Vacuum tee location 1980 450 SEL

[DasCar]

I have a leak in the unlock circuit of the vacuum door locks.  I used the manual, and it states that the tee connectors are "more centrally located after 1976".  I tracked them from the drivers door down the front piller, accross the drivers footwell, and under the drivers seat with no tees visable.  Are the tees way up under the dash on the late models too?  Or could they be in the center piller?  I don't like pulling off the trim if I don't have to, so any help is appreciated.

[DasCar]

I used my daughters holloween smoke machine and some plumbing to make a leak detector.   I pumped the "smoke" into the unlock line and the left rear door started smoking.  Bellows were broken on the actuator.   I then pumped it thru the main vacuum line and found a leaking connector at the main vacuum line.   This thing save hours of pulling trim!

[koan]

I used my daughters holloween smoke machine and some plumbing to make a leak detector.

That's clever. Lets have some more details of the "smoke machine".

koan

[DasCar]

Its a fog machine that you would use for making fog in a theater, or  for discos or haunted houses.  This one on ebay looks similar:
http://cgi.ebay.com/FOG-MACHINE-WITH-REMOTE-L-K_W0QQitemZ190208938315QQihZ009QQcategoryZ132998QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I then took that and the vacuum connector that fits the central locking vacuum lines and went to the hardware store. I found a fitting that fit onto the end of the fog machine and then one that fit the vacuum connector.  Then I found a series of reducers to make those to fittings go to gether. No need to be specific because every fog machine is different. 

I removed the cover from the drivers door, and put the line into the unlock vacuum line at the main vacuum switch.  I had already used a vacuum tester to determine it was leaking.

I started the fog machine and pumped fog into the pumbing fitting and waited.  Nothing happend at first, so I took the fitting off the fog machine and breathed into it.  That forced the fog through the vacuum lines, and then I just looked around the car until I saw smoke rising from one of the doors.  I then removed that door's cover and did the smoke again.  I could see the smoke pouring out of the actuator, so I removed it and tested with the vacuum tester.  It had a tiny tear in the bellows.

I found that Mercedessource sells a bellows repair kit, so I've ordered some.  They are US$16 a pair, vs. US$80+ for the whole actuator.

So for laughs, I ran the test on the main vacuum line from the engine, sure enough, my connector was leaking, but not bad.

[oscar]

I'll have to try this myself eventually.  All my elements are new or near new, so too the main one way valve and be buggered if I can find where my leak/s occur.  What better way then to see the leak visually.

Don't know if this will help but this '75 280 I'm wrecking (obviously pre '76), I took a couple of shots of where the vac lines run from left to right.  Near impossible to get to unless the dash is removed, don't know.  The tees are under the top left and right dash mounting points.

[DasCar]

Here is a look at the plumbing for the fog machine.