Greetings fellow men-who-shower-with-Dawn-Dishsoap! As always, I have come seeking advice. Old Gretchen, my '77 300D is a bit arthritic, but I've never driven a naturally aspirated 617 with as much squirt as she has. Ive decided to put some legitimate effort into her. The subject of this thread will be her climate control. Here's the current situation; defrost weakly blows cold when you give the blower a good whack. Nothing else works. Coolant drips from the evil servo, but most of the heater hoses look good.

It looks like the Unwired Tools servo upgrade might be a permanant alternative to a used / rebuilt original despite the cost. I plan on replacing the blower, and possibly the pushbutton panel. Does anyone have any experiance with the aforementioned servo upgrade? I searched and found the thread on Norm, but didn't have the patience to read the whole thing.

Thoughts?

i did the UT upgrade in my '78 CD. been working like a Boss for one year. started with hot heat last winter. I replaced a shrader valve and the receiver drier and had cold A/C all summer. I would recommend a slight Mod to the UT installation instructions. let me know and i can describe that.

... or you could find a 240, and gut it's manual system for your car...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Don't even put that idea in my head. There's a nice 240 sitting in a junkyard less than five miles from where I live.

I put an aluminum bodied servo in my 77 and there was one already installed on my 79sd. Happy with both of them.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

where is best source for aluminum servo-ive heard of george murphy,but cant find his contact info,does he still sell servos and amps?

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95 e320,87 sdl,79 300sd

I have been debating the same stuff for my own '77 for a few years, and I'm still not positive about what to do.

The UWT solution seems like an excellent one that does away with an awful piece of engineering with a failure rate that is pretty much on par with Yugo rear axle clips and those annoying little push buttons they used for the wipers in Geo Metros. The one down side that I can see is that you still have to keep the climate control center that is loaded to the gills with potential vacuum leaks. The only thing I can say about the control center is that they aren't too difficult to "overhaul" with donor parts from a few used ones.

The manual controls out of a 240 are obviously an ideal solution, too... That is, if you can find a donor car to begin with. It's a whole lot more work, though, and I honestly like it when people get in my car and are amazed to find automatic climate control in a dinosaur of a car.

I am still leaning towards the UWT option, personally.

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- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread

Can't remember if George Murphy was my source or not. could have been. Search on here, his phone number is here. He doesn't have a website. I'd even buy a used aluminum bodied servo if I were you and could find one.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13