What have you done to your Pagoda today?

[jpinet]

A fresh engine and all the ancillaries always looks great after being done. It looks good.

As I had everything out of mine and had already spent a fortune, a friend said to put a fresh coat of body colour paint in the engine bay or I would live to regret it. It cost next ot nothing to do. I did and am glad now that I did. I hate to say this but whilst it was all out you should have sprayed the bay with the red body colour. 

You're right. I could have! I thought about it, but I had so many irons in the fire besides my car ( I fly over 100 000 miles a year to work) that I figured it's something I would do at some other time.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Took a drive out to the Benz Barn this morning to let Dan (tThe Benz Dr.) give my blue tornado a general check up amongst other things. Dan's sharp eye does not miss a thing, he found an issue with my RHS connecting rod bearing (part is on order for my next visit). He also spotted some interference with a rubber hose and my linkage that was promptly adjusted to now allow me to make full use of my throttle when needed. Amongst other items, oil was changed, brake fluid drained and refreshed, all points greased, general fluid checks including coolent quality checked. I always enjoy my drive out to his shop, nice spots along the way for a picnic stop and some quality time with Mother Nature.

Dan's garage is loaded with Customer cars, two 600, several 190SL's as well as 6 or 7 I think Pagoda's requiring attention is some sort or another. We pushed one of the Pagoda's off the lift outside so tha my blue tornado could be serviced. Dan is a great sport that way to help out one of his Customers you can tell by the sparkle in his eyes how much he loves our cars. Thanks Dan for another job well done and a happy Customer!

On my way out to Dan's shop my odometer turned over to 10,000 Miles (the odometer was replaced in 1992 when RM did some work on this car for the previous owner). I could not resist to pull off the road and take a snap shot


 

[batman]

Rolf-Dieter-

Do you change oil & brake fluids, grease points and check coolant quality etc. at specific mileage intervals or time intervals ?
r
ds

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Mark I do it once every year. Dan's shop is one hour and thirty minutes west from where I live and once I am there we do it all at the same time. I have the car now just over two years and have driven her in that time period nearly six thousand miles.

Dan did this work for me in 2013 before I went to Williamsburg on a 1,600 mile round trip. Last summer I had my oil and filter changed at a Mercedes dealer in town and Dan did what I had done yesterday.

[Cees Klumper]

Today was chasing an intermittent no-start condition (power is on, fuel pump whirrs but turning the key to activate the starter motor does not yield result). This has happened maybe five times over the years, last time was last Saturday. It always happens when I am away from home i.e. on a trip - so it doesn't happen when the engine is cold. After some time, it will 'cure itself' and the engine will start normally, as if nothing was amiss. I thought this was due to an old starter so I replaced it with the new smaller, higher-powered one a couple of months ago. But apparently that wasn't it, as the issue re-appeared last Saturday. Nothing wrong with the fuses it seems. I did some reading around the site etc and could not find reference to a starter relay anywhere, so that doesn't seem to form part of the system. I did see references to the ignition switch, so this morning decided to have a look at that. Then I realized that, in order to get at that, the gauges need to be removed. To do that, I decided to remove the driver's seat, and while that was out I decided to take the tracks off and clean and grease them. That was a bit of a job, as they had never been apart and the 'sticky tape' that sits between some of the parts had to be removed, what a messy job. I cleaned the tracks as best as I could (they don't come apart so cleaning and greasing is not easy). Anyways, then I removed the gauges, as well as some superfluous wiring from an aftermarket stero that was installed at one point, and got at the ignition switch. Took off the connector, cleaned the pins and put some electronic cleaner in the lock. No obvious issues anywhere. Put it all back together (those holding brackets for the gauges are always so much fun ...) and the test drive went fine. Just tried starting again after fifteen minutes (same conditions when it failed to start last Saturday) and all is well. One other possible culprit, other than the ignition switch, could be the aftermarket alarm system / immobilizer. We'll see if the problem re-occurs.

