'82 300D Electric Gremlins
 

Well, last week I replaced a bad voltage regulator, which returned the car to working order. Today, driving, and realized the turn signals didn't work (they had worked up until some point today), followed by some other, startling realizations. The guages didn't work, except speedo (tach never worked), and the windows don't work. Checked fuses, none blown. car is starting and charging well, and lights work. Any ideas? Thanks for the assistance last week, it was most helpful.
Mike:grim:

I'll suggest replacing all fuses with cooper ones, may or may not help. These fuses can look good, until you pull 'em and note the ends.

Sounds like you have a different problem tho, but start there.

mtadams,

When strange things like that happen, quite often it is a bad ground connection.

CHeck the chassis ground cable connections.

P E H

thanks for the tips... I'm working on it now.. I'll let you know what pops up.
Mike:dizzy2:

Well, no luck. I checked my connections. thay seem to be solid. The battery light in the dash is on, and no fuel or oil pressure guage. Also, still no windows or turn signals, but the flashers work??!!
Mike

I believe the ground connections of concern for instrumentation are behind the instrument panel. You have to remove it and check the grounds on the pod itself and their connection to the frame inside.

As for turn signals, the problem may be the 4-way flasher switch. I am not entirely sure about this for W123s, but on W201s the way the system works is the blinker stalk "signal" to the blinker relay goes through the 4-way flasher switch. If the switch is in the "4-way flashers "on"" position, the signal from the blinker stalk is disabled so the relay doesn't try to 4-way flash and make a turn signal at the same time. As they age, when you turn them off sometimes they get stuck before they get back to the "enable" position, and the 4-way flashers are off but the blinkers are still disabled. You can try exercising the switch back and forth and try to push it a bit harder into the off position. I did this and got it to work, but then when it failed again, when I pushed it hard I broke something. I took it apart and found I had broken the little lever that pushes the contacts back into the blinker enable position. So, I bought another from FastLane and the problem was solved.

As for windows, the switches on the console are usually the culprit. Given the 4-way flasher switch is on the console too, it seems someone may have spilled something on the console (no cup holders back then) that has gotten into the switches and gummed up the works. I believe if you do a search here you will find explicit instructions on how to get them out and disassemble, clean and reassemble them. Or you can buy new ones - I would be tempted to get them out and see if there is a sign of some contamination on them.

Good luck, Jim

thanks Jim,
the flasher issue has come up previously, and I messed with it when this first happened. But all this stuff happened at once! which makes me think that it is not a bunch of little things. There was no rain on the day it happened, or any spilled items, just highway driving. I'm pretty stumped, but I'm gonna check the ground behind the dash, for good measure... Thanks for the input!
Mike