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I thought about this "night panel" thing, actually... But this would require some serious modifications to the gauge cluster. If you look close, you can just about make out the shadow of the needle; all gauges are illuminated from the front, there's only 2 bulbs for all of them. The light conductors literally shine on the gauges... I was never really aware of this, until I replaced them. Clever, cheap, genius - not sure And we have an issue; the trip meter reset never worked. When I pulled the speedo, I pushed the lever - and it actually reset the trip meter. But now it has stopped counting... D'oh! The odometer is still counting though, all good. But... I want to investigate. It's irritating. Cheers, Jan
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So turns I was not wrong - but mistaken... I looks like the better light conductors had been introduced earlier. The Taxi's gauge cluster is stamped 4/89, which is probably the month of production - or pretty close. Anyway - it's very, very likely still the original. And it's got the better light conductors. But with a black housing. Nice! However, after 3 decades and a million km - they don't look so fresh anymore I re-painted the cluster, like it was done form factory. Resp. at VDO's. ^it really did look just like that before; as I someone's had a go with a rattle can... Amazing! Then I glued a pair of well preserved 2nd hand light conductors on... And here's about how it looked before: And that's how it it now: So bright I have to turn it down I'm atually thinking about adding a switch to turn off the illumination, since I always drive with the lights on. And at day, I don't need the speedo to be illuminated. That might save a lot of melting issues. Well - or LEDs. Cheers, Jan
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Since the newer conductors rarely melt - I guess someone else has done the problem solving for me Since the bulbs stayed the same. Or maybe it's because the old ones are inefficient to begin with, that people turn the dimmer all the way up all the time - I don't know. But for now, I'm not going to use LEDs. I don't like LEDs very much. Should I find out I'm melting the newer conductors too, they'r an option though. Cheers, Jan
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A-Pillar is painted & seam sealed, no pictures, as I was doing it after work and no mojo to take photots of paint... Since the dark time of year is approaching fast, it is time to finally takle an issue that I ignored for a while. Basically, ever since I got the car The illumination of the gauge cluster. On facelift cars, the illumination was improved a lot. It's done via acrylic light conductors, which guide the light from the rear to the front of the gauges. On facelift cars, it looks like this: ^hard to see; the clear conductor forms a "U" shape around the bulb. On pre-facelift cars, it looks like this, most of the times: Why? No idea... Now the easy solution is to just swap the gauges into a newer cluster and be done with it. BUT. The newer clusters are of a (very) dark brown colour. The pre-facelift clusters are actually black. I want to keep it black. It's been there for almost 30 years and over a million kilometers... So - let's try the hard way. As you can see in the top pictures, I removed the light conductors and theyr cover (the white plastic bit). The clusters are shaped differently, but - if you remove a bit of material here & there, the newer light conductor swaps into the older cluster. The pins line up. The basic shape is the same. The next picture is the old style black cluster. On the left side is the new style light conductor, on the right the burned old one: Without any other mods and the conductor not firmly in place, there's allready a big difference! And the same viewed form the top; you can see that the new style conductor does a far better job of catching the available light from the bulb: That's partly because the top of the cluster, above the bulb, has melted away. The new style conductor's white cover/lid/reflector or whatever you like to call it, extends over the bulb. The old one doesn't. This was done on a test-piece, but I'm positive I can improve the illumination of the cluster that's in the Taxi right now with a couple of easy-ish modifications. Whilst keeping the original cluster More on that, once it's done Cheers, Jan
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Sept 24, 2017 10:13:36 GMT
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New one to me.
