New guy with a 240TD - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

yellowrosefarm · #1 12-26-2007, 09:28 PM

I bought my first Mercedes a couple of weeks ago. It is an 82 240TD (gray market) 4 speed manual with SLS. With 189K it should have a bit of life left

The body is in great shape except for a 4 inch hole under the half missing battery tray. The worst part so far is the dirt. It had been used as a farm car and is without a doubt the dirtiest interior I have seen. I have it in the shop now cleaning and checking everything over. The front seats have about everything bad about them that I have read about on here so I found a great set of leather seats from an E320 to put in instead. The mounting is close enough to only require a bit of fabrication to work fine. I've restored a number of other cars and trucks and work as a mechanic so I know what to do for it to be strong and safe. I'd love to get my eyes on a wiring diagram for the electrics of the seat. Given time, I can chase wires and figure it out, but the diagram would speed things up for sure. I'll probably build my own switch panel to control everything. I've been searching and reading up on TD's here and am very impressed with the knowledge on this site. I also hang out over on the Binder bulletin as I have had International harvester stuff for years. I think this "utility" Mercedes is going to fit in just fine with the cornbinders around here.

mobetta · #2 12-26-2007, 09:33 PM

welcome- sounds like a nice, slow ride.

got pics??

winmutt · #3 12-26-2007, 09:36 PM

The purist in me says shame on you for the seats. I would reupholster that rariety. 240 with SLS!

lietuviai · #4 12-26-2007, 09:39 PM

I would agree with Winmutt. Also the seats from the 320 will look odd.

yellowrosefarm · #5 12-26-2007, 09:49 PM

Don't be too hard on me guys, I'm not tossing out the cloth W123 seats. I just need time to get everything together to put them back right and I want to drive the car in the mean time. From what I have been able to find so far, new replacement stuff would total over a grand and the cloth isn't available. So, navy MBTEX still wouldn't match the back seat. I've hunted up some pretty rare stuff in the past for affordable prices, but it takes TIME. For the most part, I'm much closer to the restoration side than the modify side but I'm by no means deep pocketed enough to get in a hurry. The last IH Scout I did took 7 years and was a non driver the whole time. I really don't want to do that again.

JimmyL · #6 12-26-2007, 11:45 PM

If you ever get pics we would love to see it. And welcome to the site!

JackG · #7 12-27-2007, 01:36 PM

Crap.......Some guys have all the luck.

lietuviai · #8 12-27-2007, 10:02 PM

Oh we're not really giving you a hard time. I can feel your excitement for wanting to drive the car. Another idea is to get some sheepskins to cover the old upholstery in the meantime. A lot easier than unbolting the seats but be careful with the sharp edges on the bottoms of the seats. It's almost as sharp as a meat slicer under there.

yellowrosefarm · #9 12-29-2007, 04:48 PM

I've got the wiring figured out for the E320 seats so it's on to modifying the mounts and making up a switch panel. It cracked me up when I got down to the last pair of wires and tried them, and the headrest moved up and down. Power headrests????????? I should have some pictures to post soon.

bill murrow · #10 12-29-2007, 07:02 PM

Would love to see that car at the next GTG in the spring. Hope you can make it.

Cheers,

Bill

yellowrosefarm · #11 12-29-2007, 09:03 PM

Here are some pics. Sorry about being in the garage, but hopefully it won't stay there too long.

winmutt · #12 12-30-2007, 11:04 AM

Is that seat a direct bolt in?

yellowrosefarm · #13 12-30-2007, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by winmutt

Is that seat a direct bolt in?

No, but I will be able to use the original mounting locations by just extending the base frame of the E320 seat. The width is the same but the length is shorter. I looked through a couple hundred seats in a room at a local junkyard and all the other makes of US and Japanese seats were several inches narrower in the mounting frame. I measured these before I knew what they came out of and saw how close they were to what I needed. When I saw they were indeed Mercedes, I was amazed that they would have such close dimensions across the years. The angle and position of the base is correct, it's just too short by about 4 inches. I'll try to post a pic of the modified frame when I get to that point. They were only 175$ for the pair, BTW, which wouldn't even have netted me 2 new springs for the 123 bases.

Chad300tdt · #14 12-30-2007, 12:54 PM

Congratulations on the wagon find.

Is the hydraulic pump on the engine like on the 300td?

Good luck finding everything you need to restore it.

yellowrosefarm · #15 12-30-2007, 06:07 PM

OK, the drivers seat is mounted. To use the front 2 holes of the E320 base, I only had to elongate the inner hole about 1/4" wider. For the rear, I used 2, 4"x1 1/2x 1/4 flat steel pieces. The inner one I had to heat and bend at about a 60 degree angle. I drilled 2 5/16th holes in each, 1 for the floor mount, and 1 for the seat base rear hole. The seat belt rail bolted in the original hole. I sat in it and used my jumper wires to adjust it to my liking and it is very comfortable. Here are a couple of pics of the new brackets in place. When I pull them back out to paint, I'll take some of the brackets by themselves. I'll need to swap the seat belt female end and make a switch panel for it to be complete.