Hi. The a/c on my 88 300E failed today and blew a bit of odorless smoke into the cabin. When I opened the hood I noticed a part on the left side in front of the fuse box. There are two cables each with a screw at the end that should be connected by something and everything is enclosed in a black plastic housing. The wire that connected the screw heads broke and the plastic housing melted.
I suspect that was the cause of the a/c failure and I'm wondering what is that thing called. Should I replace the whole thing or just use some cable to connect the screw heads?
Thanks

The part you refer to is an inline fuse holder using a heavy 30A solder strip type fuse. It was first used on the early automatic glow systems on the fire wall. Buy the whole thing, the screws and fuse don't come with it. Its less than $5.

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Steve Brotherton
Owner 24 bay BSC
Bosch Master, ASE master L1
26 years MB technician