Well, I thought all my problems were solved, when I finally decided to go ahead and spend the $$$ and order a brand new oil cooler for the wife's 87 300D, since her old one was leaking and the threads where the lines hook up were destroyed after taking the lines off. The 'screwed nipples' I ordered from the dealer were too small, and it was suggested by another member that they might be. I have a call into my Mercedes parts desk and they are trying to find out if the correct ones exist for the w124 cars, but I'm not holding my breath.
Anyway, the new cooler arrived yesterday, I took it out of the box and was ready to install it and get this car back on the road as it has been down over 2 weeks dealing with this fiasco. And I began to realize something was not right. I laid the 2 coolers on the work bench side by side and the new one is exactly backwards, or flip flopped.
The original one hangs from 2 pins at the top, there is a stud on the right where it hooks to a rubber stabilizer link, and the lines attach on the left. The new one has the stud on the left and the lines attach on the right. I went back to the website I ordered it from and they shipped me the correct part number, the picture they show is exactly like my original one. I even did a search by looking up the part number on the box and found the specs at the manufacturers website and it shows the correct one. My best guess is somehow it was not boxed correctly at the factory in Germany. This is usually how my luck goes, and what are the odds. I am still trying to get in touch with the parts warehouse I ordered it from, I guess that's what I get from ordering online, to see if they want to ship me another, or just return it for a refund. I am sort of afraid the same thing will happen again, if they ship me another, maybe they misboxed an entire batch of them.

I am thinking the one I got is for a RH drive car, as everything would be on the opposite side of the car. I could probably rig it up to work somehow, the lines are long enough, but I would have to rig the stabilizer side bracket up differently somehow, plus it just irkes me that I got the wrong part.

Whatever, I am no closer to having this car back on the road as I was 2 weeks ago, incredibly frustrating. I sometimes I wonder if my brain is functioning correctly by trying to keep a 26 year old car on the road as a daily driver.