[jpinet]

Today was chasing an intermittent no-start condition (power is on, fuel pump whirrs but turning the key to activate the starter motor does not yield result). This has happened maybe five times over the years, last time was last Saturday. It always happens when I am away from home i.e. on a trip - so it doesn't happen when the engine is cold. After some time, it will 'cure itself' and the engine will start normally, as if nothing was amiss. I thought this was due to an old starter so I replaced it with the new smaller, higher-powered one a couple of months ago. But apparently that wasn't it, as the issue re-appeared last Saturday. Nothing wrong with the fuses it seems. I did some reading around the site etc and could not find reference to a starter relay anywhere, so that doesn't seem to form part of the system. I did see references to the ignition switch, so this morning decided to have a look at that. Then I realized that, in order to get at that, the gauges need to be removed. To do that, I decided to remove the driver's seat, and while that was out I decided to take the tracks off and clean and grease them. That was a bit of a job, as they had never been apart and the 'sticky tape' that sits between some of the parts had to be removed, what a messy job. I cleaned the tracks as best as I could (they don't come apart so cleaning and greasing is not easy). Anyways, then I removed the gauges, as well as some superfluous wiring from an aftermarket stero that was installed at one point, and got at the ignition switch. Took off the connector, cleaned the pins and put some electronic cleaner in the lock. No obvious issues anywhere. Put it all back together (those holding brackets for the gauges are always so much fun ...) and the test drive went fine. Just tried starting again after fifteen minutes (same conditions when it failed to start last Saturday) and all is well. One other possible culprit, other than the ignition switch, could be the aftermarket alarm system / immobilizer. We'll see if the problem re-occurs.

I had a similar problem that I traced back to bad wires going to the thermo-time switch. This sits in a casing located between your valve cover and the injection pump. It has a hose connecting it to the thermostat on your injection pump. There is a relay that controls this. To check it, I took the rubber boot off and jumped the positive to ground when my engine did not want to start when hot. As it solved the problem, I found that both wires - ground and positive- were frayed and cut. Replacing the end with soldered-on connections solved the problem. Your problem may not be this, but it's an easy thing to check.

[hauser]

Bought a new Nardi wheel along with a new hub and horn button.

[Cees Klumper]

Thanks, will check that out. Amazing the sorts of electrical gremlins can occur!

[Peter van Es]

Today was chasing an intermittent no-start condition (power is on, fuel pump whirrs but turning the key to activate the starter motor does not yield result). This has happened maybe five times over the years, last time was last Saturday. It always happens when I am away from home i.e. on a trip - so it doesn't happen when the engine is cold.

I remember I had that problem with your car after refueling in Belgium on the way to it's new hiding place in France…

Peter

[Cees Klumper]

Exactly Peter! That was one of the incidents. I read up in the Technical Manual and there is a makeshift fix that is to run a wire directly from the battery to the starter solenoid, with a switch at the dash (along the lines of jpinet's suggestion), for when the problem occurs. Kind of cool to have a starter switch as opposed to having to turn the key. Still, will try to find the root cause before I resort to that. Problem is that it only occurs very rarely.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Dan's Mechanic did all the work under the watchful eye fron the Benz Dr. Of course. I had fun driving to the shop and home again

During my last trip to Dan's shop (Benz Dr), Dan noticed one of the ball joints in my "drag link" worn that produced quite a bit of play, left to right and up and down on my right hand front wheel. So Dan orders a new one and it arrived last night.

So this morning I took the blue tornado out to the BenzBarn for a change out. All went well and after the changeout all is like new again. We took her for a test drive after and at 130 km/hr no more play or shakes in my steering ... Simply solid as a rock ... Come on September and PUB 2015 I'm ready now

Thanks Dan for another fine job and for noticing it with your keen eye on my previous visit!

My car on the Benz Barn Hoyst and the old drag link in photos below

[Cees Klumper]

Today I took apart the driver's side door window mechanism. The window had become more and more difficult to wind up from the full down position. Decided to take the entire mechanism out because some cleaning and greasing didn't result in enough of an improvement. Turned out that (1) the rear window jaw/slider had come off of the glass (common fault), and (2) there is a slider channel that is invisible until the whole scissor mechanism is taken out. My channel was bone dry. I cleaned and re-greased that and all other moving parts and that made a huge difference: super-smooth action winding up and down. Then, using the guidance in the technical manual, re-affixed the rear jaw using some new thin felt and 2-part epoxy glue. Tomorrow morning, when the epoxy is fully hardened, will put it all back together. As Edd China (Wheeler Dealers) will say: "Result!"

[batman]

with rain falling this afternoon and all instruments, air & heating out of car - spent 3 hours fully cleaning out the air distribution box, both the windscreen and dash air ducts and the blower of 47 years of dust & debris, then removed all old foam and felt seals and attached new foam/felt seals.

[Jkalplus1]

I fixed my fuel leak! After ordering every possible fuel hose from the Classic Centre (in the absence of a solid diagnosis -super hot temp, hot engine, gas everywhere, no helper), I returned to winter storage for diagnosis: A Gemi clamp had loosened up on the fuel return hose, which explains why the car was running fine despite consuming a half tank over five km!  Fixed it and went for a test drive before the 450km journey home.  It showed symptoms I experienced before, where the engine suddenly makes no fire...you can hear the compression but no power.  I thought: "old gas" (8 months old), since I always have good fire.  Went and filled up, problem solved.  450km journey home at 4000RPM no problem.  Should have brought earplugs.  It's good to have the car back!  I'm debating prepping her for the Brockville Automotion Car Show this weekend...won the class last year with a Very Large Trophy with Psychedelic Hologram Foil...Having two would make a set that would establish me further as a man of exquisite taste.

[batman]

Fixed window rattles & new window felts: Our Tech Manual on this repair is fabulous and tells you everything you need to get windows perfect.
removed chrome trim, door cards & plastic protection
removed windows
cleaned inside of doors, guides, rails etc.
all four window jaws removed & cleaned (2 loose but all still attached to windows)
new plastic inserts & rubber rings in jaws
re-glued jaws onto windows with epoxy
glued new rubber strips onto glass
inserted new rubber hose into screw holes in glass
inserted new window felts
inserted sound proofing on inside door
new silicone grease everywhere

five hours each door, including 1.5 hours of constant adjustment to get perfect fit up/down

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Smiling @ Otto ... Good luck with that trophy ... Do post a picture.

Mark, on your next trip around the world stop over at my house you then can do my doors ~grin~ just kidding, I plan to do the same next winter in my garage. I like the idea of sound proofing the doors. I now have my hardtop in place I like the idea for several reasons, protection from the sun, no hasel to put the soft top up when it rains, much quieter ride and I can enjoy my music along the way. Good job you did with your doors!

[batman]

Thanks Rolf-Dieter.

When you do yours you will find that taking out and putting back the window is actually not difficult.
However, what is a real pain is getting the final adjustment right. It is very very tedious. There are so many ways that the windows can be adjusted and the only way to get a lovely smooth wind up and down is to get the window position 98% right. I am sure that a lot of the difficulty is the odd shape & curvature of the glass.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Yesterday I had my new Uniroyal white wall tiger paw tires installed, including the spare. The side is 185 / 70R 14 (same size I had on the car). I never I'm my life removed tires from a car that still looked like new tires (my former Michelin All Season white wall), however, they had to go after a 15 year life they have done there duty

The drive home was fantastic and nice and smooth. I even got two (2) thumbs up during my short 12 KM drive home, not sure if it was for the tires or the car ~grin~

5 tires, mounting and balancing I paid $620.09 Canadian ($474.51 US) or $124.02 CDN / $94.90 US for each

[batman]

Excellent. The extra smoothness is the first thing I felt when I recently replaced my 12 year old tires, meaning that the old tire rubber had become hard notwithstanding only 4,000 miles of use!

