hello from London... home of the tour de france.

I was wondering if one of you W108 owners could do me a favour and take a photo of the ignition coil & ballast resistors on your car as I need to check the wiring.

cheers, and i'll buy you a pint if you ever visit...

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1993 320TE M104
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past:

1983 230E W123 M102
1994 E300D S124 OM606 (x2)
1967 250SE W108 M129
1972 280se 3.5 W108 M116
1980 280SE W116 M110
1980 350SE W116 M116
1992 300E W124 M103
1994 E280 W124 M104
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"music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business" -Pepys

Please post the production Month and/or Year.

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1970 280S M130 engine- good runner
1971 250 M130 engine- #2 rod bearing, gone
1971 280SE (blown engine,parts car)
1977 German 280S W116-only 33 years old

Your 3.5 should be the same as any US 4.5. If nobody has a pic by the weekend, I should.

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Current:
2021 Charger Scat Pack Widebody "Sinabee"
2018 Durango R/T

Previous:
1972 280SE 4.5
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited "Hefe", 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo "Jeepy", 2006 Charger R/T "Hemi"
1999 Chrysler 300M - RIP @ 221k

I can give you good photos of bad parts





Higher res here if you need it:
http://douging.smugmug.com/gallery/1090938/1/171758716/Medium

The car is not running but I have not mucked with the wiring here yet so it should be accurate.

thanks

__________________
1993 320TE M104
---------------------------------------------------
past:

1983 230E W123 M102
1994 E300D S124 OM606 (x2)
1967 250SE W108 M129
1972 280se 3.5 W108 M116
1980 280SE W116 M110
1980 350SE W116 M116
1992 300E W124 M103
1994 E280 W124 M104
----------------------------------------------
"music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business" -Pepys

whoa. Stop.

If you have one of those metal boxes wired into your car along with 2 balast resistors, there are three different ways to wire it depending on the kind of box.

The engine manual cites two markers to go by.
- The box number. It ends with 014, 015 or 016.
- Is the coil wired directly to ground on one side or to the box?

In all cases, The resistor with the blue band (0.4 ohms) is tied to the ignition on one side and the starter by-pass on the other. That allows the resistor to be bypassed while starting. You can demonstrate that with a meter while you turn the key (and have an assistent turn the key to start mode after that).

The 2nd balast has a silver band (0.6 ohms) and it connects the 1st resistor (at the starter by-pass leg) to one of two places, depending on which box is in the circuit.

There's always the chance that box is bypassed by the PO. If that's the case, you should have a gold band resistor (0.9 ohms) and a black bodied coil. The coil with the blue body has 2x the number of windings as the black one and was designed to be used with the transistorized switching unit (that box). However, most people that bypass the box don't also replace the coil and resistor and just make their bad situation worse over time.

Another variation of rewiring is to use a resistor with a red band (0.15 ohms) and a coil with a red case. That ignition is stock for the M115 (4 cylinder motor) and works fine, but not with the box.

May I suggest getting the CD for the car? It's about 30$ from mercedes. However, you need somebody in the states to buy it for you and mail it on, as mercedes in the US won't ship it overseas. There should be a supplier in Europe to sell it to you, but I don't know who they are (and if you find out, please share that info here).

-CTH

__________________
- cth350@gmail.com
http://www.111lakeside.com/

Charlie,I am sure the classic center in Irvine will ship him a CD but Millers have them too.I think they are pretty useless myself ...I have a major problem with Adobe 8.1 not working...