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Sept 23, 2017 16:11:48 GMT
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So, bit more preservation work today... My initial plan was to just remove the inner wing guards, to remove dirt and muck that collects behind them. Then I spotted an issue - and removed the wing... This is an issue that concerns all Mercedeses from the 70's to at least 1996. Mercedes used a bitumen based seam sealer on the lower part of the a-pillars. Only there - and always. Very strange. Now the issue is; the bitumen seam sealer was applied BEFORE the shells had been dipped in primer. Bitumen ages - once it gets brittle, it's an invitation for all sorts of desaster... I spotted a patch of loose bitumen sealer, so I removed it all... As you can see, there's a LOT going on with the a-pillar, a lot of overlapping joints... And you can actually see, that there's only bare metal where the sealer once was: Sometimes you can strip this sealer with your fingers, comes of in huge brittle bits... In my case, only a few spots were loose. Someone's put a thick coat of wax on there before me. So that's done a lot of good here. The quality of the panels is good, they seem to have been phosphated - else I think there would be a LOT more rust under the seam sealer. I was lucky to catch it in time, no huge rust issues here. I brushed Owatrol Oil on, pushed it in all the joints. After it's dryed, I'll put on some good paint and then proper polymer seam-sealer. Only doing this side now, the other has to wait a bit longer... Also put in thinner spring pads - sits much nicer now, with a bit of rake. No pictures, I'll take some soon. That's all for now... If you love your W124 and want to keep it for a long time, I'd say - do as I did. Take off the wings and fix this! I've seen cars with BIG holes there... It's an developing issue, those cars are now MUCH beyond theyr intended life span, I expect to see a lot of rotten a-pillars in the future (it's very hard to spot, hardly anyone ever takes out the mud guards). Cheers, Jan
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Sept 22, 2017 16:00:13 GMT
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The island of Rügen, well worth a visit... But back on topic; not only does the windscreen still leak, it's also completely sand blasted - after about 1 year/45.000km. Driving against a low sun is no joy... But this time - this time I'm trying this myself. I'm fed up of throwing a bunch of money at trained monkey idiots. The money they demand for such an easy task is ridiculous! So - I bought this, the first tool for the job; a pneumatic oscillating cutter... Also going to buy a pneumatic glue cardrige press and a pair of suction thingys to lift the glas... Cheers, Jan
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Sept 20, 2017 8:45:04 GMT
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Sept 19, 2017 18:56:13 GMT
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Hi! It's UK gallons, US would be 31.3 - or for us continentals 7.5l/100km. Rear end is a 3.07, auto trans. Milage is so good, mainly because I was taking it easy & steady, many times I didn't exceed 60MPH. Traffic was light, no traffic jams - perfect conditions for good mileage. On day-to-day duty I'm mostly in the 8.5l/100km range (33.3 MPG imperial / 27.7 US).
I like my diesel, despite all the bad press...
Milage: 1.012.800km
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Sept 19, 2017 14:53:57 GMT
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Back from a 2125km round trip, no dramas for either my back or the car. 37.6MPG - nice!
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Sept 11, 2017 18:29:47 GMT
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Click baiting much, I know Anyway, I wired the pump up - all working well. Feels nice! I made use of a third auxiliary fuse holder - because why not. Only problem; the pump pumps in bursts, with decreasing amplitude until the set pressure is reached. I think I'm going to add a reservoir or buffer of some sort. If you move your body, the pump gets triggered, since air gets pushed out the cushion. There's some room for improvement. But apart from that; all working. And makes a significant difference in terms of seating comfort. So - it was worth the effort to retro-fit this lumbar thingy. And cost wise... So far I'm at 60€. Cheers, Jan
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Sept 10, 2017 11:50:31 GMT
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I've got an air horn under the bumper... I just never got motivated to actually wire it in... Back to the lumbar suport. I bought a pump of a modern Mercedes, this type of pump was fitted to a lot of vehicles in the early-mid 2000's. So spares are avaiable, and at moderate cost (2nd hand of course). It can support two seats, so should be plenty enough for a single seat... It has 3 wires. I could not find any wiring diagram, I guess they'r plug-and-play into the next fuse box. Soo... Ground, live - and the third? Logic dictated that this is either activated by a switch - or ignition. So that the pump knows when the car is in operation and doesn't drain the battery... Dug out the booster pack and had a try: Function confirmed; +/- and switched + to make it chooch. Easy. Medical gloves didn't withstand the pressure, so I hooked the pump to the seat. And it's internally pressure sensing and shuts of once the desired pressure is reached. If pressure drops, it sends a short pulse to maintain it. 100% perfect for retro-fitting to any car. And even better; it's a PERFECT fir under the rear seat: One cutout in the foam insulation gives room for the main wiring loom, the other for the seat heater controller Many awesomes!! Didn't have long enough wires in the right thickness, so wiring the beast to the fuse box & accesory switch panel has to wait a bit more. But; my quick&dirty back rest seems to work well enough, the air cushion make a big difference, despite the fixed seat cover. It may not work as perfect as the real deal, but it works well enough. Another advantage of having a separate pump is not just the cost & availability; should it fail i can just pull the fuse and still have working central locking. The genuine W124 pump is integral to the central locking pump. I had a browse through our stash of pumps at work (a LOT); not a single dual pump... All in all, this is the right choice. And as stated before; I want to have it electric & automatic. Fit & forget. Cheers, Jan
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I brought[sic] my cheap auto darkening helmet to work. You know what? Most times I use the hand held shield... Working on cars you have poor lighting many times. The cheap helmets are just too dark. And, many times they'r just too bulky to use. I have an expensive helmet at home, which is MUCH brighter when un-shaded, has a BIG field of view... This I can use when tucked inside a wheel arch or something like that, with poor lighting.
I'd go to a place that sells welding helmets and have a look, literally. That's what I did - and after walking around in the store from the bright to the dark corners - I made my choice. And like you, I don't use it every day. Maybe couple of times a year.
The cheapest is still a hand held shield... For such brief use, I'd consider it.
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Bought with 556k miles, currently at 627k (that's over a million km).
