For the love of god I cant figure out how to install the hood star into an 81 126.. Thanks!

__________________
1981 Mercedes 300SD Turbo diesel -- 245,000
2006 Honda CRV -- 53,000

Recently replaced the star on my 123 and I think it's the same. I used channel locks to compress the stub of the broken one (from under the hood). It popped out. Pushed new one in, reached beneath hood and twisted the base. Good as new.

__________________
John Schroader
bio burnin' 83 300D, '83 300 SD, '79 240D
"I've never met a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else" Ben Franklin
"You cannot permanently help a man by doing for him what he could and should do for himself" Abraham Lincoln

If you look under the hood the star base will have a very small peg/pin at the very bottom. Yank this out with long nose pliers and the star itself will collapse. This pin holds the springs taut inside the body.

But if you do this, make sure you will be replacing the entire star. Removing this pin will result in the star needing to be rebuilt (put back together) which is VERY hard.

If you plan to reinstall the star (say from a parts car to the "good" car) then do as the above recommendation.

__________________
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

still cant figure it out

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
1981 Mercedes 300SD Turbo diesel -- 245,000
2006 Honda CRV -- 53,000

I installed one by disassembling it (removing the pin) and reassembling it on the car. I was able to reinstall the pin by wrapping a wire around the lower part of the spring and stretching it enough to replace the pin. There has to be an easier way, but that worked for me.

Looks like you turned it prematurely.

See that really dirty metal clip that surrounds the star? Take some sort of plyers and pull downward and turn it right. It will rest on the metal lip near the top of the unit.

When you're ready to reinstall simply turn that metal backwards to the way it is now and it's secured.

__________________
-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

I've rebuilt 3 so far. Wire trick is a good call, I had to do this on the last one. First two, long nose pliers worked enough for me to pull the spring out. Could be a design change from the stars I've built.

Make sure you use thick wire. On the third star, I tried thrice to pull on the spring (very tough). First two wires broke.

__________________
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

VERY easy method!!! I just wrapped the wire around the hook and then around a screwdriver so it wasnt tearing apart my hands, great method thanks a bunch!

__________________
1981 Mercedes 300SD Turbo diesel -- 245,000
2006 Honda CRV -- 53,000

Glad it worked for you, it took me a couple of tries to make it work.