1963 Mercedes Benz 190DC Fintail. Bad fuel tank and leaks.

[Mally]

The ones you have may well be fine if they tighten easily. Try them and check for leaks.

I must also own up to pop riveting a door bottom in 1982 though.

[Dyslexic Viking]

One learn something new every day. So since I want some hose clamps a bit quickly, I found these from a Norwegian supplier which I assume are the right ones? They look like they are.

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

4 minutes ago, Mally said:

The ones you have may well be fine if they tighten easily. Try them and check for leaks.

I must also own up to pop riveting a door bottom in 1982 though.

I find this with the hose clamps strange as I have never had problems with the others before and have never heard anything about this either.

And pop rivet on an end-of-life ordinary car is perfectly fine for me, but not on something like this.

[MJK 24]

14 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

One learn something new every day. So since I want some hose clamps a bit quickly, I found these from a Norwegian supplier which I assume are the right ones? They look like they are.

 

Yes they’re perfect.  Just make sure they’re all the correct size.

The others may tighten enough to stop diesel getting out but they may still let air in.  For the small cost to change, I would tick it off your list.

[Dyslexic Viking]

13 minutes ago, MJK 24 said:

Yes they’re perfect.  Just make sure they’re all the correct size.

The others may tighten enough to stop diesel getting out but they may still let air in.  For the small cost to change, I would tick it off your list.

I want everything on this car to be right and done right so I have ordered a good number of these in all the sizes I need now.

And thanks for taking the time to teach me something new.

[chodweaver]

This thread is a great read. Keep up the good work Mr Viking

[Zelandeth]

Not sure how useful it is, but the throttle cable to fuel pump linkage on my 1990 Mercedes T1/TN (OM.601 engine) uses very similar looking ball and socket type joints.  I don't have a decent photo to hand I'm afraid.

[hairnet]

28 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

  I don't have a decent photo to hand I'm afraid.

finger out, obvs.

 

[Spiny Norman]

On 8/17/2022 at 7:12 PM, Dyslexic Viking said:

Don't know if you've found a result for this but my old Volvo Amazon had quite a few of these in the throttle linkage assembly, being a similar age they might work? I imagine Amazon parts are reasonably easy to come by in Norway.

[Zelandeth]

7 minutes ago, hairnet said:

finger out, obvs.

 

Here's a rubbish one from 3 years ago from when the throttle cable holder snapped.

Can try to get a better look at the linkage over the next couple of days, most of the linkage is buried behind the pump.

[MJK 24]

The Mercedes 190 and W124 diesels are full of those little ball and socket joints in the throttle linkage.  

[captain_70s]

My Dolomite uses the same sort of thing.

When I first got the car the nylon ball sockets had snapped and the linkage had been substituted with some random bent wire...

[Dyslexic Viking]

Thanks everyone. I am waiting for the 2 original joints and I will have to wait until they arrive before I can do anything more. If they don't fit, I have to look at alternatives.

[Dyslexic Viking]

I'm tired after yesterday so have a slightly quieter day today. So I'm looking for a passenger side wing and there's not much to find, there's maybe 1 in Norway and I'm waiting for the seller to come home from holiday.

But I found this one on ebay for sale in Germany which is worse than the one I have and with shipping it will cost over 600 pounds and then it also needs to be fixed and painted. So this doesn't make sense.

But what I also found was a repair panel for the bottom of the wing. This is a much better option to fix the wing I have, I just need to find someone to weld this for me.

So I'm leaning towards fixing the wing I have now.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Tried today to change the engine oil and oil filter and the diesel filter so it is ready for when the new lift pump arrives.

Started with the worst first and that is the oil filter which is in a very inaccessible place. The filter is marked with a red arrow.

And immediately encountered a problem. Considering the age of the car, I would assume that the oil filter bolt had a normal bolt head, it didnt, it's also very tight here, so this was the only thing I could use to unscrew the oil filter with.

.

And when the oil filter housing came off, it was clear that it had been a while since the oil filter and oil had been changed.

Then the next thing was to clean the oil filter housing. This also has a drain plug which is smart.

Then the next problem for the day. The new oil filter does not fit, it is too big.

So after that failure I chose to drain the oil and I encountered another problem. The drain plug requires a special tool which I don't have, nor have I seen this before. 

So after this I chose to try changing the diesel filter which didn't look too bad.

And then I cleaned the diesel filter housing. And there was some dirt at the bottom that came out.

Then I tried to put in the new filter and this doesn't fit either.

So it seems there are several types of filters for these. What came out was oilfilter Fleetguard LF3364 and diesel filter Fleetguard FF5053 I have looked these up at my Norwegian parts company and have found filters that should correspond to these so let hope it is correct an they shuld arrive later in the week.

And when it comes to the oil plug, I think I'll have to buy a set like this.

So this day has been mildly frustrating, hope the next one will be better.

