New member and first Benz (280SE)

[irvine]

hey again everyone, I'm slowly tinkering away with little w116 projects and the boring usual maintenance.


As my w116 is a south African delivered to Australia it THANKFULLY comes without the emissions rubbish, well almost everything... I has the usual crankcase vent to intake pipe which is a horrendous idea that's still used on todays cars. I've always done away with this on my previous cars and on a 350k km motor I believe its a must.

super simple installation, only changes I done were non collapsible hoses and packed the can with extra steal wool to catch the oil vapours.

Untitled by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

Untitled by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

in the previous picture you can see the surface rust on the air cleaner/filter box, wile I was working in that area I had removed/sanded/painted the box

W116 oil catch can by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

and the finished thing all back together, painted air box and oil catch can.

W116 oil catch can by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

W116 oil catch can by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

I'm super happy with the outcome, though I still have quite a way to go degreasing the engine bay and cleaning/painting/polishing bits.

thanks for looking,
neil.

[TJ 450]

Great work, yes it's definitely a good improvement to keep that rubbish out of the intake. EGR is even worse.

Tim

[irvine]

Well for the last month my w116 has been a bit of a nightmare, the indicator stalk failed shorted out the headlights and somehow the headlight switch. I got an untested replacement from a mate but turned out to also be a dud, thankfully,4 days ago I came across a great find on e bay, someone selling a working indicator stalk and headlight switch.
a bit of a daunting task once I removed the speedo cluster, there's not a lot of room to work in and the loom for the switch isn't that long.

W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

And as can be seen trying to wire like for like as to not mix things up. not the best method im sure as it got interesting with the limited space.

W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

thankfully back together, with the inner clear cable guard and the big ugly rubber boot covering everything.

W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

AND we have fully working headlights....

W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

thankfully just in time for the weekend, just have to get polished up and get out into the city to show off.

thanks for looking,
neil.

[daantjie]

Nice work! Yup that headlight switch is a tough one. I did mine from below and it was a tight squeeze.

[irvine]

Hello everyone I've another update on the old girls progress.
I FINALLY ticked off the one job I've been dreading, engine and trans mounts. The motor had quite a shake so I had to pull the finger out, but, like always Sydney had some rain the day I decided to do it and well as you can see in the pic I do all my work on the street 

W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

Ultimately the task was easy except for the drivers side mount had completely collapsed and made getting the inner fixing bolt removed DIFFICULT, infact I had to mess around for almost an hour, cutting down an allen key to squeeze in.

as you can see in the pics below the mounts were stuffed, totally compressed, gone hard and split.

trans mount:
W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr


left hand mount:
W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

and now the worst.....
right hand mount:
W116 by Neil Irvine, on Flickr

The damage to the right hand mount was shocking, the rubber was actually missing chunks... now though its like a new car, the motor doesnt shake like mad and ive "almost" no vibrations running through the car moving away and at speeds over 70kmh.


neil.

[daantjie]

Nice work and great commitment doing this in less than stellar conditions 

[Justin280s]

Great work.  Seems like a very nice machine.  Have you done the chain and tensioner yet?

[irvine]

Cheers for the comments, yip every time I have a big job to do it rains, haha.
No I've yet to do the tensioner, and realllly don't want to do it, BUT it must be done.
Have you done it? Easy job?

Cheers,
Neil.

[Justin280s]

No, I haven't  yet.  I hope to get around to it soon.  I think I may even pull  the engine and do all the guides and sprockets in one go.