Hey everyone! According to the site it's been 5+ years since I last logged in - I thought it was more recent than that but I guess not! I apologize in advance for the rambling I'm about to do.

I'm currently working on a 450SL that my father owns. Purchased it from a friend who had traded for it and planned to put a Chevy in it. We wound up with it after he lost interest and I began work on it yesterday. Car was last registered in 2005. This is the first Mercedes V8 that I've had any real experience with.

The engine that was in it was stuck bad - it had antifreeze in most of the cylinders and the oil smelt of burnt bearing. Purchased an engine from a wrecked but running 80ish 450sl a year or so ago for it. The P.O. had all but taken the engine out; the only thing that was left attached was the shifter linkage and the speedometer cable. I finished pulling it out yesterday and then stabbed the other engine. Today I started hooking things up and repairing a few rat-chewed wires underneath the hood.

I have yet to pull the fuel tank to clean it, and I'm missing the hardware to install the pass. side exhaust manifold, but I wanted to hear it fire. I quickly found out that it won't crank with the key. No power to the solenoid wire. I dripped a bit of fuel down the intake, jumped to 12+ to the solenoid wire and it fired off - with the key in the off position.

I bypassed the NSS with no success. Is there a relay somewhere that could be preventing it from having power in the start position? The ignition switch could certainly be bad but I would assume that it was working when the engine died.

I'm assuming the reason it fired when I was giving voltage directly to the starter was that it was providing 12+ to the ignition post on the solenoid. It only had enough fuel to fire a few cylinders, so I'm not sure if it died from fuel starvation or because I removed power. Does this sound plausible or do I have another issue? The car has electronic ignition. From what I've read most 75's had points. I could be wrong though.

Sorry for so many questions! If anyone has advice I'd love to hear it!