R107 Rough Idle? Tranni Flaring? No Econo Gauge? Dang Little Intake Vacuum Hose!!!
 

So I spin by my mechanic with my new '88 560SL I had for a few weeks. Just to show it to him and go over all the work I'm going to want done. He walks around it, sees the interior, sees the engine bay, hears the thing start (I wanted him to check how much timing chain life I have left, which turns out to be a lot), and after that and hearing what I paid is telling me how lucky I am. I know it!

But there's some problems, and I mention some of the things like the lightly leaky head gaskets, possibly needing valve guides too (as per the stealership; probably not BS as they know I wouldn't be getting it done by them) probably motor mounts (getting i kukunk in the floorboard @ low speed acceleration), maybe rear sub-frame mount, only the side airvents working, some tranni shifting problems, rough idle, vacuum econo gauge not working...

Upon hearing the last, he goes "There's a vacuum hose that's off... that'll cause tranni problems too." His friend there also mentions the car will idle rough, and -eat- fuel that way. Ok, Ya, I got all those things!

So after a few seconds he finds the hose that's off at the back of the intake manifold (I must have looked for a 1/2 hour one day after reading about it here), puts it on, and tells me to start the car. What a smooth quiet purr, and sure enough that means no more side to side loping of the entire car from the engine! Econo gauge is working, and later I notice when driving the -solid- positive shifts I now have in all gears. WOW! :cool: Unbelievable all that comes from a stinking small / thin vacuum hose that connects to the back of the intake manifold!

Only problem now is with the 2nd gear starts of these cars, while before with the hose off the car would take off with authority in 2nd no questions asked, now it's more of a "dance" with how much I can press the peddle. Light load is ok, and I can press the paddle a little more after about 2 seconds for a bit faster acceleration. But I get a major -bog- to almost no pull if I try to take off with more then just say 10% load for a few seconds. I have to press the peddle even more and almost floor it for the giddy-up to kick in, then the car shifts to 1st and takes off. ...any ideas on the bogging?

Thanx for reading.

Thats cool. I love it when the solution is super simple. Nice car.


Any mods planned?

hehe... ya, ain't it?

Well, rims & tires if that qualifies as a mod. ;)

Sport shocks seems like a given. Found a few manufacturers that have an application for the R107 listed. Want to do sport springs for about a 1.5" drop. Only found one manufacturer [B+G] that has an application for a R107 listed though there's probably more.

If I have the head gaskets done I'm thinking I'll have a complete head job done too and do the valve guides. (no, Not a mod.) But if I'm doing that, I'm thinking about also doing a Cam at the same time and beef up the valve springs too, if we can find one for it. I'm hoping if anyone knows where to get it my mechanic should.

Someone mentioned converting the car to EFI for both HP and fuel economy increases. However I don't think there's a 'kit' for it so would have to do complete custom I guess. (ACCEL-DFI, AEM, Edelbrock, Electromotive, FAST, Holley, MoTeC, Haltech? ... any recommendations? )

Exhaust? either complete or cat-bak? Probably complete & custom.

If any modz, probably won't be until fall/winter if not next year. Spent way -WAY- too much money this year already.

oh, and I just discovered today that the center A/C vents are working now too with that vacuum hose re-connected! Hoegully Moegully!

A couple of solutions for the second-gear-start issue:
1-At rest, shift down to low and click the lever to the right, then back. When you start, it'll be in first gear for that time only.

2-There was an outfit called Bergwerks that made a kit consisting of a few electrical bits that gives you full-time first gear start; if you wanted you could wire in a switch to cut the system on or off. Unfortunately, they're out of business now. Some guys on the BB have done the same with DIY electronics; search and you should find descriptions of how it's done. My kit sits entirely under the wood of the console next to the shift except for one wire to the CC module under the instrument cluster.

Ya, I know Bergwerks, or knew of... :( I was once thinking of putting shorter gears in my C43. They said they'd done it, and knew the right people (in Germany I think) who could flash the tranni ECU and allow the car to work with the new rpm / speed-in-gear relation so the car wouldn't go into limp-home mode. The only thing that kept me from doing it is they said I couldn't do LSD then too (or they couldn't do it). Dunno if that was because they didn't deal with Kleemann or what, but it stopped me from moving forward.

Anyway, when I was still bidding on 560SLs I started researching 1st gear start, and found Bergwerks was out of business. :( Bummer! There was someone on here who I had corresponded with ; didn't have any "in-stock" but stated he might this summer.

Strife built a "home-brew" first gear start! I would start there, as he is a good guy, and knows his stuff.

Yep, dopey me should have looked in my Inbox sooner to find he's the person who PM'ed me.

I read he stated numerous valid reasons in the past for not wanting to either produce and sell them or even publish his design. Now with the demise of Bergwerks, I and I nimagine others would love to throw some money his way for a module if he figures out how to package it (as mentioned to me).

Otherwise, I'm actually very surprised both the Bergwerks company, and its technology completely fell off the face of the earth. I imagine there's someone somewhere who knows how to get in touch with one of the principals of Bergwerks who "took the technology with'em"; able to produce and sell it under another entity...