Diplomatic/Dictator/Mafia

[Volksy]

It certainly seems to get a lot of attention on the morning commute. Had a cyclist give me the thumbs up as he passed me in traffic this morning, followed by an old guy come up to the car whilst I was waiting to turn right at a junction, he was waffling on to me about a W116 280S he had years ago. 

It's certainly a '10 Footer' but in the morning rain, and having had it washed on the weekend, it does pass as pretty smart. 

[Volksy]

The Big has decided to shit its heater blower, this week of all weeks. It was a little noisy, but is now blowing fuses as it tries to seize up. 

I've contacted a few electrical motor repair places, but most only deal with big commercial stuff. So looks like a replacement is the only option. 

Second hand stuff is around the £100.00 mark, and most comes from Germany/USA/Lithuania. However Autodoc 'new' ones were £185.00 - until yesterday, where they had them for £100.00

 

I've ordered one, it's not too bad to fit, as it's an under-dash unit. But it'll probably arrive in the spring... 

[Volksy]

In for an oil and filter. .

Tame garage charged me £19.20 to do it. Bosch filter was £5.40. The free excess order of Oil from Amazon covered the rest. Result! 

 

No sign of the new heater fan yet. Brrrr!

[Volksy]

This arrived today. 

Although the original has decided to work now. Obvs. 

Will get it fitted on the weekend. As Mr Imp and I are planning on a tinkering day on Saturday. 

[Volksy]

Ordered some new window sliders for The Big. As the rear windows don't. 

They are a common fail on these. Another job for the weekend...

Autodoc packaging is a little excessive..... 

[Volksy]

Managed a days 'Tinkering' on Saturday. 

Job #1 SUCCESS!

Replaced the seizing blower fan, of course the replacement was LHD, so a mirror image of the original (Autodoc didn't state that they were handed). Managed to swap the new motor into the old housing and also reattach and sort out the small air sampling fan which had fallen off. This sits next to the blower under the dash, but sucks air through a tube which runs up the 'A' pillar, across the headlining to a small vent near the sunroof controls. The tube had detached which meant that the air sampler was taking its measurements from air under the dash and not engaging the rudimentary climate control.  Seems to work now, even varying the temp controls has an effect, and the fan is no longer blowing fuses. 

Job #2 FAIL
Had a look at the rear electric windows. The NSR has a blown motor by the looks of it, as I couldn't coax it into any semblance of life. On the OSR the small plastic slider has disintegrated, so the arm is no longer connected to the window. I have some new sliders, that are correct. However the motor needs to come out to fit them, as the stupid design means you have to hammer the slider to flatten out the connecting 'rivet'. Someone prior to me, has hard wired the wiring to the motor. Great. So to repair these I'll need two new motors. 

Job #3 FAIL

Investigated the central locking. Which works from the passenger door, but not the drivers. Need to find a replacement microswitch for the drivers door lock. Also the NSR door will unlock, but not lock when the central locking is used, the vacuum actuator has a couple of diaphragms inside, one of which is blown. I ordered a new actuator, which was slightly different to the original. So now need to order some larger diameter vacuum hose as well. 

Job #4 F*CK KNOWS

I put new Bosch plugs in and a Bosch air filter on, as it was on ancient NGK plugs and a no brand air filter. The old plugs were badly fouled, given how rough it was running, I'm not surprised. Driving around all day on Saturday and Sunday. it ran like a dream. This morning however (it has pissed it down all night) it ran like a complete bag of shite, cutting out at every opportunity until it was fully warmed up. I think moisture is getting into somewhere it shouldn't.

These were all in between assisting M.Imp with the crank seal/cambelt replacement on his recently acquired Volvo 740. Which seems to have been a success.  
 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Volksy said:

Managed a days 'Tinkering' on Saturday. 

Job #1 SUCCESS!

Replaced the seizing blower fan, of course the replacement was LHD, so a mirror image of the original (Autodoc didn't state that they were handed). Managed to swap the new motor into the old housing and also reattach and sort out the small air sampling fan which had fallen off. This sits next to the blower under the dash, but sucks air through a tube which runs up the 'A' pillar, across the headlining to a small vent near the sunroof controls. The tube had detached which meant that the air sampler was taking its measurements from air under the dash and not engaging the rudimentary climate control.  Seems to work now, even varying the temp controls has an effect, and the fan is no longer blowing fuses. 

Job #2 FAIL
Had a look at the rear electric windows. The NSR has a blown motor by the looks of it, as I couldn't coax it into any semblance of life. On the OSR the small plastic slider has disintegrated, so the arm is no longer connected to the window. I have some new sliders, that are correct. However the motor needs to come out to fit them, as the stupid design means you have to hammer the slider to flatten out the connecting 'rivet'. Someone prior to me, has hard wired the wiring to the motor. Great. So to repair these I'll need two new motors. 

Job #3 FAIL

Investigated the central locking. Which works from the passenger door, but not the drivers. Need to find a replacement microswitch for the drivers door lock. Also the NSR door will unlock, but not lock when the central locking is used, the vacuum actuator has a couple of diaphragms inside, one of which is blown. I ordered a new actuator, which was slightly different to the original. So now need to order some larger diameter vacuum hose as well. 

