Coming out of hibernation...

[kns]

First, season's greetings (belated and/or premature) to everyone.

"Coming out of hibernation" refers both to the poster and to his car! I have been - errrr... distracted - by other cars for a while and my Pagoda has been in storage. It is an early (1965) 4-speed 230SL which has been garaged for more than 12 months. The holiday season is an opportunity to rectify that vile offence.

If anyone can be persuaded to offer a few pointers, I would be very grateful for a kind of a 'checklist' to make sure that I have done all of the things that one should do when reviving a car after long-term storage with no use in the the intervening period. I have bought a new battery but I am not sure it is the best of all possibilities at 500cca. Brake fluid seems non-existent: what should be used to top it up? With the new battery in place the starter motor cranked over beautifully, but the car stubbornly refused to start (even wih a spray of ether into the air intake). Any ideas?

Thanks very much in advance for any suggestions.

Cheers,
kns

[1965 230SL; 1965 220SEb]

[jameshoward]

kns,

First, take a look at the wiki and read up on maint procedures. Here's the link: http://www.sl113.org/wiki/Maintenance/Start

You don't say how long the car has been unused for. If it had brake fluid before you laid it up, there would seem to be a problem with the brake system if the fluid has now leaked out. If it were me I'd like to know what's going on there before driving it anywhere assuming at some point in the journey you'll wish to stop the car! There is a lot of info on the site on brakes and bleeding; a search will produce a wealth of views and tips. (normal DOT 3 fluid will do perfectly well; you'll need less than 1 liter; read up on techniques, and consider getting a bleeder like the Gunson or better, a mightyvac).

The wiki link will take you through a host of checks that you should carry out before trying to start the car. If the car's been out of use for a LONG time, you should consider the possibility that the fuel has gone off and become varnish-like. If you're pretty confident about the state of your tank, new, fresh fuel and a check of the fuel lines might cure the starting problem - if it's lack of fuel. But it could be spark, so check that too.

There are a lot of very good posts with good answers by people who've been in exactly your position (like me) so have a check of the wiki and conduct the servicing tasks (fluids, filters, check plugs, wires, fuel flow, linkage, dwell angle, timing, points, etc, etc) and read up on the site and ask questions as you go. A Haynes Manual would be useful if you don't have one.

None of this stuff is particularly hard and all the info is here. There is a requirement for a few tools, but they'd be required to keep the car in good condition anyway so if you don't own things like a dwell meter or timing light, they'd be good buys.

Good luck.

JH

[SteveK]

I'm with JH, before you do any more fix the brakes!   After that is done, if the car did not fire with ether you did not have spark.  I would start by taking an emmory board and running it through the points a few times.