Replacment of door check roller

[Bob G]

 Has anyone had to replace the door check roller on their SL. I understand you can get them two ways as a kit forum or as a replacement assembly from Mercedes-Benz. I am not sure what  the advanages and disadvanages would be and how difficult replacment of a factory assembly would intail. there is nothing in the BBB that covers this.

I would like to here from some of our owners who have incounted this problem and read what unite they choose to use and how it  to do the replacement.

Bob Geco
1968 280SL

[n/a]

One of the first things I had to do. Bought a repair kit off Ebay from an outfit in the Land Down under... about $32. I dont know if MBZ offers a version or not.

This kit included two rollers (hard, white, nylon sorta material), a couple allen head cap screws (shouldered for the lenght of the rollers), and a couply nyloc nuts.

The procedure (included in the kit) is to drill out the swedged or coined end of the existing pin, usually from the bottom, though on my car one side was located on top while the other side required drilling from the bottom. Be carful not to enlarge the hole too much. Drive out the old pin and remove the old roller... or whats left of it.

Insert the new roller in the bracket. Insert the cap screw and tighten the nut snugly. The shouldered cap screw prevent binding of the roller if you too aggressive with the wrench.

It was helpful to first remove the guide arm from the quarter panel door jamb... allows the door to more fully open giving you the needed room to get a drill and bit in true vertical position. Also a good idea to dab some paint or heavy grease on any metal exposed during drilling... fight the rust demon.

Took about 1-1/2 hours, and man was it worth it... the doors now have a real quality feel when opening and closing.

My 2 cents...

`68 280sl
`62 Lincoln Continental Conv.
`73 450sl

[kns]

Hey Brian - there's a useful outfit in the 'land down under'???  We gotta know! Do you recall the name/address?

Cheers,

kns.
1965 230SL, Manual
[1965 220SEb Coupe, Man.]

[Bearcat]

Brain, any chance of that address down under, I have the same problem and am happy to see there is a fix as against opening up the door and replacing the assembly.

280SL 1970
320SL 1998
300TD 1998

[n/a]

I've had a couple emails off-line requesting the supplier name for this repair kit... unfortunately I dont have any records retained on this particular fix since it was one of the lower cost items I've purchased for my go-da.

It was an Ebay purchase awhile back (records purged), and since I surf it regularly, I'll keep my eye open for the seller's return. Will research elsewhere and post any results.

Sorry  

`68 280sl
`62 Lincoln Continental Conv.
`73 450sl

[n/a]

O.k., I found it. The hot link below will take you to the Ebay page the item sold on. $30 US for the pair was a great value!

The seller has not posted another, but I bet he has more to sell. For those in the LDU, the seller is mbclassic sales in Sydney. I believe the email address is info@mbclassic.com.au

Cheers

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2431733808



`68 280sl
`62 Lincoln Continental Conv.
`73 450sl

[John A. Dean]

I replaced my roller with a new nylon piece ordered through Star Quality Parts (findable through any search engine).  They were five bucks apiece (I bought extra for future use).  I disassembled the whole door panel and took off the arm in order to drill out the big rivet that held the old roller in place, but I guess you could try to do it with the door in place.  I found stainless steel bolt and cap screw at my local hard ware store to complete the job.  It is really an easy fix.

1969 280SL, manual, MB TEX, green/cognac

[n/a]

John's method is quite functional, and had I not run across the Ebay item I would have checked with some of the usual suspects for a replacement part/roller... $5 is certainly cheaper than $15 no matter how you do the math.

The nice but perhaps non-essential thing about the convenient kit I got was that the bolt was properly shouldered, with the "shaft" size matching both roller bore and the larger top hole, while the threaded portion matched the smaller bottom hole in the bracket. The only thing this really does is prevent overtightening the bolt and thereby collapsing the bracket on the roler and binding its movement.

Drilling the bottom hole to match the top, selecting the right bolt and nut, and care in tightening to keep the roller free is both functional and cheaper.

Go alternative, John.


`68 280sl
`62 Lincoln Continental Conv.
`73 450sl