'My first SL'

[tommyboy40]

Take your iron from the bin! It's common for the gas ones to shoot a bit of flame when the gauze gets dirty. Blow the flame out and it should be ok. I'll grab a picture of my DIN connector later and that might help

 

[219]

No , not out of the side of the burner : the flame was coming out of the side of the body where two parts joined and certainly shouldn't have been alight ! I bought a new one today .

I'm OK re the wiring , having fitted kit into more than a few cars in my time , mostly Mercedes , and will just verify things with my meter before connecting up , but thanks anyway for the kind offer

 

[219]

I had a minor mishap on Thursday night . After leaving work I was heading up the M73 when the car just died and I coasted onto the hard shoulder .

I tried a couple of times to restart , but it clearly wasn't happening . Turning on the ignition I could hear the fuel pumps running . After a quick look round the engine bay , nothing was obviously out of place ; with only a small toolkit available , I took out no 6 spark plug and , grounding the side , cranked the engine ( there was a smell of fuel from the cylinder but no spark ) . I had a set of Allen keys so I took off the distributor cap , which was a a Bremi rather than Bosch , but looked almost new on the outside - some corrosion to the contacts inside but no cracks or signs of tracking .

Deciding that I wasn't going to get it going at the roadside , I got the car recovered home . The young man who came out from a local family run business was a car enthusiast , admired the SL , and took a lot of care loading it on without doing any damage ; similarly unloading at the other end . Chatting on the way back , he also offered me a cracking deal on a set of new tyres for the 190 , the saving on the tyres more than covering the £80 cost of the recovery .

Once home , it was late , I was tired and hungry , so I just left the car outside and used the Golf today ( it's good to have a spare car that anybody in the extended family can use and we try to always have one kicking around ) .

On return home tonight ( Friday ) I tried again . I took the top of the air filter box off and confirmed that the flap in the air intake depressed slightly when cranking ( I once before had a breather pipe come off the underneath of the inlet manifold on a M103 , causing no vacuum ) but this was OK .

Back to investigating no spark , I took the distributor cap out of the equation by getting a ' king lead ' and connecting a spark plug directly to the coil output - still no spark . I then borrowed the coil from the 'new' M102 still lying in my trailer and , on connecting this up , the car started instantly : result !

I'm just glad it wasn't the EZL . I will need to get a correct coil for the car , but it seems to be running fine for now with the 190 coil . The faulty coil I took out turned out to be an aftermarket unit .

 

[219]

I was in a local breakers yard earlier and found a late W202 just in and virtually complete . It was an esprit model and I got the steering wheel plus airbag with chrome star , and the full tool roll out of the boot .

Hopefully this wheel will suit my R129 ( I read somewhere that it should ) otherwise the airbag should fit my 190LE with similar wheel but plain airbag and I only paid £20 for the lot .

Now just thinking I should have looked at the electric aerial . Also wondering , are W202 indicator lenses the same as R129 ones as this car had white lenses ?

 

[grober]

Different but same?? part nos

BLINKER LAMP WHITE A2028260943 LEFT [VALEO]---------A1298260943

BLINKER LAMP WHITE A2028261043 RIGHT [VALEO]-------A1298261043

 

[219]

I thought they looked very similar . My namesake over in the East kindly checked on EPC and reckoned they were different , well different part no's and no cross reference by application .

I might go back down for a couple of other bits and I guess they would let me try them against my car .

I don't even know if I'd prefer the White ones if they did fit , but it would be a completely reversible modification .

 

[219]

Last night I tackled the audio wiring , all cables neatly cut to length , soldered to the loom from the head unit connector and all solder joins neatly insulated with heat shrink sleeving .

CD player working a treat , just need to sort out the aerial ; I will either go back and see if that C Class has a working aerial that will simply plug in , or I will go to the dealer and get a new mast for the Hischmann in the car which still motors back and forth when connected but the mast is jammed .

 

[Doodle]

Pretty sure they're a totally different fitting mechanism.

However, I might have a pair of OEM white ones in the garage that are available.

 

[BTB 500]

I thought they looked very similar . My namesake over in the East kindly checked on EPC and reckoned they were different , well different part no's and no cross reference by application .

