Projects on my new, to me, 1973 280SEL 4.5 - Page 27 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

jerhofer · #**391** 02-10-2018, 09:21 PM

January turned out to be an inspired choice for vacationing in our motorhome in Ft Myers, FL. Our area experienced much lower temperatures than normal as well as 5" of snow. It was cool the first week in FL but still in the 60's.

Now that I am back, I have only a few things to do to the car. First up was replacing the decal on the radiator support that was removed during the painting process.

As was discussed earlier when the flex disc was replaced, I ordered the driveshaft bearing and donut. I had them replaced by the same shop that did the flex disc. The photos below show some deformity in the donut. The bearing wasn't defective but did not turn as easily as I thought it should. Now I do not have any vibration when I lift off the gas.

I also had the shop do a compression test.

I have a couple other things to try to fix before I list the car on BAT. When I got the car back from the bodyshop, the electric antenna no longer goes completely down. About eight inches is still showing. Need to dig into that.

Also, I cannot get the windshield washer to work. When i depress the floor switch, the wipers come on but no fluid is being pumped. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Tomguy · #**392** 02-10-2018, 10:51 PM

You probably have experience with other German cars similar to this one, you need to manually pump the pedal to get small squirts of fluid out - there's no pump motor. If it's not working the valves in the pedal may be bad or the pedal's rubber may be bad.

jerhofer · #**393** 02-10-2018, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomguy

You probably have experience with other German cars similar to this one, you need to manually pump the pedal to get small squirts of fluid out - there's no pump motor. If it's not working the valves in the pedal may be bad or the pedal's rubber may be bad.

I tried pumping it to no avail. The owner’s manual wasn’t helpful. The diagram showing all of the dash controls points out the location but there isn’t a word about its operation.

Tomguy · #**394** 02-11-2018, 09:01 AM

I also forgot to add, try poking the nozzles on the cowl with a pin. Mine would corrode and get blocked.

jerhofer · #**395** 02-11-2018, 06:14 PM

Soon after I joined the Porsche club in 1978, I met a fellow member and his son. The son was in college studying to become a mechanical engineer. His father passed away some years ago but I have always stayed in touch with him. He and my son, who is also a mechanical engineer, have also stayed in touch.

A few years ago, the son contracted a neurological disease that affects his lower extremities. It has progressed to the point that he now has to use a wheelchair. I was aware of his difficulties but on a visit to Indiana last December, I learned from another of my friends that he was using a wheelchair.
So I gave him a call to see how he was doing. He has a great attitude about his disease. It is not ALS and progresses much slower than that disease. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he had recently sold the 1986 911 turbo look that he had inherited from his father. Another mutual friend was talking about buying his 356. I knew he had an original Porsche 914-6.

I did not know that he also had a 1974 914 that had been converted to a six cylinder motor. In 2004, steel GT flares had been installed by a 914 guru from Tennessee who also did the paintwork. Re-inforcing plates had been installed along with the flares. The bumpers were backdated to the earlier bumpers on the original 914-6's. The interior was also redone at that time.

Ed purchased the car in 2005. At a drivers ed event at Grattan he broke the transmission. Out came the engine and transmission. He took the transmission to another 914 guru in Illinois for a rebuild. That transmission is still in the shipping bag from 2005 as the engine and transmission have never been re-installed.

He also has 18 wheels along with assorted parts that he needs to be rid of in his garage. We reached an agreement on a price for everything and I will be traveling to Michigan in a couple months to pick it up. And so another project has found me!!! I am excited about putting it back together as the motor was rebuilt to specs that should have it making 250-275HP. It will be much faster than the Mercedes.

Later Porsche Boxster wheels are shown in some of the photos below but I will be installing the traditional Fuchs that also come with the car. These photos were taken in 2005 just before the transmission issue.

Tony H · #**396** 02-12-2018, 01:01 PM

The driveshaft "donut" is actually non-symmetrical-it's intended to look like that.

jerhofer · #**397** 02-14-2018, 05:26 PM

When I picked up the car from the body shop last month, I noticed that the antenna would not go all the way down when I turned off the radio. It protruded about 8". We were getting ready to drive our motorhome to Florida so I did not look into it at that time.

I did look at it this past weekend and this is what I found. Evidently I left the radio on when I turned off the motor at the body shop so the antenna was in the up position. Someone at the body shop must have wanted to put it down and tried to do that manually. He bent the antenna at the base which would not allow it to go down.

So I ordered a Fleischman antenna and installed it today. I kept the exterior trim ring from the old antenna as the new one had a smaller diameter which would have left a paint mark revealed.

I talked to body shop owner yesterday and he is going to pay for the new antenna.

Larry Delor · #**398** 02-15-2018, 11:10 PM

To prevent crud from clogging up the wiper fluid spray nozzle, I put an inexpensive, clear inline fuel filter just before the hose goes up, towards the nozzle.
If you remove the rubber bulb/foot mechanism, you can sometimes find a small boatload of powdery residue in the bulb itself. Good luck with the washer!

jerhofer · #**399** 02-16-2018, 06:53 PM

In preparation for selling the car, I decided to place a thermometer into the AC ducts to measure how cold the air was. It registered 25 degrees!!! No wonder my wife said it was freezing in the car. She was literally correct!!

280SE Guy · #**400** 02-17-2018, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerhofer

Also, I cannot get the windshield washer to work. When i depress the floor switch, the wipers come on but no fluid is being pumped. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Did you replace the washer hoses and connect them properly? See attached picture for routing.

jerhofer · #**401** 02-17-2018, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 280SE Guy

Did you replace the washer hoses and connect them properly? See attached picture for routing.

I did replace the hoses. I will go out to the car to see if I have them hooked up correctly, although I did switch the connections to no avail.

ejboyd5 · #**402** 02-18-2018, 08:06 AM

Separate the washer repair into logical steps. Remove both hoses from the pump and apply a small suction to the supply hose to assure a flow of fluid from the reservoir to the pump. If that is good, connect the supply hose to the pump to check its operation. Chances are high that the pump bulb itself has hardened or cracked over the years, but if it provides a stream of fluid you have now limited your problem to the outflow portion of the circuit. Outflow hoses may be cracked or disconnected, or the nozzles may be plugged. The windshield washer is not a complicated circuit, it just takes some time to trace the failure point.

jerhofer · #**403** 02-18-2018, 03:34 PM

I borrowed my son's Go Pro to make a test drive video. Wish I had one of these back when I was doing track events. I used a regular video camera. The recording heads did not like vibration. I used every trick I could think of to insulate the camera from vibration with only some success. Unsurprisingly, the best videos happened on the smoothest tracks. And of course there was no HD. However, it is still fun to occasionally watch them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX-oxH9vU3M&feature=youtu.be

Tomas7 · #**404** 02-19-2018, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerhofer

I borrowed my son's Go Pro to make a test drive video. Wish I had one of these back when I was doing track events. I used a regular video camera. The recording heads did not like vibration. I used every trick I could think of to insulate the camera from vibration with only some success. Unsurprisingly, the best videos happened on the smoothest tracks. And of course there was no HD. However, it is still fun to occasionally watch them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX-oxH9vU3M&feature=youtu.be

When I grow up, I want to have a garage just like yours

bracurrie · #**405** 02-19-2018, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerhofer

I borrowed my son's Go Pro to make a test drive video.

Nice video. I am going to have to try this.
My idea is mounting the camera on a stabilized tripod with two legs on floor behind front seats and the third on the seat so that steering inputs, speedo readouts and (because mine is a floor shift manual) the shifting action.