The "Diseasel" - '86 300SDL - Page 10 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Diseasel300 · #**136** 05-22-2018, 10:59 PM

Well Ye olde Diseasel is about to embark on its first REAL roadtrip this coming weekend. I'm taking part in the Centerville get together this Saturday http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/events-gatherings/392763-thirteenth-annual-texas-mb-owners-gtg-saturday-may-26-2018-a.html , hopefully to meet some more Texas folks! I had intended to go last year, but the car just wasn't ready for a road trip and the SL was broken down again (what a surprise!).

After the G2G, I'm continuing on to DFW to visit some friends I haven't seen in an embarrassingly long time. All said and done, I'll probably be putting an easy 800-1000 miles on the car this weekend. Should be a good shakedown for it.

About all I need to do still is clean up the car. Remove the dog's worth of fur from the rear seat, clean the windows, and wipe things down so it's halfway presentable. Gave it a bath this evening and filled the fuel tank. Oil is a recent change, coolant bottle is full, A/C blowing snowflakes, radio and cruise control working, tires aired up. It's ready to go just about. Hopefully I'll have some decent pictures to share after the event, we'll see.

H-townbenzoboy · #**137** 05-27-2018, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diseasel300

Well Ye olde Diseasel is about to embark on its first REAL roadtrip this coming weekend. I'm taking part in the Centerville get together this Saturday http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/events-gatherings/392763-thirteenth-annual-texas-mb-owners-gtg-saturday-may-26-2018-a.html , hopefully to meet some more Texas folks! I had intended to go last year, but the car just wasn't ready for a road trip and the SL was broken down again (what a surprise!).

After the G2G, I'm continuing on to DFW to visit some friends I haven't seen in an embarrassingly long time. All said and done, I'll probably be putting an easy 800-1000 miles on the car this weekend. Should be a good shakedown for it.

About all I need to do still is clean up the car. Remove the dog's worth of fur from the rear seat, clean the windows, and wipe things down so it's halfway presentable. Gave it a bath this evening and filled the fuel tank. Oil is a recent change, coolant bottle is full, A/C blowing snowflakes, radio and cruise control working, tires aired up. It's ready to go just about. Hopefully I'll have some decent pictures to share after the event, we'll see.

It was great meeting you in Centerville yesterday and meeting the "Diseasel"!

Diseasel300 · #**138** 05-28-2018, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H-townbenzoboy

It was great meeting you in Centerville yesterday and meeting the "Diseasel"!

Hey Joseph, it was great to meet you and put a face with the name! I thoroughly enjoyed the event and plan to be back next year!

Diseasel300 · #**139** 05-28-2018, 10:05 PM

Well the Centerville Get-Together was certainly worth the trip. I got up bright and early on Saturday and made the drive to San Antonio to start the route up to Centerville.

The Diseasel did just fine on the whole trip. I put 794 miles on it over the weekend, and not one of those miles gave me a lick of trouble. I did 25.5mpg on the leg up and did 27mpg on the trip home today. I guess that means I can trust it AND afford to go places! Definitely need to fix the springs in the driver's seat and send the turbo off for rebuild. I used a little over a quart of oil on the trip

. In better news, the A/C blew frost the whole time, despite oppressive humidity and 98˚ heat!

Moving back to the get together, there was a gathering and a show/tell event at the state park nearby. Diesels were well represented, we had an '84 300TD, '81 300SD, '86 300SDL (mine), and a '91 350SD. If we'd had a 350SDL, we'd have completed the W126 diesel set!

Other cars that really caught my eye (besides the 300TD) were the Pagoda SL, the R107 280SL 5-Speed that could be a twin for my 500SL, and the SLS.

If any Texas folks run across this thread and are on the fence about whether or not to go to the Centerville Get-Together, don't even think about it, just go and you'll be glad you did!

Diseasel300 · #**140** 07-21-2018, 04:58 PM

It's been so hot this summer that I just haven't worked much on the car, but I have done a couple of things worth posting about.

The first major job I did was reworking the vacuum solenoid block that controls the various flaps and diverters in the A/C system. For a while I've had intermittent issues with the recirculation flap not closing. Driving down a rough road would have it opening and closing, but eventually it would close and stay that way. Over time, that behavior stopped, and after a few days of struggling A/C, I decided it was time to fix the block.

They're known for suffering from poor solder joints on the internal circuit board and also for being a sealed unit that is non-serviceable. There are various threads on the internet of people cutting them open with a saw. I decided that it was easier for me to cut the back open with my soldering iron, so that's what I did.

The various pictures below show what I found. Not only were there connection problems with the pins for the control plug, but 4 out of the 7 solenoids had bad solder joints, including both of the recirculation flap solenoids. Repairing the solder involved wicking the old off, then reflowing with fresh 63/37 solder.

Diseasel300 · #**141** 07-21-2018, 05:09 PM

After finishing up the repairs to the solder joints, I read the same resistance on every solenoid coil, right at 58Ω. Prior to the repairs, I had 2 that read 58, a couple at 60, a couple around 100Ω, and one that read ∞. I thought about ways to seal the module back off and settled on hot glue, mainly because it is so easy to clean back out if I ever need to work on the module again.

When reassembling the car, I tested the various vacuum pods and found a major leak on the "long stroke" recirculation pod. The leak wasn't the pod, but the elbow connector that connected to the vacuum solenoid block. Split right at the casting joint. Not that it ever mattered, the solenoid that controls that circuit wasn't making good connection in the first place.

Repairing the block and the bad connection had a profound impact on how well the A/C system works in the car. A couple days ago it was 107˚ here, but the A/C in that car powered through it. While moving, it was capable of making 42˚ air, while idling it was capable of maintaining temps in the upper 40s. Impressive for such a hot day in such an old car and having no window tinting.

