250SL LHD Early harness

[swood1]

Hi all,

I have an early 250SL, LHD.  I am looking to replace the main harness.  Firstly, I cannot find the 250SL wiring diagram in the Technical manual so I assume I would go with a 230SL LHD.  Can anyone advise?

Also, I notice that Autosparks sell both a 230 and a 250SL harness but I am not sure they are aware of the changes mid cycle on the 250SL.  I suppose I can ask them if this is for an early or late 250SL but what is the easiest way of confirming this myself?  230SL harness is quite a bit cheaper than the 250SL harness.


Regards

Steven

[Minerva]

Steven,
Just replaced a loom in a 230sl lhd, I have fitted many looms from autosparks over the years morris, Austin, fiat etc and they were all perfect. Enquired from them about the 230sl one and they hadn't made one before and wanted the old one as  sample and the new one would come without multiplugs, I would have to transfer these over as well as probably soldering on new pins.
So the long and the short of it is i ordered one from Klaus Muller, it wasn't cheap but fitted perfect, came with plugs and pins fitted. The only issue was that the plug for the alternator regulator was wrong but this could be down to a different regulator fitted to the car. I speced the loom to add in hazard lights for safety and it came with the correct plug for the mercedes hazard switch, which I've got through this forum.
Keith.

[Minerva]

https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=28702.0

[swood1]

Thanks Keith,

I shall look into this more as never heard of Klaus Muller.


Steven

[swood1]

Can anyone confirm would the early 250SL harness be the same as a 230SL harness?

Regards

Steven

[swood1]

I speced the loom to add in hazard lights for safety and it came with the correct plug for the mercedes hazard switch, which I've got through this forum.

Can you advise where you have fitted your hazard switch?  I have an additional hole on my dash, this maybe the answer as to why it is there


Steve

[114015]

Can anyone confirm would the early 250SL harness be the same as a 230SL harness?

No, it isn't. Both are (clearly) different. 
Parts list list four different harnesses for the 250 - US:

030    CABLE HARNESS    001  A 113 540 08 05     
CABLE HARNESS    001    A 113 540 16 05     
CABLE HARNESS    001    A 113 540 09 05     
CABLE HARNESS    001    A 113 540 17 05


Depends on your VIN and on auto versus manual trans.


Achim
(Wiki technical manual wiring drawer)

[114015]

I have an early 250SL, LHD.  I am looking to replace the main harness.  Firstly, I cannot find the 250SL wiring diagram in the Technical manual so I assume ...

... cause it isn't in there.
The "drawer" in those old days 20 years ago was just to lazy "to draw" the both 250 SL harnesses as well.   
If you need to see details, please refer to the proper owner's manual. There's a wiring diagram in the middle of the booklet.


Achim

(owner's manual collector)

[Pawel66]

Can you advise where you have fitted your hazard switch?  I have an additional hole on my dash, this maybe the answer as to why it is there


Steve

That is where the hazard switch was located when it was made standard - as the arrow indicates. There are several pictures of "home made" or dealer/factory made locations invented/discovered/reported by Members on the forum for subsequent/dealer/factory installations before this final spot on the picture was defined.

A handful of information is here: https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=25429.0

[swood1]

... cause it isn't in there.
If you need to see details, please refer to the proper owner's manual. There's a wiring diagram in the middle of the booklet.

That's annoying... when you say proper owners manual do you mean the BBB?  This is frustrating, I am wondering if I just buy the later 250 harness it would be suitable for the earlier car.

Steve

[66andBlue]

Here is a picture of the owner's manual that Achim referred you to.
It should be in your glove box, have you checked? 

https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Documents/OwnerManual

[Pawel66]

I think Achim meant owner's manual for a given model - you have the wiring diagrams as inserts there.

Please take a look there: https://www.sls-hh-shop.de/main/en/54-elektrical-equipment-at-body-54-b-main-wiring-harness-c-3_2339_107

Apparently there are some differences between 230SL and 250SL early/late harnesses. Parts lists suggest that too. Not sure how significant these differences are.

[swood1]

The glovebox for my car is in pieces in a cardboard box in my loft.  I'm pretty sure I didn't see a book in there 

Ok, I shall cross check the wiring diagrams to see what differences I can see.


