Mercedes W114 250 Coupe - help!

[Charles Morgan]

The thought occurred to me, but they did have the EPC diagram and that does show a shorter lever for 1&2 (which it is in real life). It is possible with all the extra levers I bought one got muddled up. It's a matter of moments to swap them.

When Billy mentioned the long throw I did say that sounds like a normally (crappy) MB manual but the direct shift did sound pretty unlikely. Perhaps they got a BMW lever in there by mistake...

 

[Charles Morgan]

Started restoring the dashboard speaker cover today. The speaker cloth is completely decayed and bleached by the sun. Cleaning it was impossible as it disintegrated totally.

The rear shows that the colour was originally much darker, especially after cleaning.

The cloth is glued on to a metal frame that has a vinyl cover. Teasing these apart took a bit of time

Scraping the residue of cloth off the vinyl cover (it's glued on) showed it was black originally and so I've ordered some speaker cloth with a similar weave.

 

[John Jones Jr]

CM, bear in mind that M-B manual boxes (of old anyway) were primarily designed for L/H/D, well that's my theory.

Over years I've driven manual M-B left hookers (W123/124 and even a W126) and I never really had any noticeable issues with stirring the lever. Even a L/H/D 16V dog box is better to use than on our right hookers.

On that note, I'd advise when time allows to spend a bit of time changing/adjusting or modifying the gear selector rods and associated parts. I'd also pay particular attention to the base of the gear lever and it's design while looking for wear etc. I can't really expand on this point as I've no knowledge of the exact set up there.

 

[John Jones Jr]

CM, bear in mind that M-B manual boxes (of old anyway) were primarily designed for L/H/D, well that's my theory.

Over years I've driven manual M-B left hookers (W123/124 and even a W126) and I never really had any noticeable issues with stirring the lever. Even a L/H/D 16V dog box is better to use than on our right hookers.

On that note, I'd advise when time allows to spend a bit more time changing/adjusting or modifying the gear selector rods and associated parts. I'd also pay particular attention to the base of the gear lever and it's design while looking for wear etc. I can't really expand on this point as I've no knowledge of the exact set up there.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Oh grief that dogleg box - perfect on a left hooker but (especially reverse) so hard on a right. You need the strength and precision of your right hand.

Very good advice JJJr, I think it's almost 100% certain its design starts from LHD. The tightness of the engine bay around the steering box bears that out. So much of this car is still unknown to me. I do on occasion get the odd nagging doubt that after all this I hope I actually like it!

 

[John Jones Jr]

Ah, the secret with the dogleg box was making sure all was adjusted correctly and @ 100k the base of the gear lever was rebuilt and that is pain in a5s to do too, loads of parts and easy to assemble incorrectly. But once all that's done, mine was very good use and hand heart I never found it an issue, admittedly I've had and currently do have better manuals all the same.

 

[grober]

And now a short W114 intermission.
[YOUTUBE HD]pKCTEOptsAQ[/YOUTUBE HD]

 

[Charles Morgan]

Nice late Series 1 coupe with the same Blaupunkt as mine, plus the same gear lever and gaiter. I really liked those driving lamps!

I'll do a video of mine but with much more Wagner.

 

[Bellow]

Is that Wagner on G's video?

 

[Charles Morgan]

Pachelbel Canon in D (played too slowly).

This is one I quite like (Morgenrote from Wagner's Lohengrin). I fancied sampling bits for an MP3 driven set of electronic horns for the car at one point...

[YOUTUBE]naYqNWERRu8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Charles Morgan]

A quick drop in today en route to the far reaches of Shropshire and back

Fuel tank now fully painted and new filter in:

New fuel tank sender in too.

And the fuel tank reserve light comes on, as does the main beam and the fuel gauge is showing it on reserve, despite the complete absence of any fuel. Comedy fuel gauge time (for about the 20th time - I just wished it was pessimistic rather than optimistic.

At the business end, Throttle position sensor now mounted on the old D Jet sensor plate. Even though a bit of the lever had to be trimmed to help it mount, the old potentiometer can be re-mounted.

Breather piped into too.

Finally the servo vacuum feed pipe had to be trimmed, so a clip to hold it on until I can find better.

 

[John Jones Jr]

At the business end, Throttle position sensor now mounted on the old D Jet sensor plate. Even though a bit of the lever had to be trimmed to help it mount, the old potentiometer can be re-mounted.

That's a very neat solution. Consider applying some Loctite on the TP screws on final adjustment.

 

[grober]

Finally the servo vacuum feed pipe had to be trimmed, so a clip to hold it on until I can find better.

Depending on the flexible pipe fit a heavy duty nylon cable tie [or two?] might do/

 

[grober]

Came across yet another Mercedes W115 Megasquirt conversion thread. Don't know if this has been referenced already or not?? Involves replacing a twin carb set up with a single injection port throttle body. Not really the same as your setup Charles but might be worth adding to the list of articles for reference ?
M115 T.B.I. conversion - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

 

[Charles Morgan]

Compared to mine (which is actually pretty simple) I do admire the inventiveness of others in getting these things to run. Having said which, I probably would have converted that to Webers and had some aural fun!

 

[Charles Morgan]

Got my speaker fabric through. I cut a piece to size and did a test fitting without fixing anything to check it all looked ok, and it does. Now to give the vinyl a really good clean and then to put it all back together.

 

[grober]

Whats the [ Eliptical?]speaker ---if any that's going in behind it Charles?

 

[Charles Morgan]

It's an oval (mono) speaker - photobucket is being an utter pig so attachments below:

 

[Charles Morgan]

Glued the speaker cover back together, and it looks fine.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Got the fuel rail back yesterday. The injectors needed to have the pintle caps from the old D Jet injectors put on so that they would fit tightly in the rubber grommets of the head.

John is not comfortable with using cable ties to secure the fuel rail - he thinks that at 3 bar of pressure the scope for the rail coming off is too high. I am going to think further about this, an alternative is using jubilee clips attached to the injector clamps - I'll take some more photos today to explain.