Diseasel300 · #**142** 07-21-2018, 05:14 PM

The latest issue I tackled was reworking the W1 ground point behind the instrument cluster. I've been having intermittent problems with the seatbelt relay buzzing, lights flickering in the car, brake lights causing dimming instrument lights, flickering gauges, etc. All of the circuits that had problems were grounded at W1, so I decided to clean up the connections. Glad I did! All of my problems are eliminated except for occasional squeaks from the seatbelt buzzer if the doors are open. The biggest improvements are brighter instrument lights, no more flickering gauges, and for the first time the gas gauge actually reads FULL when the tank is full. All I did was pull the bolts out, sand the faces of the ring terminals, and coat the connections with some De-Oxit.

Diseasel300 · #**143** 08-10-2018, 08:55 PM

Finally received something special in the mail yesterday evening...

jsp300D · #**144** 08-13-2018, 01:45 AM

Nice project

Diseasel300 · #**145** 09-02-2018, 10:47 PM

The time had finally come to do something about the oil leaks on the injection pump on this car. I have no leaks from anywhere else on the engine or transmission other than the side cover of the injection pump. For whatever reason, finding a seller in North America who sells the resealing kit is impossible (I looked for 3 days, none even on eBay that are domestic).

Tired of the oil drips on driveways, I decided to cut my own gasket for the side cover. Luckily I still have the carcass of the original IP off the engine, so I used the side cover from it for sizing and template design. I settled on using high temperature silicone gasket material since it should resist hardening in the future, certainly longer than the original rubber seal.

You can see the pix below of my gasket compared to the original rubber one (which is FIRMLY attached to the side cover and hard as plastic).

During the replacement process, I noticed that my stop lever was leaking a fair bit of oil too. I've replaced the O-ring in the past and lacked success. I found a writeup on PP's parent website saying the OEM size was 8mmID x 2mm. Unfortunately that information is wrong, that's what I had in there and it's a very loose fit. I went the next size up to 8mmID x 2.5mm in Viton and got a nice snug fit without causing any binding.

After getting everything put together, I used some of my fabulous Oil-Eater degreaser and hosed the engine down. Took the car on a nice HARD romp on the interstate and I'm pleased to report that the IP is still bone dry! Time will tell how long it lasts, but the depressions in the engine mounts would fill with oil after a week or two of driving - that's how bad the leaks had gotten. My driver's side engine mount is wasted from all the oil that's been leaking on it too, just another job for the fall.

On the way home, the odometer clicked over to 186K miles as I turned onto my street. Seemed fitting as a milestone marker

vwnate1 · #**146** 09-02-2018, 10:56 PM

Looks good .

? What did you make the new gasket out of and did you use any sort of sealant or glue ? .

Diseasel300 · #**147** 09-02-2018, 11:01 PM

I used this stuff to make the gasket: Silicone Gasket Sheet I chose it because it has a higher temperature rating than buna rubber, is resistant to synthetic oils and biofuels, and resists hardening and cracking like rubber.

No sealant or glue used. The original setup didn't call for any and there isn't any pressure involved.

Thalia · #**148** 09-10-2018, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diseasel300

The time had finally come to do something about the oil leaks on the injection pump on this car. I have no leaks from anywhere else on the engine or transmission other than the side cover of the injection pump. For whatever reason, finding a seller in North America who sells the resealing kit is impossible (I looked for 3 days, none even on eBay that are domestic).

Tired of the oil drips on driveways, I decided to cut my own gasket for the side cover. Luckily I still have the carcass of the original IP off the engine, so I used the side cover from it for sizing and template design. I settled on using high temperature silicone gasket material since it should resist hardening in the future, certainly longer than the original rubber seal.

You can see the pix below of my gasket compared to the original rubber one (which is FIRMLY attached to the side cover and hard as plastic).

During the replacement process, I noticed that my stop lever was leaking a fair bit of oil too. I've replaced the O-ring in the past and lacked success. I found a writeup on PP's parent website saying the OEM size was 8mmID x 2mm. Unfortunately that information is wrong, that's what I had in there and it's a very loose fit. I went the next size up to 8mmID x 2.5mm in Viton and got a nice snug fit without causing any binding.

After getting everything put together, I used some of my fabulous Oil-Eater degreaser and hosed the engine down. Took the car on a nice HARD romp on the interstate and I'm pleased to report that the IP is still bone dry! Time will tell how long it lasts, but the depressions in the engine mounts would fill with oil after a week or two of driving - that's how bad the leaks had gotten. My driver's side engine mount is wasted from all the oil that's been leaking on it too, just another job for the fall.

On the way home, the odometer clicked over to 186K miles as I turned onto my street. Seemed fitting as a milestone marker

Congratulations on hitting the 186k miles.

Diseasel300 · #**149** 10-07-2018, 11:58 PM

If you're a purist or weak of stomach, look away again!

The time had come for another $5.88 professional upholstery job on that poor rear seat. The leather in the car is trashed, too many years of sitting in the hot sun neglected did it in, it's just crunchy and fragile. The rear seat bottom finally got to the point that pieces are falling off from the dogs getting in and out, so it was blanket time again.

Maybe not factory-fresh, but at least it matches the seat back and doesn't look like there was a knife fight back there anymore!

Diseasel300 · #**150** 10-08-2018, 12:00 AM

Next was time to do something about the cracked up dashboard. Being Texas, there's not much sense in sourcing a crack-free dash, it'll just crack again in the summertime, so I elected to go the Dash-Mat route.