Lession learned
 

For those of you that have been following my story of trying to get the 73 450sl timed to factory spec. It has now been achived.
Vacuum,vacuum , vacuum,
Putting all new vac lines on the car I still could not get 5*atdc. I checked vac at manifold 13#s, check vac at throttle body 8#s. Pulled vac line of HVAC cross-over valve, WOW idle went way up. Check vac again, now 19#s at manifold and 14#s at throttle body. I still could not get the vac retard on dist.. to work. I found that the vac line was too small. so I installed smaller line and wa la, the vac retard works. Adjusted timing to 5*atdc. Runs great,no miss and just purrs.

now
 

i would find a non smog dist and get rid of that vac retard retard.

it will come alive

tom w

SORRY-I just noticed a mistake. "the vac line was too small" I meant to say the vac line was too large.