crud and only use a NEW UNWORN hex tool .

Don't you hate B.S. code enforcement ? .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Ok guys, here is the next step. Please reply to thread below from now on..

Finally...Combining TWO 1985 300D's