[Bonnyboy]

Over the past week, mostly before work and a couple 2 hour stints I replaced my sub frame mounts, motor mounts, tranny mount and shocks. This morning I took the car out for a spirited ride through the twisties and really enjoyed the difference a bit of suspension made.  It feels like the car is sitting 4" lower with the wheels 12" farther apart.  But of course it isn't.  I really hammered one sharp left hand corner trying to see if the back end would let go and it didn't even get close.  I can say that my car handled good before but so much better now.         

If I knew how easy this procedure was I would have done it years ago but I was always aprehensive reading through the instructions.   Its no biggie if you are mechanical - follow the instructions provided.  I used a 5' crowbar to seperate the subframe because that is what I have on hand (I just sat on the bar and reached in to remove the mount) and used 4 tapered punches to align the bolt holes.  The one thing that I did that made it so much easier for me was to clean all the bolts and clean the threads on the mounts as there was black paint on the threads that made the initial threading a bit tough.   Everything was clean and it went together beautifully. 

Oh yeah, all the mounts were shot.  I think that they were all original. 

[Coochas]

My car has been coughing and not holding idle recently so I changed the plugs and THEN changed the point breaker which has resulted in the car running better than ever!

Through the miracle of the technical manual, I removed the glove box to remove my clock which has been losing about 5 mins a day.   I moved the adjustment screw the equivalent of 1.5 hours on a clock face and am waiting to see if this was enough.  After 1 day it still seems to be losing about 3 mins over a day.  I'm gonna replace my glove box spring when I make the next adjustment.

[Garry]

Giving the old girl a full annual service today. 54,000 miles service.

Meanwhile I have been putting off doing a gearbox overhaul for over three years.   It was the last item on the restoration list that I knew could be delayed for some time but I think that time has come after doing a long trip (350 miles/600km) at the weekend and noticed that the revs flair out on occasions between 3 and 4 and now some times 2 and 3 now even when cold.  its time I think.
A job before summer is upon us as it gets worse when hot.

[hands_aus]

Because there was a stutter of idle revs just at the 'almost normal' operating temp, I had a think about the situation and as the idle revs were stable with a hot engine, I concluded it was time to replace the Thermostat in the Inj Pump WRD.

Luckily I bought a spare from the MB Classic Center Irvine CA on my way to PUB 2015.

So today It was replaced and all is back to normal.

It is interesting that the Thermostat cost AUD $40.65 3/12/2003 and USD $161.50 31/08/2015

[Mike K]

I finally tackled and replaced the compensating spring and rubbers this morning. It's something I've been putting off since late last year, when I replaced the 4 suspension springs and rubbers.
The old spring was tired and the rubbers were completely trashed.

It was easier than I expected, used a good strong spring compressor, loosened the 2 bolts on the support and dropped the spring out.
Compressed the new spring prior to fitting, fitted the rubbers and bolted the support back into place and then loosened the spring compressor.
Working with and compressing these springs really scares the crap out of me, when I think of what can happen if the spring compressor slips or gives way! 

Best,

Mike

[Mike K]

Gorgeous, tranquil autumn days here in the South of France, it's a great time to do all the work I've been wanting to do on the Old Girl.....I've owned her for 2 years this month.
In this time I've replaced & installed: changed US headlights to Euro, new fuel  tank, new fuel pump, new fuel sender unit, 123 ignition, new springs & rubbers, new Bilstein Shocks, new steering damper, torsion bar bushings, new stainless steel exhaust, new carpets, steering wheel, new seat belts, new brake calipers, new brake pipes & hoses, new master cylinder, new starter motor and auto shifter bushings- to name just a few.....

2 days ago I replaced the compensating spring.

Yesterday I did an oil service, replaced oil filter and all seals, added Liqui Moly 15W40 High Mileage & Liqui Moly 1013 Oil Additive- I do this every 2, 000 kms on my 128, 000 mile engine.

Today I did something I've been wanting to do for a while- checked on the condition of the tach bushing and vertical timing gear. All was in good order and within tolerances- for good measure I installed a new Tach Bushing.

I've read on the forum that checking this and the "garden hose seal" in the top of the oil filter housing are : "Two very important preventative measures for every W113 owner should be checking"
http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=3097.0  reply #1

Best,

Mike