Wiring harness for 1972 4.5

My father in law is desparately trying to track down a new wiring harness for his 1972 4.5 sedan. Is there a Mercedes Benz salvage we can check or is there anyone making new ones? We live in Southern California.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,

Mike

[hill]

Try Phil at PartsShop or Caliber motors which are in your area. Before I patched mine up I was quoted a price around $400 (parts) from a shop that gives no one a break. Are you sure the whole harness is bad? Usually just the connectors to the injectors are bad. I have seen quite a few at Upullit type yards. There are usually several 116 4.5's lying around.

[cth350]

Save yourself some grief and be sure to get a harness specific to the 280se 4.5 and not a 450se or 450sl. The lenghts of wires is different.

You can get a new harness made, presuming you can recycle the large connector at the brain box end, which is the only part that is NLA. Rhode Island wiring at 1-401-789-1955 makes them.

You can also get a used one, though chances are that a used one is just as bad or worse than yours.

What's wrong with yours ?

-CTH

PS. In getting a used harness, pay attention to how the trigger points are connected. Is there a flat connector right up on the distributor, or a squat, rectangular one that is at the end of a small bit of wire.

Thank you Hill and CTH for your responses. I have forwarded the info to my father in law.

He states that his car is beginning to short out all over the place. He is good with a volt meter and is convinced that he needs a new harness to solve the problems he is having. Hopefully, it will not cost too much.

I also encouraged him to join this forum. He loves his Mercedes and he is pretty good with the technical stuff. This forum would be great for him.

Again, thank you.

Sincerely,

Mike

[cth350]

Back in the mid-80s, I parted out a 280se 4.5 that had been wrapped around a telephone pole after a skid on black ice. The driver's side door pillar was knocked in pretty well. The lady walked away from the accident thankfull that the benz gave up its life to save hers.

It was my first parts car, so I had some fun. I very carefully extracted the whole wire harness without cutting any wires just to see how to do it. It's not perfect, but it 100%.

If you uncle would like to buy it, have him drop me an email, cth@mbz.org

-CTH

[hill]

I stand corrected. I let my alligator mouth run over my hummingbird mind.

[cth350]

What? about the interchange for the EFI wire harness ? I wouldn't have thought there was a problem either, until I tried to put a 280se 4.5 harness into a 450sl. The relocation of the brainbox from the front of the engine compartment to the passenger seat area makes a difference. Also, there was a modification made somewhere in 73/74 that affects warm start. It added a new relay and moved around some wires.

In other words, I found out the hard way.

-CTH