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Sept 4, 2017 18:42:49 GMT
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Hi! In theory I could, yes. But... I don't want to. I'd like to have it automated. So far it looks like most of modern-ish pumps are pretty much stand-alone, I'll try it. If not - well, it's an option. But rather option B or C than A In other news; since I need new tyres urgently... I stole the wheels of the Coupé. It just doesn't need brand new tyres for being stored... And I think they do look nice on the Taxi as well: And yes, the fornt is a bit too high... I had hoped this would settle. That's the down side of aftermarket springs; they'r "one size fits many". I've ordered thinner spring pads, should be able to drop the front end about 20mm with the thinnest pads. Cheers, Jan
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Sept 3, 2017 16:28:23 GMT
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Haha So, during the week, I got hold of a free orthopedic back rest with lumbar support. The issue is; it's of a facelift-car. Which has different cloth and a different seat design. It would not look good to just bolt it in. The next issue is; the cover is completely different, as is the cushion. It has a "floating" center section, to allow movement of the air bags. The covers do swap over, but of course I do not have the correct cover of a series 1 car... So I tried to separate the center horse hair cushion (which is the free-floating part), using triangle cloth from a 1st aid kit... Another difference is that the cover is held to the horsehair cushion by rubber bands, not with just wire hangers. I had to cut the old ones, and cut part of the cover to install the flexible ones. Sewed back up after. Next was to rivet the bracket for the air switch to the seat base. Whilst the seat was out, I routed an air line under the rear bench. And assembled the seat and put it back in the car. The facelift back rest is a lot stiffer to begin with, so that's an improvement on it's own. The die-hard W124-geeks my have noted that I routed the air line to the wrong side of the car... 'Cause from factory, the lumbar support comes with a special central locking pump (located on the continental passenger's side, under the rear bench). This also supplys pressurised air for the lumbar support. The problem is; they are rare and VERY sought after - and insanely expensive. I plan to use a standalone-pump from a different car, maybe even from a different manufacturer. Not yet sure what I'm going for, research is still going on... But whatever I go for, my back will thank me for it. It's not getting better. I'm not sure if this will work, since the cover has less room to move, less "stretchability", if that's a word... I'll see. Cheers, Jan
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Sept 3, 2017 13:32:01 GMT
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I drove my Mini for over 8 years without a screen wash reservoir... Never found one that would fit, and was too lazy to actually find one and fit it... For TÜV I put a random reservoir in the boot, telling the examiner it "just fell off". Always worked.
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Sept 2, 2017 14:07:51 GMT
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Jeeesus... Today I had the bonnet open with the engine runing, to diagnose some engine starting gremlins I have. It was then that I noticed that the engine was not vibrating a lot. But the distributor was, a lot. It was completely loose and shaking. I could steady it with my hand. So - I tried to tighten the bolt for the clamp. It was tight. So onto the internets... Where I quickly learned that those engines don't have a clamp to hold the distributor in place. Whilst mine clearly has one. Hmmm. Removed the bolt, removed the clamp. Couldn't decide if I should cry, laugh or knock the palm of my hand against my face... To the right, we have what was on the engine... Note the nut! This was wedged under it to try and give it some leverage... To the left is what I came up with, made from an old Mercedes exhaust hanger. Hardened it with the furnace burner. Not that it got very hard, but all I can to to prevent it from bending. Tighetend it down - and the distributor is now rock solid bolted in place. Took 30 minutes, including the heat treatment. Idle much better, less rattling noises. All with a tiny bit of effort for a proper-ish fix. Those distributors have a flange cast to the bottom, which apparently tends to break. Adding a clamp is a common fix - the 4.2l engines had a clamp from factory. I have high hopes that this will also fix an oil leak that was originating somwhere around the distributor... It's "fixes" like that, that give me fear of buying neglected cars... On the other hand; in this case the fix was easy & enjoyable & with 100% success That's it for now. Cheers, Jan
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Aug 31, 2017 16:22:49 GMT
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This car is all sorts of utter awesomeness!!! I never really cared for Maestros... But this - this has changed my mind!!
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Aug 31, 2017 15:57:53 GMT
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Hi! Thanks for the words! And - bite through! Soo, yesterday I had the car aligned. And what can I say - it's as expected. It drives like a tank, all the bumpy, bad roads have lost theyr harshness, the suspension works a lot smoother and better. It's lost that "sagging in" feel when cornering - all in all - like expected. Very nice!! But I need new tires badly, one of them lost all air over night (WTF?), two are almost bald - and one is the spare... And - I scored a free orthopedic back rest!! Which sadly has the wrong cloth, since it's of a facelift car... And I don't have the correct central locking pump that's required to supply the air cushions in the back rest... I'll see how I can make this work, worst case is I sell or swap it and buy a pre-facelift back rest. I'll see... Cheers, Jan PS: the JB Weld seems to have done a perfect job of sealing the oil pan... PMSL! Awesome stuff!!
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