Thanks again, guys.
 

I will order them from Phil and change them out with my next paycheck. They began dripping a few months ago but not a heavy flow as some forum posters have experienced.

What would we do without the posting recommendations by the MB master mechanics ?*? :D

Front Hydraulic Cylinders
 

Should have come here last week right after my wife told me of the leak.

Have two on order @$140 ea and am heartened by the comments about ease of installation. There is one thing I am wondering though.

I have a membership in alldatadiy.com and on a blowup of the front lock hydraulic cylinder it shows a little clip named as a "safety slide fitting", a support ring and a gasket. With the support ring and gasket being slid over the little end of the hydraulic line into the cylinder, so there is no leak around the hydraulic line, and the clip being slid into place to lock everything together.

Does anyone have a part number for the little gasket or support ring so they can be changed out while I have everything open? Or should I not worry?

Lastly, does the hydraulic fluid ever need changing?

Chuck

hyd
 

The clips come with the new cylinder if is an original equipment replacement and the line fits perfectly in the hole no gaskets

Is there a lit of parts to convert the top to manual operation?

rear hydraulic soft top actuator?
 

Everything it this thread talks about the two front cylinders over the windshield. Mine have already been replaced a few years back due to leakage. Now I noticed some fluid in front of the left rear wheel well. My shop told me it was the soft top actuator / cylinder. Does anyone know how to access and replace this / these cylinders and what the part number may be? Has anyone ever changed them / it? Hard job or idiot proof? The shop wants $1300 US to replace it, not MB an independent. Should this be a new thread?

Hard to get people interested on a 7 year old thread.

There are 8-10 hydraulic cylinders for the R129 top system.

The 2 main ones are about $800each & take a "good" tech about 3-3.5 hrs to replace.

Anyone who owns one of these SLs and has any interest in learning about the technical aspects of their car or doing repairs should purchase the Tech DVD from MBUSA: http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/outside/8002/?requestedDocId=8002. If you don't want to spend the $88, all of the information you seek has been described in various threads among several forums and can be searched for.

Dennis Ficken in Nebraska repairs cylinders with external leaks for $30 or $40. Many, many people have used him with no complaints.

D Ficken's email, mercedescylinders@sbcglobal.net or 913-390-0506

Rather than chasing each cylinder as they start leaking, some people opt to remove all 12 at one time for rebuilding. That's what I did for my E320 cabrio.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll have to get the cd. Hopefully it will have the diagrams explaining how to get to the cylinders and check with Dennis. I did do a search on all threads in the shopforum with no luck, I'll check elsewhere on the web.

I believe Dennis has a zip file with the procedures you need in pdf-format.

Many people have found that when a cylinder goes bad and they repair it that other cylinders soon go bad too. However, this has not been my experience at all in the course of having done repairs to 5 different SLs over the past 7 years. I only repair cylinders that require repairing.