PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - '73 114 Back from the brink! and continued maintenance

Hey guys, really really long time no see!

I have a '73 280 that mysteriously stopped running right about one year ago. My trusted mechanic in NY pronounced it dead/not worth fixing. He suspected a busted intermediary gear. He graciously let the car sit outside at his garage all winter and spring! I just couldn't stand the idea of letting the car go, i had put considerable amounts of time, $, and effort to maintain it.

Fast forward to June 2011. Manfred my mechanic decided to give me a call and ask what's what and let's get this car out of his lot. I had nightmares (literally) that the interior of the car was completely molded and water damaged, as I had tried to do a lot of work sealing up it's rubber leaks. I paid him and the car a visit and it was dry as a bone! THIS GAVE ME HOPE. We talked about him doing the fix job after all and he agreed to do it if I really wanted the car working again.

At that point I got a job in Los Angeles and shipped the car out for $1,000. I had it sent to my mother's mechanic (she has a '84 300D that just rolled over 300,000 and is a CHAMP). He agreed to give it a try, although he had almost no experience with this engine. He actually got the original owner of the business to come out of retirement to consult! I didn't get to meet him unfortunately, but he was an old German guy who knew what to do.

Turns out Manfred's instinct was right and it was the Intermediary Gear. They had the engine in pieces for weeks and took their time. The two gears meet up in an awkward L formation and both were totally ground away. After replacing those, he dropped the oil pan to clear out any shrapnel. Did a valve adjustment and had the radiator reboiled and put in a new battery. MY CAR WAS REVIVED!

I really couldn't believe it, and was a little trepidatious at jamming around the LA freeways. But it's going strong and (sadly) racking up the miles as a daily driver reborn.

I finally put some new tires, and the weber carb has been giving me trouble lately. The paint is pretty sad as well, having sat through it's (hopefully) last new york winter with no maintenance.

On my list:
New seat pads/filling
Carb tuning
replacing the original mono speaker (with a new one from becker i guess?)
new windshield

I'd really like to thank Jmela, cth350, and Wolf Walker for their ideas and support last year when I was trying to figure out what to do. I'm sorry to not have replied to your Private Messages.

Looking forward to being an active member of the Peach Community from here on!