weekend Wrenching

[alabbasi]

Spent the day tinkering with the 500SL, the flasher was not working correctly which I thought was caused by the hazard switch so I replaced it. I still had the same problem which appears to be a bad relay that sits behind the instrument cluster. So I pulled the cluster and checked the relay. It's clearly not working and turning too fast.

The dealer did not have one available so I ordered it online. While I was there, I jumped the dimmer switch so that I can get some light. The dimmer was not working and hence the light would not work. At now it works.

I also bled the brakes with my fancy new motive power bleeder which is very easy. I still have a problem with it seems like the brakes loose pressure every now and then and the pedal sinks low. Once you pump it, it works fine. I'm not sure what the deal is as the master cylinder is brand new.

Lastly, I bought a new car. A 1991 560SEL with 230,000 miles in the dark. Details can be found here: I bought my first W126 in the dark with 230,000 miles and expired tags

[alabbasi]

Today I spent the day tinkering with my girlfriend’s BMW which has some horrible plastic bits around the cooling system that break through telekinesis and also in major need or brakes so I did not get a chance to spend any time on the 560SEL. However, here is what I noticed after messing with it for about 2 hours.

For a start, the car is very dirty. It looks like it’s been sitting for months and the engine bay was full of leaves.

I took my blow gun and blew out the all of the leaves in the nooks and crannies. Engine bay seems very dirty but free from oil leaks.

The car smells like it’s been smoked in for 20 years and the doors were locked 6 months ago and never opened. There was also a nice thick layer of dirt all over it. I gave it a good wipe down and cleaned the windows and the dash.

The dash is crack free; the wood is in OK shape with the exception of the clear cracking on the center console burl.

The car is white and it seems to be single stage paint. I’ve seen this with other white MB’s in the past where some panels seem to be a little dirtier then the other but the stain is in the paint. I’m not sure how to resolve that issue other then painting the whole car. Fortunately, it is white which always comes out well. Even if you give it a Maaco make over.

The gray leather is mostly intact and the seats work correctly. The center arm rest is cracked and the glove box in the center has many of the wooden pieces missing.

From cold, the car is hard to start and requires some cranking before it fires. It may need a new fuel filter or a new fuel accumulator.

The rear left quarter looks to be repainted and inspection of the inside of the panel shows some work on the top corner of the quarter (about the size of a soft ball). The right corner has a dent just below the tail light on the corner.

The bumpers have the usual parking scrapes and the grill has a dent in it. The wheels are stained and look dirty but the tires are in good shape.

The engine appears to run well and is quite, but does tick when revving it. I’m not sure if this is a lube issue or because I filled it with regular instead of premium when I picked it up. This was not by choice, but because all they had in the tiny little town where I picked the car up was regular gas (they had run out of everything else). The car was running on air and there was no gas station for miles.
I did notice some vacuum lines being plugged up which I need to chase down.

Next week, I plan on performing the following job:

1. Replacing the rotors and pads all around
2. Flushing the brake fluid and replacing with the ATE blue stuff
3. Changing the oil and filter - Does anyone know what weight oil to use? I use 20w50 on my older MB’s but this is about 10 years newer.
4. Flushing the transmission fluid (any special type with this transmission?)
5. Giving the car a thorough cleaning.

Here are some pictures of the car.

[GGR]

With a bit of work I'm sure it will come back to its former glory. If you paint it, try dark blue 904. Very classy on W126s and it will go well with the grey interior.

[alabbasi]

Gael

Thanks, I'm going to stick with white because I think the W126 actually looks OK in white, and a color change is a giant pain in the you know what to get done right.

[Mike D]

Al, we seemed to have swapped cars this weekend. I'm working on a W114 and you found a W126 to play with.

Decided to do a little bodywork for the wife's car. Her 250C has the wrong hood on it. It is from a '74 and she has a '72. I've had this hood lying about and the weather has cooled down so I figured it is time to swap.

It's just a little dilapidated.



Scraped, sanded and rust treated the underside.



Beginning the primer.



A coat of semigloss on the bottom just to seal it for now.

[Mike D]

The top, rough sanded (80 grit). A few things interesting about the hood. What I thought was a heavy concentration of surface rust was actually just a thick layer of flaking rust oxide primer. That's a good thing. There were 4 thick layers of paint/primer/sealer on the hood. From the surface down, white, a tan-ivory color, a thick black/dark green sealer type coating and then the rust oxide. You can see all those in the first picture. The sealer actually is what gave the hood it's rough surface. It was separated and chipped. It is a bugger to remove. Glommed up about 8 disks.



Sanded with 120 grit. Notice the previous body filler. Also notice the obvious re-paint directly over the area where the twin carbs were (hood was from a '71 250C). Can you say, "carb fire"?



220 grit sanded. It's actually beginning to look paintable. The re-paint area is on pretty good so I'm going under the assumption that it was actually properly done. I might get lucky and not have to sand it down to bare metal.



A quick coat of primer just to seal it a bit. I'd had enough fun for the day and it was time to clean shop. Back at it next weekend.

[alabbasi]

Mike, looks good! I need to prep my 500SL for painting before thanksgiving.

[alabbasi]

Yesterday I took my car to the inspection station for the state inspection and emissions test, it passed with flying colors after I replaced the fuse on my OVP which was blown and caused the car to rev high.

Today a buddy of mine stopped by and we did some pretty major work on my 560SEL and my GF's BMW 328i. The 328i is not a lot of fun. We cross threaded a bolt that goes into a bracket that holds the caliper and had to buy a new bolt at $35 from the BMW dealer. Everything plastic under the engine goes to hell and I broke the plastic vent screw last week by breathing on it so this week, I had to replace a coolant hose, front disks and pads and that cooling hose. I also changed the oil and filter.

On the 560SEL, I gave it an oil change and replaced the filter. I also did the front brake pads and disks, while my buddy drained the torque converter and replaced the transmission filter. Lastly I replaced the fuel filter and gave the engine a good clean with some degreaser and water.

I over filled the transmission so I ended up having to suck some out with my vacuum pump. As it was brand new fluid, I thought I would give the car the seafoam treatment with it but with ATF instead of seafoam.

It smoked like a chimney , the neighbors who were having a barbecue next door by their pool were not impressed. This is why I have a shop.

I also noticed an exhaust leak coming from the left manifold. Should I be concerned about bolts breaking in the head if I try to replace the gasket?

Tomorrow, I'll plan on flushing the brake system and putting new brake fluid and next week I hope to address the manifold gasket, replace the front grill and the headlight doors.

The seller mentioned that the A/C was not working. That turned out to be a disconnected pressure switch. Once we reconnected it, it ran. I has been converted to R134. If it leaks, I will convert it back to R12.

I really like this car.

[suginami]

Originally Posted by alabbasi

I really like this car.

Have you gone through the ignition system, plugs, cap, rotor, etc? I hear M117 engines are hard on cap and rotors.

How is this car for power compared to your M119 E420?

[alabbasi]

Paul,

I've yet to go through the ignition system but as the car starts and idles well (so far) I'm not worried yet. The car is not nearly as fast as my E420. The E420 has a 32v engine making 275hp. I think this car has 238hp. I have a couple of friends that run euro 500SEL's and this thing does not feel as fast as those either. But it's been neglected and has 233k miles so it may take a couple of rounds to catch up on neglected jobs and get it running right.

[suginami]

Originally Posted by alabbasi

Paul,

I've yet to go through the ignition system but as the car starts and idles well (so far) I'm not worried yet. The car is not nearly as fast as my E420. The E420 has a 32v engine making 275hp. I think this car has 238hp. I have a couple of friends that run euro 500SEL's and this thing does not feel as fast as those either. But it's been neglected and has 233k miles so it may take a couple of rounds to catch up on neglected jobs and get it running right.

How does the torque of the 5.6 compare to the 4.2? I bet it has more.

[alabbasi]

Originally Posted by suginami

How does the torque of the 5.6 compare to the 4.2? I bet it has more.

It's hard to tell yet. I was very gentle with it while Driving it home because the weather was horrible and the car had been sitting for some time. I did not want to get stranded in an unregistered car with expired tags so I took it easy.

I'm sure it will run very well once everything is taken care of but I'm not sure if it will run as well as the E420. The M119 is the next generation engine to the M117 (when the M117 already 20 + years old) and is truly marvelous.

I will say that by comparison the the W210, the W126 feels like a tank. Far more solid and heavy. The engine feels heavy too and does not rev, but instead builds up like a freight train, similar to the 6.9 but not as quick.

For me, it's a nice change as the older cars fascinate me so much more then the newer ones and while the E420 was a joy to drive and extremely dependable, I found that it would spend more time parked then any of my other cars which is why I sold it.

[tonkovich]

the 126 is a wonderful tank. my 84 was listed at 4250 lbs. (the 108 was -only?- 3600.) and you should be feeling more torque; what's that saying...? "americans are really talking about torque when they say horsepower" . once its running right, you will notice. (i think)

[alabbasi]

Today was a light day. I went to help a buddy set the timing on his W108 but unfortunately, he could not get it started so I stopped by the shop and picked up my motive power bleeder and bled the brakes on the 560SEL using the ATE racing blue fluid which is nice because you know when you've completely gone through the system when the fluid changes colors.

I did take the 560SEL for a shake down after I bled the brakes out and it seems to be much more powerful after the fuel filter change. I was able to easily spin the wheels even when the car was rolling down the road.

[vwkess]

Have the timing chain/guides ever been done on the 560? At this age/mileage the guides at the very least need to be done before they break.