Ok a problem has occurred where it seems like the handbrake is on not allowing the rear wheels to turn. We jacked her up and the wheel spins free, put her back on the ground engage R and the back end lifts up but nothing no going back.

Background info:

The car has not been started in a long time. We have noticed that the handbrake will not pull up (to engage) and is in its off position seems like its stuck as we can not pull back on it to engage??

I checked the manual and it talks about removing 1 nut from the rim and spinning the wheel till a star adjustment thing is visable in the hole and to spin the wheel till it stops while adjusting the nut???

Not sure if this is important but we did replace the rear orig merc alloy rims with steel rims some time ago would this have an issue (ie) nuts longer/shorter? I think we spun the drums also at the time could we have damaged/moved something?/

Anyway any tips/info would be fantastic

What year is this car? Is it a European model?
Both my W114 cars ('72 250 and 250C) have a foot-pedal operated parking brake.

In any case, something may have jammed the parking brake. The only thing I can think of that would jam it in only one direction is if one of the parking brake linings has separated from it's shoe and wedged itself in there somehow.
If the alloy-wheel bolts are longer than the ones requred for steel wheels, that could definitely lock the rear wheels, though I'd expect them to be locked in both forward and reverse.
Then again it's possible that the longer bolts have mangled the parking brake mechanism, causing one to jam in reverse.

Did you jack up both rear wheels up at the same time and try to see if they would both spin in reverse, or both spin with the wheels off?

Another possibility - if both rear wheels can turn but the front wheel brakes are seized, that could prevent the car from moving - though again I'd expect the problem in both directions.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Hi Mark thanks for the great tip (FYI its a euro spec car handbrake on the dash), we had another look and pulled out a few nuts and yep there were marks (scrape) on the tips, bolts were too long for the alloy rims, sad to see no warning on the jack or something (actually there is a note about it in the user guide hmmmm) the car had a steel rim as a spare just like my w108 so I will make sure I buy the shorter bolts and keep them with my spare!

Anyway we put the alloy back on & while we can move it now it still feels like the shoes are engaged and the hand brake seems to not go all the way as it did before... so my next Q ....should i try and open this up or wait and see if it releases itself (we didn't drive her so what damage would it have done??) anyone else have this happen or is it common knowledge that there are two types of wheel nuts

thanks again

Bundt cake alloys have longer wheel bolts than the either the steel or aluminum (wheelcover style) wheels.

If you rotated the wheel at all, pull the rotor and check for damage. It is not likely to heal itself.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

I've also noticed that all the bundt cake bolts I have have a smooth head, and all the shorter wheelcover bolts have a depression on the head.

Sort of a finished vs unfinished look, since the wheelcover hides the bolts.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Hi Jim thanks for the info, I was given the following link http://www.sl113.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=WheelsTires.Alloys

Has a cool picture of an original warning tag, would love to find one of these for my old w108 may just print it out and stick it on the bag of nuts (See attached original warning tag), anyway will take your advice and open it up, the manual makes it sound easy but taking off the caliper hmmm may not be? anyway thanks again any more info is welcome