Window Seal Adjustments

[Tyler S]

Rolf-Dieter, The trick to keep the window from hanging up on the top seal is to first adjust the window stops and then adjust the regulator so the top of the window is first to make contact with the seal. But just barely first. If the side seals are making contact first, they push the window up and out when closing the door, making it hang up.

[jameshoward]

Do we have a write up in our tech manual on the window adjustments? If not perhaps we should have.

I now run my 280sl only with the hardtop, I find that if my window is up all the way it hangs up on the rubber seal on top. So I leave the window open a bit and only close it completely once inside the car

Wholly agree with Garry on this. The point is that no amount of write up is going to make this any less of a shitty job than it is. It's all about trail and error. I think if MB techs were doing this regularly back in the day it would be a relatively quick job, but once in a blue moon turns it into a journey of discovery. With minefields. And the occasional pit of despair in the Thieves' Forrest. (You know the film)... .

The really key thing is to avoid the Elbow of Doom in the soft top roof as you mess with the geometry.

[Tyler S]

Never stated it was easy..But it is do-able. As others stated, you may want to adjust the windows to the top you use the most and be done with it. There are others (like myself) that get an itch and wont let stuff like that go. Took me a full day and a half but I was already servicing the regulators to begin with. Lot of trial and error between the stops, regulator angle, guide position, chrome channel position, softtop position, etc...
Should have taken pictures along the way to share. Maybe I'll attempt a writeup of all the adjustment points and what they do as opposed to a step by step because...that would be almost impossible with all of the variables.

[Garry]

A good writeup on what each of the adjustments do would be a great reference. If you do, it can put in the Tech manual.

Problem is that it takes you constant adjustments and half the time you are not quite sure what each is doing to another moving point within the whole window setup and as a result you find you are adjusting the same point a number of times and then realise that that adjustment throws out one of the other adjusting points.

I wish I could say I got mine done in a day and a half but reality is that it took me some weekends to get it all right and even then I was never satisfied.  The second time around on my current Pagoda, I had an expert do it.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

A good writeup on what each of the adjustments do would be a great reference. If you do, it can put in the Tech Manual

I second what Gerry said "would be a great help" one of you folks should just do it ... Put it on paper. Yes it will require to make many adjustments, and that statement or note if you like can be part of the write up. I am certain from your work and experiances you might find the "sweet spot of adjustment"

I am reminded when as a younger fellow I balanced a 50 MW hydrogen cooled generator rotor. It took a very long time. A few years past and I had to do it again (as it turned out it was a problem rotor that was load sensitive). Since I had a few years experiance under my belt the second time around. I made a plan to find the "sweet spot" of that rotor. I simply recorded data at 10 MW steps then purged the generator and run it on air then combined the air and hydrogen runs on one vector diagram to find the "sweet spot"

I got called again 2 years later since the generator again exhibited high vibration pointing to unbalance and from the load data I was able to perform a "one shot balance" no need to mention how happy the customer was.

If one of you documents your findings you may end up finding the "sweet spot" for the window adjustment to help others resolve the issue faster. It may be a simple statement like

"Top edge of glass to overlap top seal by 1/4" at the front tapering to 5/16" at the back see sketch"

Or something like that ... So let someone make a write up and let Garry add it into our Tech Manual. this is how the Tech Manual came to life from efforts of past and existing members ... Let us continue this trend ... It makes our site the best there is for our pride and joy (for some of us one of our pride and joys).