Although we still offer basic, Free membership, and Paying membership which entitles you to receiving our print magazine Pagoda World and our news letter, as well as full access to our technical manual, the membership system has been completely revamped on the new system.
The International Club for Mercedes-Benz 230 SL, 250 SL and 280 SL Roadsters based on the W113 platform.
This site and this Group were established as a source of information relating to the Mercedes W113 cars and to help maintain, restore, exhibit, and promote the ownership and admiration of these cars among the international community of W113 enthusiasts.
For details about our Group, see the menu items at the left. We have our charter, membership information, and lots of fun sections here.
The buttons above this text bring you to our Forum, for a wealth of information and a great community of car owners. Join us today for your free Forum membership. If you become a Full Member for a nominal fee you help to pay for the upkeep of this site and receive additional benefits.
We have a Technical Manual with lots of useful information to keep our cars running and to maintain or restore, or just learn more, about your vehicle. Our Technical Manual is powered by a Wiki, so Full Members are able to edit and contribute to the content. There is some premium content available, only for Full Members.
European Event 2012
In 2012 the group again organised an event in Europe, in the Ardennes, Belgium. Over 25 cars and 50 attendees hailing from all over Europe and as far afield as Australia and the US attended. The European Event is a social event, enjoyed by Pagoda lovers, and their partners alike. We drive our cars on great roads, have lovely dinners and lunches with responsible amounts of good food and wine, we visit local landmarks and try to fit in one special event. This year we visited the 6-hours of Spa-Francorchamps, an endurance race for classic automobiles on the circuit that hosted Formula 1 only a couple of weeks ago.
With access to the pit-lane, the paddocks, and the unforgettable smell of oil, petrol and the sounds of hardly dampened exhausts, this proved to be a great experience.
Many magazines and other sources say that the Mercedes-Benz 280SL is the most valuable car of the W113 range of Mercedes cars. They cite improved horsepower, a more reliable crankshaft with more bearings, and up-to-date equipment such as an automatic gearbox or disc-brakes all around for this.
But is this really true? The experts and members of our forums beg to differ. They consider the lighter, manual 230SL to be more of a sports car. They also prefer some of the detailed fixtures on the car, such as the additional chrome, the mirror posts, the door fittings.
However, even they cannot agree. Some prefer the most undervalued of the range, the 250SL. Already adorned with some of the improvements of the 280SL, but without losing the charm of the 230SL, and certainly without the emissions control features of the 280SL, it may be the best compromise.
Hey, don't take our word for it. Check your thoughts in this thread dicussing the differences in detail.
Technical Manual
Many visitors head straight for the forums... hey that's where it's all happening, right?
Well, not so right. We have a community effort going on amongst Full Members of this forum to produce the definitive source of all knowledge Pagoda. Need to know about minute differences between a 230, 250 and 280 SL? Need to know how to do something that the Mercedes-Benz manual doesn't give you enough detail about? Has the Haynes manual let you down?
Check out our Technical Manual first. Chances are, you'll find it in there. Some bits aren't finished yet, and sometimes it may just be wrong. That's because it's a community effort. It is getting better all the time, and most of it (except for some precious parts that alone will make your Full Membership of this group worthwhile) is freely accessible.
And if it isn't there.. why don't you ask about it at the forums and write up in the Technical Manual what you find out? Because that is what this community of real car lovers is all about: sharing knowledge and helping each other out.
Once the Technical Manual is in a further advanced state, we shall be distributing paper copies for use in your garage or workshop (well, you wouldn't want to get oil in your keyboard, now?).
After a pretty comprehensive search I cannot find a single supplier anywhere who has stock of the 113 542 0807 cable which SLS designates for the RHD car.
There are lots of 0707 cables advertised which are 1300mm long abut does anyone know how long the Tacho cable for RHD vehicle should be? Perhaps they are interchangeable?
we had a similar problem like that with my friends 280sl, it turned out to be the three wire connections right under the engine on the oil pan, dirty and oily after cleaning started right up.
Since the homestead is powerless thanks to some inclement weather, I figure it's a good time to post an update.
We are still working on two fronts - the driver's side door and the electrical. Fool that I am, I am taking on the electrical. I have been working on tracing wiring from the ECU to the parts that would need to link up with the main harness. I think there is not a whole lot of interaction, just some at the engine start safety/backup light switch on the transmission. Power also needs to make it back to the starter relay so I think I am going to grab it off of either fuse four or six. Mr. Remer happens to have a 300sel owner's manual complete with wiring diagram. Once I get done tracing and modifying, I will try and scan in a copy for folks to look at. Then it will be time to build some connectors for the relays.
Our door is just a no fun step right now as the paint continues to misbehave. Enough said.
I am hopeful we will get past these issues this week and start on the fe...
Tried the hammer - wood block on the starter. No luck yet. Boy, it sure was fun, located under both the intake and exhaust! I jacked up a corner and slid beneath to try and hit it. Nothing yet. Battery is good. Thanks to all so far, I will check every connection, battery terminals, grounds, starter, etc. Never would have thought about the ground strap - will do. I'm thinking jack up, disassemble the connections, clean, sand, spray with contact cleaner or brakleen, then reassemble using spark plug boot dielectric grease. After that, who knows, maybe a starter.
You met me out at Green Days as well but I am just a wrencher on the car - Dick is the owner. We will definitely be looking you and Spal up if we can cross a few more hurdles and get to putting the radiator back in the car. Definitely not enough clearance in ours to go with an engine mounted fan.
Hope your Mercedes is still running right along, Justin
