86 300E - new home - needs help
 

Hello,

Moved this from another forum (thanks moderator!)....so here we go.

After some months of shopping around I finally bought a 86 300E and a 87 560SEL. I've started working on the 300E first as it will be the primary citydriver for our family.

The exterior looks really good, and I'll post a picture tomorrow of it. However the other day the plastic trim on the bottom of the drivers door got a little bit bent and resulted in being cracked 3-4 inches after opening the door. I didn't realize the problem until it was too late and now I am wondering how to fix it. The first mount seems to have come lose. I took of the interior of the front door but can't access it to fix it easily. So now everytime we open the door we have to push the plastic so it won't bend out or slide under the plastic cover on the front fender. I guess I can ducktape it down as a temporarily option, and I really don't want to drill a hole through the door and plastic to tighten it down. Any ideas? (see attached picture)

Also I'm looking for a good workshop manual and complete electrical schematics. Any ideas? There's a Haynes book out there, but I can't find a US shop that carries it. Is there any manuals available on CD-ROM too? I'm hunting down various electrical problems. Any pointers at which store to get the manuals from?

Is there a way to troubleshoot the A/C system? It doesn't seem to even try to engage, and pushing either button on the heater controls does not do anything. Air comes out all vents all the time. Playing with the temp wheel does however produce a relay click on the right hand of the dash. And the fan speed buttons work.

How much engineoil and trans.oil does the system take? Any special trans.oil required? I do not have the owners manual so I don't have the suggested recommendations. Also, can the manual be obtained from anywhere? MBUSA?

I'm missing one wheelbolt. Where can I get a new one? What size are they? I am considering replacing the other 4 too as they're not the original ones - they extend a bit outside the alu.rim.

Good tips on where to get parts when there's no MB dealer around? ThePartsBin.com is one source I found. Any other recommended?

I'm sure I'll have a bunch of more questions coming up as I go along. Can't wait to have this baby fixed and in full working order again tho.

Thanks!