Repair weekend NIGHTMARE

[blairwag]

Hey gang,
Thought I'd share my nightmare with your all.

Last weekend my "Lil Red Car" stranded me about 70 miles from home   . The transmission shifter linkage fell off the car, completely.  And, since I had no parking brake, I had to lye under the car, while someone else sat in the driver seat with the brake applied, while I shifted it from reverse into driver. Very scarey. I did get home, thank God.

Anyway, I bought and received a transmission motor mount (and bellow) and 2 shifter bushings from Ray Paul (now at Bud's Benz). So, off I went Saturday to replace the mount, and reinstall the linkage rod. The transmission mount went pretty smooth. I didn't even have to remove that large triangle transmission mount plate to do it   . I was afforded enough access from the drive shaft (propeller shaft) access hole behind the transmission. Thanx to George Davis for the tip on lifting the tranny at the bell housing.

But, that's the only thing that went smooth. Since I had the car up on 4 jack stands, I figured I'd bleed the brake lines, adjust the brakes, fix the parking brake, lube the chassis and drive line, and, of course, reinstall the shift linkage rod.

Well, after 1.5 hours of toil, I gave up on the linkage rod [!]. I tried every way to Sunday to figure out how to route the rod, but failed.

So, I went on to the brake lines. Well, pretty much MUD came out of the bleeder nipples. I bled 2 bottles of DOT3 fluid before it all came out clean. That was kind of disheartening  :? !

Then, on to the chassis lube. I found what seemed to be 30 years of crud caked on to all the grease fittings and where the grease oozes out of each joint. After an hour of cleaning that, I noticed that all 8 of the flexible rubber sealing rings on the pivot joints for both left and right, upper and lower control arms are all damaged  :x . All 8 - I couldn't believe it. That looks like a VERY PAINFUL repair! So, I finished up lubing everything up front.

When I got to the rear of the car, I noticed the seal between the differential case and the "Carrier for rear axle suspension" is all chewed up.  What a freaky rear-end, anyway! What the heck is that thing, BTW, the "Carrier for rear axle suspension"? And, what does it do? I don't even think I lube'd the nipple behind that thing, I was probably crying by then  :evil: .

Next, on to fixing the parking brake. I wanted to remove one of the rear rotors to expose the drum brake system. As soon as I read and realized that removing the caliper required disconnecting the brake line, and opening my now bled system I just about fainted  :x . Fortunately, using the lug bolt (spherical flange bolt) I was able to peer into the drum and see tons of meat on the shoes. I was able to access the adjusting device and simply adjust the shoes until they made contact, then back off 2 clicks. So, the parking brake works now, without having to remove the rotor. That was cool   .

So, with about 18 hours of work, I successfully replaced the rear transmission and motor mount, lubed most of the chassis, bled the brakes, and adjusted the parking brake (which now works, thank God). And, in doing so, identified a good 60 hours of work I need yet to do before taking the car off the stands  

I'm posting TONS of questions and cries for help. You'll see the forum loaded with my posts. I figured I'd post each issue seperately, so the threads can remain on topic, nad hopefully be helpful to someone else in the future.

Thanx for reading my sob story. And thanx for any help you'll be able to offer me - 'cause I sure need it   .


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William Blair Wagner: blairwag@earthlink.net
Education is not always knowing the answer,
...but rather knowing where to look for it!
1971 280SL US Automatic
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[Cees Klumper]

Sorry to hear your plight. I suppose you have not had this car very long?

I did some repairs last night myself and was successful except for one thing, which was also disheartening.

About 6 months ago I managed to damage the capillary tube for the temperature meter. So my meter did not work anymore, which is not good. Then, on Saturday, the Dutch MB club's magazine fell on the doormat, and it contained a story from a member who had driven his Pagoda at red line temp for a bit, until steam came out from under the hood. Blew the head gasket. So this provided me with new energy and motivation to install the new euro temperature gauge line (EXPENSIVE!) that I bought some three months ago at Van Dijk's, along with:
- new gaskets to go between the tach, speedo and center cluster instruments and the dash openings
- new light bulbs for inside the instruments
I had been putting these things off since it's such cramped work.

Taking out the tach, center cluster instrument and speedo went well enough. Also removing the old temp line and old gauge from the center instrument was not difficult. When I separated the center instrument, I was surprised to find 6 (instead of 7) lights bulbs! My 'door is open' bulb never worked so I figured it was bad wiring or what have you, but it turned out there was no bulb inside.

So I replaced all the bulbs, routed the new line through the firewall, put the center instrument back together and then it happened: the light control knob was not properly aligned with the control rod and the glass cover broke! No fix for that, save a new cover. Also putting the center instrument back into the dash was very difficult. I ended up loosening the back of the instrument (with all the bulbs) slightly, pushing the whole thing through the hole, then tightening the back nuts.

The rest of the job went smooth enough. It's great having the gaskets in place; before, the instruments were never in tight enough and could be moved up and down etc. Now there are in nice and tight. Also the new bulbs give a nice, even glow. The temperature meter shows a nice steady reading, at exactly the point where the two 0's of the figure-8 meet (i.e. halfway down the 80 degrees centigrade mark which is quite good - actually my car has held its temperature pretty steady since I bought it, even in hot stop-and-go traffic conditions, touch wood). And, lastly, having that light come on when I open the door is gratifying; I was always somewhat jealous when I saw other cars with that feature. Not entirely sure why though; it's not too difficult to see when the door is open.

So now I have to buy a new glass cover and, if I can find it, a new chrome ring for that center instrument, and find the time to put that in.

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[Raymond]

Cees, Is the "Door open" light you mentioned the red one in the center?  In my manual it says that is the low oil pressure light and it comes on when the door opens so that you'll know the bulb works.

Ray
'68 280SL 4-spd Coupe

[Cees Klumper]

Yes, it is the center light. Is the second feature not for warning for 'brake fluid low' rather than low oil pressure?

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic