The Sleeper Part Deux - Page 26 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

greazzer · #**376** 04-06-2015, 11:49 PM

Got this in the mail today. Now, just looking for the side skirts and rear apron and the AMG package is complete. I know what I am installing this Saturday ...

Got a rust free rear quarter panel today for the driver's side, many thanks to Jim & Adam and the magic of a plasma cutter.

greazzer · #**377** 04-15-2015, 07:20 PM

Just got my W126 500SEL 4 corner HPS fluid reservoir today. The remainder should be here within a week or so. I just need the main valve with allied items, 5 replacement nitrogen spheres, and the hydraulic lines and then I will have the entire system. This will be my most ambitious mod / project to date. Once I master sizing up O-rings, it's probably no more than a weekend to rebuild everything.

greazzer · #**378** 04-22-2015, 08:34 PM

Got my plate done and it looks like it's 100%, brake pedal has been completed for a while, but I got the nifty stop for the brake light actuator done, and even got a real machined push rod dead-on centered. Hopefully I can get this installed this weekend. This was one of my longest running projects, although the overall R&D was pretty simple on reflection -- just getting there.

Per the prior pictures, I did the mock-up with a few pumps, and I got a full stroke at 9:1. We'll see what 630 ft pounds feels like versus vacuum boosted.

greazzer · #**379** 04-25-2015, 11:22 AM

This one was on the drawing board for a while, so I decided to squeeze the trigger. Much of what I am doing is nothing buy copy-katting all the others who have blazed a trail on the HPS system. I am using the more uncommon W126 HPS system versus the W116. The W126 is more in the weight class of a W123, although the systems appear virtually the same.

Attached are some pictures. Since the SLS pump is the same across so many model lines, and incredibly well documented, I will save that part towards the end. I decided to tackle the rear struts first, since they appear to be the easiest, the cheapest, and for some odd reason more available here and there on the net.

The rear strut appears pretty simple, part #126-320-25 13. Sachs' part#: 06 2400 102 111 OD.

The rubber top bushing shows its age, part #116-327-14 81, which shares part # 126-327- 0281. This part was first contemplated as being a mod'd or upgraded part, e.g., poly or some other material. However, costs were not horrible, e.g., $67.20.

The bellows are toast. Part #116-328-02 92. Again, looking at universal bellows, but this one was surprising cheap at $26.80 for the MB original.

The hose, part # 126-997-40 82 is in surprising good shape, so that's a keeper. It cleaned up good enough, and the inside bore looked about perfect. Metric copper can be found anywhere so nothing unique about them. I will post the spec's shortly.

The other pieces, e.g., tip, rubber bushing with insert, part# 116-327-15 81 likewise look amazingly well intact. I guess being inside the cabin had something to do with that.

I will take some pictures of the strut tube disassembly. The factory paint is still there, and the big white dot represents the orientation of the top (and bottom) piece. The O-rings and nylon seals appear to be fungible, so just a few bucks.

The real zinger as for pricing are the ball joints. I am looking at mod'g the struts to use rebuildable balljoints because there are a number out there which look just about the same.

Right now, my aggressive goal is to keep the entire project under $2,000. I have all the parts except the main valve. I found one in Germany for $200, but still looking CONUS. The big investment down the road will be the 5 nitrogen spheres which run around $700 for all of them.

Rear strut investment so far is $53.12 cores, + $8.50 shipping. Bellows, rubber top bushing, seals, and ball joints will put me in the ballpark of around $180.00 per rear strut for a completely rebuilt unit (less the bits i am re-using). If I go to new hydraulic lines, then they are around $20-ish at the hydraulic shop, so ballpark is $200 per rear strut.

Ritchie · #**380** 04-25-2015, 01:52 PM

Quote:

I am looking at mod'g the struts to use rebuildable balljoints

Greazzer,
Most Nobel of you. Big thanks.
Love the right up.

greazzer · #**381** 04-26-2015, 12:17 PM

Taking them apart required the strength of Hercules, so I had to cheat with a cheater bar but it still took all of my umph to get them part. I copy katted the tread from WGB from W116.org for the most part, although I found some tactics not working.

First, they needed to be situated in the vice only one way since they moved no matter what. Here's a picture of how I held them in the vice. You can see in the later pictures how if you're not careful, you can gouge the surface really bad. I do not believe this went deeper then the threads, so I should be OK. Just stinks. My virtually perfect painted surface is no more.

After the tops and bottoms came off, it was pretty easy after that. It looks like 2 nylon bushings and 3 or 4 O-rings. There was liberal locktite.

The piston parts do not appear to be rebuildable other than replacing the O-rings and nylon inserts. I suspect it will be impossible to find the "piston rings". I do not understand the shim layout, but I zipped tied them so they did not come apart. I took pictures to remember their orientation. Even the top nut was staked in the corners which makes me think everything is torqued to specific values. A Sach's factory shop manual would be helpful now.

When you remove the casted metal top piece, you will see the 17mm staked nut and then a triangle washer, then the first shim set which starts off with small to larger ones. Again, not sure why that is so.

Here's a picture which shows their sequence: Nut, triangle washer, then shim set (1st).

Then, the top piston which consists of 2 types of rings (like an engine piston).

Then, the 2nd set of shims, in reverse order as the top ones.

Then, the inner ram. I turned it counter-clockwise a bunch of times, although I do not think that had anything to do with it's removal.

greazzer · #**382** 04-26-2015, 12:19 PM

ou can see the 2nd shim set. Reverse order as the 1st. Again, no clue what or why these are in there.

The inner ram one had one sliding piece attached to it.

The aluminum ring off the ram has an O-ring and a nylon insert. I suspect this will be tackled latter since I cannot gouge these at all.

Here's a layout of the pieces. Pretty straight foward overall.

and a close up of the inner piston (lower)

Currently, I am cleaning up what I got apart at this juncture. I will try to figure out if there is a way to repair the main steel tube. That was a dumb mistake.

Assuming the "piston rings" are fine, then rebuilding these things appears really simple overall.

greazzer · #**383** 04-26-2015, 12:24 PM

Here's a general layout of parts, and close ups of the 2 pistons.

I will be doing a general cleaning, and O-ring and Nylon bushing purchase shortly. I will finely hone the inside of the strut.

I need to be super careful on the aluminum piece since if i gouge that, I got .10 cents a pound for parts.

I am hoping to be wrapping up my fixture of the SLS pump so that I can test these when done. These are a LOT different than SLS rear struts.

greazzer · #**384** 04-26-2015, 12:27 PM

My learning lessons so far:

1. Vice - strut orientation and being super careful to not gouge the parts.

2. Having 2 x 22mm spanner wrenches with the ends ground THIN to get the ball joint off.

3. Take more pictures, but I think I have enough to remember how to take these apart.

4. Wrap up SLS fixture so that I can pressure test these. I am thinking of how to put these under some load, with fluid, pressure hold, and let them sit over night or a week as a test once I am done before installation into the car.

greazzer · #**385** 04-26-2015, 09:04 PM

Ordered all the parts, which should arrive by this upcoming weekend.

Excluding the gouging which will hopefully be not that bad when re-painted, everything else came out OK.

Here's a layout of the parts.

The balljoint is in surprisingly good shape, really tight, et cet. It cleaned up nicely, so just needs a rubber boot.

O-rings and nylon seal getting sorted out tomorrow and ordered as well.

The top and bottom part screwed on and lined-up perfectly.

So, hopefully, rear strut #2 will be OK less the gouging.

greazzer · #**386** 05-03-2015, 07:52 PM

Was really cooking on the projects these past few weeks and in particular the MB, and then the oldest ended up in hospital for a week, so spent four nights in a chair in Fort Wayne, IND. One of the most beautiful hospitals I have ever seen. Very impressed overall. All is well now.

I got my double pulley back on Saturday. It was off a hair, so I got a re-do. It's perfect now. Once I get the remainder of my plating items, the first bolts to get plated are the rusty ones in the picture ... lol As well as the alternator bracket. It cleaned up nearly perfectly, so plating should go well.

First installed double belt system in the very sexy OM617.912 NA engine. I can run the 150 AMP alternator which is probably overkill. Once I get everything installed, I can downgrade, most likely to 100 to 120 AMPS. However, the double belt system is crucial to avoid belt slippage. Plus, most of the R&D is now complete for a serpentine belt system which is set for the turbo engine.

Manual brakes and re-clocking alternator this week, and maybe the EWP gets re-installed final version.

ROLLGUY · #**387** 05-04-2015, 11:22 AM

Maybe I am missing something here, but why would you reinvent the wheel? Are there not double belt parts from a turbo engine that will bolt right on?

greazzer · #**388** 05-04-2015, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

Maybe I am missing something here, but why would you reinvent the wheel? Are there not double belt parts from a turbo engine that will bolt right on?

2 Pieces or aspects to this:

Not for a NA engine. Nothing even close. There are 2 flavors of pulley-vibration damper-balancing disks for the NA engine and both or their parts are not even close to being interchangable.

