A cool discovery: Fuse Guide

[Kenneth Gear]

It was a rainy day today so because I couldn't go out for a ride, I decided to to do a few minor fixes and explore my car a bit.  I decided to open the fuse box holder for the first time since owning the car and found a near perfect paper insert inside the cover explaining what all the fuses were for (in German and english).

Even though I suspect most all of our cars have this insert, I thought it was really cool to find a new item that was orginal with the car.

[hauser]

Looks like you found some burried treasure!

1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[Benz Dr.]

Mine had the same thing and when I took it apart one day I found another one underneath. This one was in Italian which led me to believe the car was for export to that country.
The decal inside the hatch cover that tells you how to open and close the top is also in Italian which pretty much confirms this. This car also had the small round lights on the front fenders that are used in Italy but were removed and covered over at some point. I've found that a higher percentage of 5 speed cars tend to be Italian export or are often euro cars.

Daniel G Caron

[TheEngineer]

On my '69 280SL I have a small black fusebox just forward of the fuse box holder you are describing. It had a single fuse in it, only  energized with the parking lights on. My friendly MB dealer told me, it was probably for the radio. I found that it was for the fogs and there was a connector inside my headlight assembly for the fogs. So I installed a pair of Bosch fog lights. Works great: Look at the picture

Download Attachment: MyFogLts.JPG
49.11 KB

1969 280SL,Signal Red,  Retired engineer, West- Seattle, WA

[mdsalemi]

On my '69, that little 2-fuse holder is indeed for the radio, and the second fuse slot, unused on mine, is for the [I don't have one] power antenna.


Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored