My 6.9's

[rumb]

IT's ALIVE!  Well.... sort of.  3 out of 4 corners are now risen. Right front not so much.  I suspect crud in lines or perhaps valve. Need to figure out diagnosis plan.  I will probably take small line off where it enters accumulator and see if fluid comes out and work back from there.

[raueda1]

Disappointing but interesting. 🥺

Obviously the pump works and the front valve is working half right. So...

Did the car rise ok at some point in the past?  And did you rebuild the struts or other suspension elements thereafter? I'm guessing "yes".  So, did you see any evidence that fluid was blowing through the strut via the fluid return line?   That is, fluid getting past the internal seals so strut is effectively dead? If it were me I'd be hoping for that, cause then you'd know what to do (replace or re-rebuild strut).  Maybe pull the return line and make sure that little or nothing is coming out, bypassing the strut internals.  At least this is pretty easy to check. Cheers and good luck!

[rumb]

Entire system was bone dry. Rebuilt 4 struts, @10 lines replated - could be source of crud.

[raueda1]

Hmmm. Yeah, lots of sources of crud. A couple times I've revived the system by popping  the lever arm on the valve off the torsion bar (can't recall what it's called) and manually working the valve.  I'm grasping at straws here....

[rumb]

Partial improvement.  Trying to bleed air out of system. Got corner to go up about half way so far.  Will rinse and repeat a few more times.

After I turn engine off and bounce corner you can hear fluid (and probably air) sort of squealing as it travels thru system. I doubt just fluid would make noises like that.

My car is earlier without the bleed screws in the system.

[rumb]

I guess it's been almost 8 weeks since I did get the suspension working correctly.   I Made a new line with a 12 gauge copper wire inside it.  Works properly now.

Since then I have begun in earnest the body work.  Sunroof stripped and primered and LR quarterpanel is now straight and smooth.  Could possibly have ready for paint by Springtime?

[Neil4speed]

Amazing progress Mr!! Exciting stuff.

Sorry, amateur's question, why is there wire inside the line?

[rumb]

If you missed it:

https://forum.w116.org/mechanicals/hydro-line-mystery/


Short answer is because MB did so originally.

[Neil4speed]

Gotcha, thanks for sharing. Congrats on the milestone!a

[rumb]

Very dusty work:

[ramiro]

And i was feeling bad not replacing the rear end metal when i prepared the car for paint , because i have nearly 1 cm bondo between the rear lights, good to know that my 6.9 is not only one with some scars under the paint.
My 6.9 has some accident history ,it must had 2 accidents with one beeing major because the whole front including frames was completly replaced by the book , but the rear was just filled up with bondo.

Interesting that i already know 3 old mercedes from north america with nearly the same rear end damage seems to happen quiete often over there .

[rumb]

A bit like automotive archeology. My car had minor damage on 3 corners and also had a major rust removal around rear wheel arches. One full repaint. All looked like pretty good work.