As for the turbo engine, yes, there are double belt systems, but for my particular application (turbo), I am going with the serpetine belt system. I wanted to make sure that what I am doing is possible / doable and my NA engine is my R&D testbed. So now, I can hook everything up, run a higer AMP alternator, et cet. I can do an entire mock-up and work out any bugs before installing my turbo engine.

As for space, the turbo pulley-vibration damper-balancing disk eats up a valuble 3+ inches. So, with a custom pulley with the balancing disk & vibration damper (this is after the NA engine application turned out to be successful), I have almost 12" for radiator, fans, condensor, et cet. in the turbo application. This is crucial for my final plans with this car. Right now, with the stock OEM pulley, it was about impossible to install a 3" aluminum radiator, condensor, electric fans, and maybe even room for inter-cooler.

I bet one could calculate on paper whether something would work, spacing, et cet., but I was not going to risk it since all of my mods are one time buys, and once I buy, I am committed. It was well worth the $150 for the custom pulley to verify my plans would work. Plus, once I sell (or try to sell) the engine and tranny, having a custom pulley as an option is a nice selling point. I can run a high AMP alternator which was not doable without the risk of belt slippage for the NA system. Plus, I can run a different belt on the outter grove in the summer months to power a very cool Sanden Retro-Fit kit created by a guy named ROLLGUY. It actually complements the tensioner in the A/C kit nicely as well. That was also one of the design parameters. That is, ability to remove/change a belt without issue to remove parasitic engine drag in the cooler months. The turbo engine's serpetine belt system will have the same feature: 2 belt options, one in the cooler months and one in the warmer months.

So, all in all, it was ultimately superfluous in many regards, but it was worth it to me to verify ultimate functionality of the desired end-state. I have created drawings or done research and everything looked just fine, until one does the actual application and a problems surfaces. Nothing like a real mock-up to verify IMO.

ROLLGUY · #**389** 05-04-2015, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greazzer

2 Pieces or aspects to this:

Not for a NA engine. Nothing even close. There are 2 flavors of pulley-vibration damper-balancing disks for the NA engine and both or their parts are not even close to being interchangable.

As for the turbo engine, yes, there are double belt systems, but for my particular application (turbo), I am going with the serpetine belt system. I wanted to make sure that what I am doing is possible / doable and my NA engine is my R&D testbed. So now, I can hook everything up, run a higer AMP alternator, et cet. I can do an entire mock-up and work out any bugs before installing my turbo engine.

As for space, the turbo pulley-vibration damper-balancing disk eats up a valuble 3+ inches. So, with a custom pulley with the balancing disk & vibration damper (this is after the NA engine application turned out to be successful), I have almost 12" for radiator, fans, condensor, et cet. in the turbo application. This is crucial for my final plans with this car. Right now, with the stock OEM pulley, it was about impossible to install a 3" aluminum radiator, condensor, electric fans, and maybe even room for inter-cooler.

I bet one could calculate on paper whether something would work, spacing, et cet., but I was not going to risk it since all of my mods are one time buys, and once I buy, I am committed. It was well worth the $150 for the custom pulley to verify my plans would work. Plus, once I sell (or try to sell) the engine and tranny, having a custom pulley as an option is a nice selling point. I can run a high AMP alternator which was not doable without the risk of belt slippage for the NA system. Plus, I can run a different belt on the outter grove in the summer months to power a very cool Sanden Retro-Fit kit created by a guy named ROLLGUY. It actually complements the tensioner in the A/C kit nicely as well. That was also one of the design parameters. That is, ability to remove/change a belt without issue to remove parasitic engine drag in the cooler months. The turbo engine's serpetine belt system will have the same feature: 2 belt options, one in the cooler months and one in the warmer months.

So, all in all, it was ultimately superfluous in many regards, but it was worth it to me to verify ultimate functionality of the desired end-state. I have created drawings or done research and everything looked just fine, until one does the actual application and a problems surfaces. Nothing like a real mock-up to verify IMO.

Understood, thanks. You won't believe this, but just yesterday my brother (knowing how I like to fabricate things) asked me why I don't make a serpentine belt setup for the OM617. I told him that I think it would be a lot of work for not much gain. Later that day I saw your post (2 posts ago) about your serpentine R&D. I guess I don't have to do it now that you have it under control!

greazzer · #**390** 05-04-2015, 02:02 PM

Yup, just debating on 7 ribs--or more or less. Everything else works out perfectly. Should reduce parasitic engine drag, and a few other benefits by the conversion. At this point, not a lot of work, and the entire conversion is less than $250, which includes custom pulley, quality brand belt, and quality tensioner.