Job #4 F*CK KNOWS

I put new Bosch plugs in and a Bosch air filter on, as it was on ancient NGK plugs and a no brand air filter. The old plugs were badly fouled, given how rough it was running, I'm not surprised. Driving around all day on Saturday and Sunday. it ran like a dream. This morning however (it has pissed it down all night) it ran like a complete bag of shite, cutting out at every opportunity until it was fully warmed up. I think moisture is getting into somewhere it shouldn't.

These were all in between assisting M.Imp with the crank seal/cambelt replacement on his recently acquired Volvo 740. Which seems to have been a success.  
 

Mentioning the obligatory "replace o-ring of distributor caps" warning here. If it suddenly works again after running rough once the engine is warm it's water/condensation building up in there without regular use, which then needs to dry out first. A new o-ring should help immensely with this.

[Volksy]

23 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Mentioning the obligatory "replace o-ring of distributor caps" warning here. If it suddenly works again after running rough once the engine is warm it's water/condensation building up in there without regular use, which then needs to dry out first. A new o-ring should help immensely with this.

Looking to see where I can order one from, it's had a new Bosch Cap about a month ago.

 

It behaved itself perfectly on the way home last night, and on the commute this morning.  

 

[Volksy]

This happened today...

So just shy of 3000 miles since I bought it. 

Not exactly uneventful or cheap miles. (Should buy some shares in Bosch). But it's getting better...

It did reward me by absolutely disgracing itself by cutting out repeatedly as I tried to reverse parallel park uphill on the high street. There was obviously a bus waiting to get passed, and a load of initially admiring dad's watching as they were picking up their sproglets from the after school club next to Morrisons. 

It's done three weeks of city commute since it last stretched it legs. So it'll get a run on the weekend.  As per the fable of CDC's 190. The Potentiometer may get unplugged. 

I've a new one in the stack of parts. But need to obtain a decent multimeter before I head back into the black hole of KEJet shenanigans. 

 

[Volksy]

Another Year. FFS. 

[cbowditch]

Impressive not a single advisory

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

@Volksy How is this running now?

[HillmanImp]

Spotted Turkish @Volksy earlier today.

Wonder if this car would shit itself everytime it drives through Guiseley? 

[Volksy]

Yet another impromptu model shoot going on with the battlecruiser this morning. 

 

[Dave_Q]

You can take your pictures if you buy me a £20 Autodoc gift card

[IronStar]

4 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

You can take your pictures if you buy me a £20 in Bosch shares

EFA

[Volksy]

I’ve been running this as a daily for over a year now, and (grabs something wooden) it’s been a pretty reliable old boat.

 

I’ve thrown quite a few bits at it, mostly in the view of preventative maintenance rather than repairs.

So far in my custody it’s had the following

Waterpump & Aux Belt

Thermostat and Housing

Cooling fan clutch

Heater Fan

Radiator

Idle Control Valve

Temp and Atmos sensors

OVP relay

Fuel pump relay

KE Jet Potentiometer

Throttle Body Base Gasket

Cap/Rotor/Leads

2x Front Tyres

Full Service

Centre Steering Rod

4 Wheel Alignment

 

Despite the above, it hasn’t once failed to proceed and 95% of the time gives me a grin when I drive it.

I still haven’t got to the bottom of the random cutting out. I think it’s definitely temperature related as it’s perfect in cold weather, I don’t know if some odd bit of the ancient electronics starts to freak out at a certain temperature. As said (and experienced by other forum members) Bosch KE Jetronic is a very sensitive and overly complex system. I had a mobile classic car tuner come and have a look at it about eight months ago, which although didn’t cure the fault, turned into a lesson on how to set these systems up. The previous owner had tinkered about with it, and had cranked up the mixture to, I assume, try and work around the issue. So it was using huge amounts of fuel, smoking, and generally acting up. Turns out the rubber bottom of the fuel injection unit was porous and cracked, causing a vacuum leak.

You need to set these up on a gas analyser, as the slightest adjustments can cause a huge degree of difference. Once I got it back under control (I did think I’d bricked the system at one point) it sailed through the MOT emissions test, the tester commented on how clean it was running, give it’s a non-cat vehicle. So I may be able to tweak it a little going forward.

As a daily driver, it’s a comfortable old cruiser, it’s even pretty economical* – it does way better than the 3.2 Jag X308 I used to have, given that was ten years newer and used far more modern fuel injection etc. Granted that was a V8 and this is an Inline Six, but I was lucky to get mpg’s in the teens round the houses in the Jag.

I had a minor mishap the other day, where the airhorns I had fitted had over time been rubbing against the radiator, which then holed it. A new radiator was £150 delivered, and a pretty easy job to fit. Oops.

I’d certainly recommend one of these if you’re in the market for a big saloon. Parts, even from Mercedes, are quite easy to get hold of, and surprisingly not ruinous on the old bank balance. It does get a ridiculous amount of attention, thumbs up in traffic, people snapping photos with it etc. which I didn’t expect.

I’ve a few jobs on the list going forward. Mechanically it needs a couple of bushes on the front suspension and it would benefit from an ATF change I think. But the rest of the work needed is bits of knackered damaged trim, which is more a case of keeping my eyes peeled for second hand parts (at a reasonable cost) on ebay etc.