[MorrisItalSLX]

4 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

So after that failure I chose to drain the oil and I encountered another problem. The drain plug requires a special tool which I don't have, nor have I seen this before. 

A set of Allan keys should see it off.

[SH1TE]

3 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

A set of Allan keys should see it off.

Had a set for years had common on vw

13/16 spanner from memory. 

[juular]

Beautiful car! And a really good read.  That welding will take no time at all for someone, so shouldn't be expensive. 

Following with interest.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Thanks. And that's good to hear. I hope I can find someone who can help with this welding as this is beyond my abilities and there are few who weld rust repairs here now. but this is something a normal body shop should be able to handle.

 

And what I'm doing now is waiting for parts, the main thing is the lift pump and it left Germany 4 days ago and hasn't arrived in Norway yet.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Got the passenger side front wing loosened today. And it is clear that this car has experienced a lot and is anything but untouched. Impressive welding.

And after removing a lot of gravel, it doesn't look too bad here. But needs some rust removal and painting.

And the bad parts.

And the shelf which is a well-known rust trap on these. There is a hole the size of a little finger nail and a few small holes but apart from that it's not too bad and it's solid.

So I am considering how to do this as I am not able to fix this according to what most people would consider correct or very good. So I'm considering whether I should just fix it as best I can and then let a professional fix it properly in the future. Have to think about this.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Then I decided to read the owner's manual and there is a lot of useful information here.

And I have a lot of maintenance to do this winter.

And one thing I learned from this is that there should be a strainer/pre-filter or whatever you call it in front of the oil filter. So checked.

And when I took this out, it turns out that it was almost clogged.

So after a lot of cleaning, it turned out like this.

So much better, but I want to see if I can buy this new and then replace it at the next oil change.

[sutty2006]

Looking good there. Same about the filters being wrong but once you have the correct ones, you can order a couple for your stock. 

And don’t be afraid of black oil, it’ll be like that after you’ve changed it a few times. They run dirty. It’s when it goes thick and gloopy you need to worry! 🤣

[cort1977]

Looking good, I'm sure you will be able to get all the correct filters easily enough, one of the good things about Mercedes is that parts availability is excellent of not cheap.

For the body work, have you considered learning to weld?  TIG is a black art practised by wizards but basic MIG welding is not that difficult and your car will be made of good thick metal so maybe not too difficult to DIY if you have the time?

[Dyslexic Viking]

43 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

And don’t be afraid of black oil, it’ll be like that after you’ve changed it a few times. They run dirty. It’s when it goes thick and gloopy you need to worry! 🤣

I'm used to the oil on old diesel engines and this one didn't look so good. This with the fact that the oil filter housing was dirty and had clearly not been removed for a long time and the oil plug was very stuck, I think it had been a long time since the last oil change.

I think the last owners didn't take good care of it unfortunately. But that will change now.

[Dyslexic Viking]

12 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

For the body work, have you considered learning to weld?  TIG is a black art practised by wizards but basic MIG welding is not that difficult and your car will be made of good thick metal so maybe not too difficult to DIY if you have the time?

I have tried to learn how to weld on cars but this is not something I can be good at. I find all body work difficult and is not something I am made for, something that is frustrating.

[sutty2006]

Glad it’s getting the love and care it needs after it’s hard years of service. It can retire in heaven now 😁

[Scruffy Bodger]

For a car that has lasted this long do it properly. Anything you try to do now to hold it back will simply fester underneath and come back worse. Cut it out, cure it and enjoy it.

[mat_the_cat]

On 8/21/2022 at 5:46 PM, Dyslexic Viking said:

So after that failure I chose to drain the oil and I encountered another problem. The drain plug requires a special tool which I don't have, nor have I seen this before. 

If you're stuck without the proper tool, you can often use the head of a bolt to engage into the the drain plug, with a couple of nuts locked together on the threaded part to twist it loose.

[Dyslexic Viking]

5 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

If you're stuck without the proper tool, you can often use the head of a bolt to engage into the the drain plug, with a couple of nuts locked together on the threaded part to twist it loose.

Thanks, that's a good idea, but this was solved as I got hold of the necessary tool.

[Dyslexic Viking]

7 hours ago, Scruffy Bodger said:

For a car that has lasted this long do it properly. Anything you try to do now to hold it back will simply fester underneath and come back worse. Cut it out, cure it and enjoy it.

I agree and everything on this will be done properly and no bodges will be done. If I can't fix everything myself, I'll just going to grind down the rust, treat it and then cover the holes temporarily until I can get someone to do this.

I've been thinking a bit and I think I'll try my hand at welding a bit more and especially if I can find out how to weld the holes after the pop riveting. Then I think I'll have to drill some holes of the same size in some plates and try. But one of my problems is that I have the world's worst gasless MIG welder, so combined with me, I don't have much hope, but I have to try.