I might go back down for a couple of other bits and I guess they would let me try them against my car .

I don't even know if I'd prefer the White ones if they did fit , but it would be a completely reversible modification .

I'm sure you already know, but you need to be a bit careful with the indicator units ... they can look like they're firmly fitted when they're not. I lost one on the M4 going to one of Jay's GTGs a few years back. I'm guessing the air pressure under the bonnet can pop them out at speed if the retaining 'tongue' isn't fully engaged. I've heard of people adding a cable tie for a bit of additional security.

 

[219]

Another day , another challenge ( or bodge uncovered ) .

Thought I'd take a look at the steering wheel I got yesterday and see if it would fit .

What I got on the car was this



After a bit of faffing around ( having first disconnected the battery and left it a while ) I managed to undo the two T30 machine screws holding the bag on ; I had difficulty locating the second one and ended up cutting a way part of the rear of the wheel I was planning to discard anyway , although this area is pretty much hidden .

Once I got the wheel off I saw it had copper slip rings on the back for the horn and airbag circuits



Unfortunately , there was no corresponding set of contacts on the steering column ( hence the horn being jury rigged to a toggle switch below the dash and no doubt why the SRS light isn't operating , and I'm sure will have been removed from the cluster ! )



Feeling around underneath , I uncovered the four wires for the horn/airbag circuits



While the new wheel from the W202 fitted perfectly onto the column , instead of slip rings on the back it had a plastic two part disc with a long spiral ribbon cable inside to link the static part to the rotating part . This could be made to fit onto my column after a fashion but is clearly not correct , so I will try at the dealership to get the correct missing part . Also worth a look round the breakers locally for late W124/126 cars as I now know what I'm looking for .

Pity about this as the new steering wheel , I think , suits the car very well .



I have also noticed a couple of wood/leather wheels on eBay but with the slip rings and in the same style as my newly bought wheel , so as long as I can get the correct contact ring for my car one of these should be an easy upgrade . I might also try Carl at W140 spares who seems to break quite a few 129's and hopefully will have one of these .

At least I now know what the fault is and that it looks quite an easy fix once I get the part .

 

[jonnyboy]

Derek

Jealous here seeing as I sent mine to Carl........loved it.
He may have the correct wheel etc off my 24v.

Enjoy it - they're superb.

 

[BTB 500]

A simple chrome star on the airbag lifts the appearance of the wheel significantly.

This is mine at the moment (all black)

 

[219]

Derek

Jealous here seeing as I sent mine to Carl........loved it.
He may have the correct wheel etc off my 24v.

Enjoy it - they're superb.

The main priority just now is to get the horn/airbag working correctly before the MOT falls due in July .

I can carry on with the W124 wheel the car had when I got it ( at least it has a 124 part no on the back ) .

I've noticed a few wood/leather wheels on eBay that should accept the chrome star airbag on the wheel I just bought , and once I know everything is working properly I might just go for one of these .

Otherwise the airbag looks as though it should fit the wheel on my 190 , which is the same but just plain plastic .

 

[grober]

Photo Diy- Steering Wheel Removal Part I - Mercedes-Benz Forum
Photo Diy - Steering Wheel Removal Part II - Mercedes-Benz Forum
NOT EXACTLY THE SAME BUT MIGHT HELP>

 

[219]

The photos in the above link show a car with the plastic assembly , which may or may not have been a wheel angle sensor , on the car I took it off .

That assembly certainly didn't fit straight onto my steering column , and I had to break some plastic lugs off the back of it to make it go on - only after a fashion - it was never going to be right , so I will track down the correct part for my car .

 

[219]

It just occurred to me , I haven't posted any pictures of my new toy yet . These are just iPhone snapshots as I've yet to take proper ones .

 

[Druk]

That'll be your DES REZ then?

 

[jonnyboy]

That'll be your DES REZ then?

Dear me......lol

 

[dog]

nice.... personally i think these are the best looking
old converibles cars

 

[219]

I have been able to source the correct contact ring from Carl at W140.co.uk , so a step nearer getting it working