Steve

[Pawel66]

Check the spare tire cover .

[Minerva]

I haven't fitted the switch yet, I don't want to drill the newly painted dash so am going to fit it to a bracket under the dash or by the drivers kick panel.
Keith

[Pawel66]

From the posts of the others I have concluded that, unless you have the later car where the hazard light switch was fitted left to steering column, the more proper location is, actually, under dash as this is where it was installed as option by the factory or dealer. I may be wrong there, but that is how I understood it.

[Mike Hughes]

U.S. spec 230SLs have a factory installed 4-way flasher at least as far back as the 1965 model year.  As installed by the factory, the switch is located below the "crease" and above the thin chrome trim strip above the lower dash padding, diagonally down to the left of and about midway between the lower left-hand corner of the center gauge cluster and the headlamp switch.  In the photo of my 1966 230SL it is easily picked out due to the bright red "Emergency" bezel.

Alfred posted a couple of very good detail shots of the factory hazard warning switch location in this thread from January 2017:

https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=25429.0

Once the factory had created dashboard stampings that included the mounting hole for the hazard warning flasher switch it would stand to reason that this would be the way the factory would continue to install this switch as 4-way flashers became more common and eventually standard on later models.  It is only reasonable to expect to find a switch mounted to a bracket under the dash if 4-way flashers were fitted by a dealer or other installer on pagodas without factory installed hazard warning flashers.

There are a couple of photos of such an installation in the January 2017 thread.

[114015]

U.S. spec 230SLs have a factory installed 4-way flasher at least as far back as the 1965 model year.

Mike ...!
Can there be any better explanation  where the correct flasher knob is located than by such a beautiful pic of you and your wife in your car...!   
Just phantastic, I have to archive that!
Thanks a lot.

But you are right, the location you found on your car is just the one that all later Pagodas had there.
All earlier ones (don't remember exactly when they switched that) appear to have the switch located close to the aluminum turnsignal relay under the dash mounted to the left side kick panel.
We had some discussion about this a while ago. Forgot which link that was ...

Ah..., here:
https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=25429.0
You named it, Mike ! 



Achim

[114015]

Ok, I shall cross check the wiring diagrams to see what differences I can see.

Naaa, Steve...,
It is not that bad.
Let's face it. The 250 SL is just between the 230 and the 280 with almost anything we look at - and so is/are the wiring harnesses.
Early 250ies up to VIN 002979 are closer to the 230, later ones closer to the 280,
and so are their wiring harnesses.
Thus, yours is closer to the 230 SL.
The main difference is the different relay setup for the fuel injection and cold start.
All 250ies had already two 4-pin relays 0332008001 in the same way as the 280 has
whereas the 230ies had only one of these and aditionally the round one-second-relay.

Otherwise your two-fifty wiring harness has the set-up for the early ignition switch.

In summary...,
if you want to replace your harness by a new one, you should get the correct one for your car. I recommend not to go ahead with a 230 harness only because it might appear a few bucks cheaper.
Better have the correct one for your car.

So the correct one for your car is either the
A 113 540 08 05  for a stick-shift car
or the
A 113 540 09 05  for the automatic

Best,
Achim
(wiringdiagramaficionado)

[Mike Hughes]

I only had one photo of my 230SL in which the hazard switch can be seen when I originally replied this afternoon.  Here is a photo of Alex D's 250SL dash taken during the Southern Tour after PUB 2017 showing similar factory 4-way flasher switch installation to my 230SL.

From the steering wheel and dash padding it is clear that Alex's 250SL is an early 250SL, more similar cosmetically and electrically to a  later 230SL than to an early 280SL. One would assume that the wiring harness is also more similar to a later 230SL than to an early 280SL.

[66andBlue]

...
Alfred posted a couple of very good detail shots of the factory hazard warning switch location in this thread from January 2017:

https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=25429.0
...

I have also added some pertinent information here:
https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Electrical/HazardWarningLights

[lpeterssen]

Dear friends

For anyone interested I do have great experience in rebuilding mb w113 wiring harnesses.  I am an engineer and love to do this work as a hobby. See my webpage www.mbclassic-wiredoktor.com

Any questions can be answered b PM me.

Best regards
Lpeterssen