I've got a '92 300SD (W140). I had to take the center console apart (as much as I could to fix the track of the sliding center compartment cover). Now the slider on the rear air vent no longer works. As moving the wire actuator at the back does nothing to the damper flap under the radio in the front, there must be a linkage alongside the trans tunnel and under the center console for reasons I could not begin to fathom. I've had the armrest off and I know how to get the wood panel with the window switches off, but I can't figure out how the console is hitched in the back. Do I need to take it off, or can I remove the center compartment from the front, i.e., the space vacated by the panel that holds the window switches (looks like a bear to unscrew the underneath screws)? Or is it done some other way completely? Also, assuming I get it fixed, is there a trick to getting the armored wire hooked up to the vent unit in the back again. Seems like you need very long skinny fingers and my experience is that they don't design things that way—you just have to know the trick.

After some thought and no responses to my original post, I figured it out myself. I really did not have to remove the console to fix the original problem which was to fix the linkage between the air flap under the radio and the A/C/fresh air vent for the rear seat. After I got the console out, I discovered that the bottom of the center console compartment lifts out giving the necessary access. I knew it was easier than taking the console out!!

As to removing the console, it's not too hard. There are four screws on the sides of the back of the console (accessible from the rear seat) which connect it to the transmission tunnel. Removing them and doing the normal stuff up front (remove radio, wood piece with window switches, and the wood piece surrounding the radio & climate control and then the four screws which hold the vertical part of the console to the dashboard) and it can be lifted right out. Putting it back requires care in ensuring that the carpeting panels on the footwell next to the tunnel are properly placed.