Picked this up from a friend this weekend...

It's my first Benz -- so I may be excused for a taste for the rough.

Part of the fun is what I didn't photograph. Thanks to a post-loading party, for the first few hundred yards of the tow home (at night), the car was in drive. I remedied that and got it home. The thought of having ruined the (auto) transmission didn't cause me to lose any sleep, the beer and rounds upon rounds of Wii bowling proved sufficient to dull my inner drill sergeant.

First picture -- needed a jump in the morning. Parked it next to my diesel wabbit -- I'm sure they had an interesting conversation in the universe where cars can talk.

"Hallo shatsie...I'm Conrad Lingus Ritter von Wienerschleider from Stuttgart, but you already know that, you Wolfsburg vixen."

Battery close-up for the second pic.

The third picture shows a neato feature -- shut off the engine by sucking on a hose.

Picture four provides evidence of a furry squatter.

After a can of engine cleaner and a hose, the engine bay stands ready for inspection in pic number five. Two leaks, a bit of "Ami-Engineering", and past evidence of a brake fluid spill.

Were this car any faster, picture number six might actually worry me a little.

I've decided the front grille will become a pain in the ass.

Looks pretty decent besides the mini-battery. The tray is easy to replace, what matters is how the body underneath looks!

(04-22-2010 06:24 AM)ForcedInduction Wrote:  Looks pretty decent besides the mini-battery. The tray is easy to replace, what matters is how the body underneath looks!

I agree, look for soft areas underneath especially around the seat areas. Because of the MB "eterna-undercoat" small fissure in the undercoating could really mean you have 40% of a floor pan left and are trusting your life to an undercoating-rust-undercoating mixture that is about as structural as a butterfinger candy bar. You might never know until your seat starts to fall through the floor.

Death Issue #2 is that the bottom of the rocker rusts out against the floor pan, and the seat belt bolt on the bottom ends up being attached to a thin piece of steel with no support. In other words, the seatbelt will do nothing in the event of a crash. Pull the mats out from the inside and take a look, and push from underneath and take a look.

The grill can certainly crack you on the back of the head, but the hood swings all the way up to 90 degrees. The catch is on the driver side. Very nice feature.

Looks like a nice car, no big loss if you toasted the auto. Lots of ways to deal with that.

(04-23-2010 08:17 AM)dropnosky Wrote:  I agree, look for soft areas underneath especially around the seat areas. Because of the MB "eterna-undercoat" small fissure in the undercoating could really mean you have 40% of a floor pan left and are trusting your life to an undercoating-rust-undercoating mixture that is about as structural as a butterfinger candy bar. You might never know until your seat starts to fall through the floor.

Death Issue #2 is that the bottom of the rocker rusts out against the floor pan, and the seat belt bolt on the bottom ends up being attached to a thin piece of steel with no support. In other words, the seatbelt will do nothing in the event of a crash. Pull the mats out from the inside and take a look, and push from underneath and take a look.

The grill can certainly crack you on the back of the head, but the hood swings all the way up to 90 degrees. The catch is on the driver side. Very nice feature.

Looks like a nice car, no big loss if you toasted the auto. Lots of ways to deal with that.

Thanks for the hood tip. Came in handy while I was looking around the back of the engine bay this weekend!

Now for today's stumper -- the dash has four idiot lights on the bottom left side that have faded to illegibility. If you have the answer or -- better yet -- a link to a drawing -- please reply.

High beams, alternator no-charge, front brake pad thickness warning, parking brake applied/low brake fluid warning.
The three to the right offset should be on any time the engine isn't running. A blown bulb in the "alternator no-charge" socket will prevent the alternator from charging.

Another thanks. Time to make some labels!

For your viewing pleasure, I present a couple of run vids --

Love At First Crank

The Oil Cap Shuffle

Again, I welcome the input of the "STD" community.

(04-27-2010 09:37 AM)squozzer Wrote:  Another thanks. Time to make some labels!

They slide out.

Victory is mine! The engine shuts itself off now!

I rebuilt the vacuum pump (thanks a lot to Turbo617 for the rebuild vid on YouTube), which I hoped would improve the brakes, but when it didn't, I decided to drive it up on some ramps anyway. It was time to look at the underside.

The first two pix show some rust around the formed subframes on both sides -- look like lift scars -- and I beat all over the undercoating with my screwdriver handle. Didn't feel any softness or hear crunchy sounds. Topside looked OK, but I should know more when I swap out the front seats.

Finally traced the "suck it" line I was using to shut off the engine and re-installed the vacuum line that's supposed to go there.

So now it's time to look more closely at the brakes.

The last two pix are some fan shroud "ami-rigs" for a bit of amusement...

Though I haven't posted in a while, I have been fixing things up here and there and will post some pix soon.

One part in particular seems to be unobtainable -- the throttle linkage sockets. One of my engine bay shots shows a linkage held in place by a "pony tail" elastic, and while it lends a redneck panache to the automotive ensemble, Murphy's Law stipulates that it will fail at the most inopportune time.

So far I've been to several websites -- which I'm sure are multiple fronts leading to the same factory in China -- and the parts were either out of stock during the order placement or the order was cancelled a few days later because the parts were -- you guessed it -- out of stock.

So does someone have a line on where I can find the sockets new or should I just hit up the local Pull-A-Part for salvagables?