Weekend Wrenching

[alabbasi]

This weekend, my brother came into town so I had no plans to do any work on the cars. It was however a productive weekend though. I have been having problems registering my 81 Mercedes Benz 500SLC. When I first got my title, it was titled as an 85. We all know it is not but when it seemed to cause a stink when I tried to change it with the tag office.

I had to take the car to the theft dept and it took more then a month to square up. I got the form that corrects the issue and I can now re-register the car.

I also picked up a use aluminum body climate control servo for my 6.9. The old one did not blow cold air and caused a slow battery drain because the servo would not park.

I also struck a deal with a friend of mine in buying my 72 350SL. The car requried a lot of work and my heart was not in it. I'm very happy it went to this fellow. He's an aircraft mechanic and is very good with body and mechanical. He currently has a 450SLC that he has been working on and a couple of Military Hummers but he's always wanted an SL so this deal works for us. At last one less car, I had to go out and celibate. How did I celibrate???? I bought another car!

This is a 1977 Mercedes Benz 350SLC, Euro car. It's been sitting parked since 1986 but is 100 percent complete.

It's an interesting car. It has the US style headlights but the wheels are clean, and the seats are not in bad condition. The car originally had SLS rear suspension so there is a suspension pump and oddly enough, it has an alloy fuel distributor. The PO tells me that when he bought the car, he was told that it had a 5.0 engine. I need to validate this.

I have never seen an SL or SLC with SLS so this impressed me!

It was repainted in lacquer paint which is mostly burnt off but the body is solid and it has a very cool AMG front spoiler. Robert, the fellow who bought the 350SL from me is an aircraft mechanic and works a lot with fiber glass. We're going to see what it's going to take to make a mold out of it and create copies to sell.

Here are some pictures:

Here are some pictures of the new 350SLC. As you can see, it has dual heated seats, A/C, SLS Rear and an AMG spoiler.

I'll start by cleaning out the fuel tank and replacing the fuel pump this coming weekend and getting rid of the rat's nest in the trunk (no kidding!)

 

[Michel]

Nice buy Al,

You always seem to be finding the right cars...

 

[alabbasi]

Nice buy Al,

You always seem to be finding the right cars...

Michel

Define right cars? and why are my pockets always empty?

 

[alabbasi]

Last week i pulled the fuel distributor which was seized solid so I used an FD that I had soaking in parts cleaner for some time. Once reconnected, I also pulled a couple of injectors and cleaned them and after putting a new fuel pump filter and hoses, i managed to get it running. The following day it would not start . It appeared that it was not getting fuel pressure into the fuel distributor. I had plenty of gas in it so I knew it was not lack of gas so I suspected that it was the fuel strainer in the tank which was clogged.

I bought a new fuel strainer and went about taking out the old one. What a nightmare that was. I purchased a very expensive 3/4 inch socket set with a 45mm socket and tried to remove it without success. The insulation around the fuel tank covered the strainer and it was too awkward to remove it.

Channel lock pliers did not work and neither anything else. The strainer was seized in there. I eventually took the new strainer to the local (real) hardware store and spoke to the guys there who suggested an easy out. It took a 2 foot extension on the ratchet but I managed to get the strainer off.

This is where things got a little unorthodox but I did not want to remove the tank so I used a garden sprayer and sprayed simple green into the tank then shoved a pressure washer nozzle in the filler pipe and ran it for about 2 hours.

Nothing came out for the first 2-3 minutes and then water and crap started gushing through along with some nasty varnish.

Another hour was spent under the car with a blow gun trying to get all of the sitting water out. Quite a lot of water can sit in the tank which was surprising.

Put the new strainer on and added about 10 gallons of gas and 3 bottles of Heet (which is supposed to remove moisture from the tank) then turned the ignition on and waited at the FD side with the fuel inlet to the FD disconnected and the line going into a bottle until I could see that all of the dark brown gas cleared the fuel system and the gas became clear-ish.

I then connected the inlet to the fuel distributor and watched the fuel run to the fuel injectors (which it was not before hand).

reconnected everything and went about the process of cranking the engine and turning the richness mixture clockwise on the air flow meter until it fired it. It ran pretty well with a slight miss which is to be expected with gas that may have a bit of moisture. All in all, it ran really well.

The brakes are completely shot on this car. Next week i'll replace the brake master and the brake lines and see if I can get the pressure up there.

Remember, if you need to get the strainer out of a W107, get an easy out!

 

[Styria]

Hi Alabbasi, that almost sounds like a nightmare job ! I must admit that I've never struck these sorts of problems with any of my cars, and I sure would not want to start it now. I just have got to give you full marks for perserverance and werewithall.

So what are your plans for the future now as far as this car is concerned ? By the look of things, there is a bit of work involved, but I guess it dpends on the standard you are aiming for. Please keep us posted. Regards Styria

 

[alabbasi]

Well i had all kinds of fun with this car, there was so much water in the tank by the time i was done that it would never run right. A friend of mine came up with a fantastic idea of draining the tank using a fuel pump. We did so sucessfully and got a whole pile of water out of there. It really seems that once you run out of gas, there is about 1.5 gallons at the bottom of the tank that is never used!

Anyway, new gas and we're back in business. the car has a massive vacuum leak in the intake where the air flow meter plumbs into the intake manifold. There is a boot that requires two clamps that is are a bear to tighten.

A new master cylinder fixed the braking issue although it will need a bleed at some point.

Like all of my cars, i'm going to fix it up and drive it for a while.

I sold the silver / green 6.9 on ebay. This is the one that I restored in 2005. It's now going to a fellow in Dubai. I also got rid of one of my 500slc that was in pieces and a 72 450SL. This will allow me to work on my 6.3 as I now have space and maybe ship my 280ce home from Seattle.