And now, the more interesting (well, I think it is) part of the post.
Its a long story and there is suspense about 2/3rds down

A few small odds and ends were bothering me about my W123 and so I decided to address them. Specifically

- the clock wasn't working
- the radio wasn't working right -- would not stay on freq. and was weird
- wanted LEDs as instrument cluster backlight
- Speedo needle was binding (magnetically) to the stop post

To address these things, I did the following:

- clock: replaced the 100 uF capacitors. success, clock works.
- radio: replaced with a Kenwood HD-262U (I like the digital HD radio because its a neat tech so I always look for it in aftermarket radios)
- speedo: stripped black insulation from a wire and used that instead of the thin clear plastic OEM insulators; have not tested yet b/c see below
- LEDs: replaced backlight, turn signals and everything else with LEDs. Went back to regular bulb for battery warning because some of those LEDs are polarity sensitive

While I was doing all this, I unintentionally broke the following:

- the door strikers; I guess it was time and I know that plastic gets brittle, so, four new strikers are on order now

- while figuring out the radio memory retention and cycling the ignition on/off/on/off... the glow plug light stopped lighting up... following dieselgiant's troubleshooting directions, identified failed glow plug in #1. Replaced; all good now.

- pass. side window switch; just stopped working; I've cleaned it before; I think this time I am going to just replace it. I tried the front window with the other side's switch and it worked. The rear pass. side window I think has more problems but right now I don't care...

- Oh yeah, while figuring out the door striker, I put a screw down there to see if I could shut the door... It did and then I spent two hours trying to open it.

- Measured only 12.5 V at the alternator. Took it out, took it to OReilly, it tested ok, re-installed it. I got my uninstall/install time down to like 10 minutes, good practice, right???

This is all in a span of about 6 hours, including the trip to OReilly. If I think about any other juicy details I'll post them.

__________________

'82 300D (project)
'46 Willys (project)
"Nothing seems to be the way it should in this garage." -jt20
"Smarter than an engine, dumber than a hoodlatch..." -jt20
"Start jumping up and down to smoosh down those engine mounts" -DeliveryValve
"no" -kerry
"At this rate, you may have it done by winter" -layback40