Recommendation

[admin]

We received a mail from a satisfied Full Member (darylw) today. I decided to post it because it shows the value our members get from this site:

Recently I found my 1965 230sl would not start checked it out and had no spark so went to local supplier and got a new coil.
Still no spark checked out and changed Ballast resistor, plugs, distributor cap, rotor, tried to change points however they kept giving me the wrong ones.  - Which were quite new

At this time I renewed my membership and went through you technical manual, I found a report that said this model had 3 coils, blue, black and red.

The coil I had taken out was painted blue so I took it back to supplier with your report, they kept telling me that they had given me the correct one, but when I asked them about the coil I had taken out A bosch with part number visible they check and had one in stock.

I took this home and voila it started up no problem.

On a side note to this while investigating the distributor I found what at first looked like a piece of string inside. When I gently pulled on it I found that it was a piece of wire attached at only one end with the clip right below. The other wire attached at this location also fell apart when I touched it. I took these two wire and cleaned them up and installed new clips and refastened. This was done before finally getting correct coil.

It is amazing how well it starts and runs when the vacuum advance is connected properly.

Many thanks for your help

[UJJ]

Bingo !! Yes, thanks to all who make this site happen.
Urban

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

I second that and also agree 100% about the value of this site!

Some members or associate members may recall that my car stalled some 20 miles from my home some time back on a sunny day when I decided to take her for a spin. Well if I read some of the background reports I may have saved myself in excess of $1,000- Canadian dollars (tow to the dealer, diagnostic costs at the dealer and a radiator repair plus taxi fairs).

Here is what happened; Car stalled for no reason (after a sharp U-turn).

Here is what I had to do; Get towed to the dealer, take a taxi home, pay diagnostic costs, take care of a sudden radiator leak.

I did check the fuses and only took one out that appeared to be blown, it was not so I returned the fuse into it's holder. The car did not start so my only option was to get a tow truck.

Why the sudden radiator leak? Well I can only deduct that when the tow truck driver unladed the car (our tow hook is very close to the radiator) that he may have contacted and damaged the radiator since it leaked directly in line with the tow hook.

What Forum Members recommended ...

A) The rapid U-turn I mad may have channeled some foreign particles to the fuel pump and caused the fuse to blow. They further recommended to listen to the fuel pump you can hear it operating once you turn the ignition key to the start position.

B) It was further recommended to turn the fuses sometimes there is build up in the fuse holders and turning your fuse will loosen this.

Bottom line ... had I known all this before I would have saved myself the $1000- repair bill. What was the problem to begin with ... you guessed it a blown fuse for the fuel pump.

Is information on this web site worth it ... You bet it is ... and membership here is a real plus without question ....

[GGR]

It looks like the original non starting problem was due to these bad connections that darylw repaired in between the replacement of the coils and other parts, if I understand correctly. So another piece of advice I am now systematically applying to myself (which is true for any car) is to precisely diagnose a problem before starting throwing new parts at it. And the high value of this forum is that it will help diagnose a problem precisely on our Pagodas which is not always an easy thing to do.