From: owner-diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net (diesel-benz-digest) To: diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Subject: diesel-benz-digest V1 #992 Reply-To: diesel-benz-at-digest.net Sender: owner-diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Errors-To: owner-diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Precedence: bulk diesel-benz-digest Sunday, April 27 2003 Volume 01 : Number 992 Forum for Discussion of Diesel Mercedes Benz Automobiles Derick Amburgey Digest Coordinator Contents: RE: Cheap MB's (sorta a flame) RE: Cheap MB's (sorta a flame) portland, fry's... oh boy! :) RE: sunroof repaired! Re: [FSJ-XJList] Re: Lighting upgrades Re[3]: Lighting upgrades Re: eBay item 3020514069 (Ends Apr-30-03 09:06:46 PDT ) - MTX Car Audio System, Subw Re: eBay item 3020514069 (Ends Apr-30-03 09:06:46 PDT ) - MTX Car Audio System, Subw RE: Headlight control relay - repair status (long) Diesel Benz Digest Home Page: http://www.digest.net/diesel-benz/ Send submissions to diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Send administrative requests to diesel-benz-digest-request-at-digest.net To unsubscribe, include the word unsubscribe by itself in the body of the message, unless you are sending the request from a different address than the one that appears on the list. Include the word help in a message to stag-digest-request to get a list of other majordomo commands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 21:41:55 -0400 From: "Michael Aimino" Subject: RE: Cheap MB's (sorta a flame) Hi Gary. Thanks for the info. I wonder if it will it work for w123 lower ball joints? The upper ball joint on the 123 cars is part of the upper control arm, so you have to replace the whole upper control arm to replace the upper ball joint. Also, on the w123, the ball joint is pressed into the steering knuckle, as opposed to the lower control arm. That baffled me for a while, since the last ball joint I had done myself was on a '75 Chevy Vega back in..... ummm, nevermind. :) Anyway, the ball joint tool I rented had a slot cut into the receiving tube. On 25 Apr 03, at 17:17, gary wrote: > Aimino, > > Here is the catalog page for the ball joint press. > > http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=38335 > > Remember, this worked for me for my w201 lower ball joints, not for > upper w123 ball joints. > > As it is it worked like a champ, but... > > Look at the ends of your control arms. On the very outside of the arm, > where the ball joint seats, check to see if there is a bit of a lip. > One of my arms did and the receiving tube butted up against nicely. > The other side, didn't have much of a lip at all. Nothing there for > the tube to catch. Ended up grinding a bug "U" so the tube would catch > the two side ears on the control arm. But $39 well spent. > > > -Gary in Orlando > '86 MB 190D 2.5 > > > On Fri, 2003-04-25 at 09:39, Aimino, Michael wrote: > > And which 3-in-1 ball joint tool was that (Mike says while excitedly > > thumbing through his HF catalog)? I paid to rent a press from > > Performance Products. Still a lot cheaper than the shop price, but > > I'm always looking to pinch a penny. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: gary [mailto:gbangs-at-cfl.rr.com] > > Sent: Friday, April 25, 2003 9:14 AM > > To: Robert Chase > > Cc: Diesel Benz > > Subject: Re: Cheap MB's (sorta a flame) > > > > > > Well said and right on! > > > > My sentiments exactly. > > > > However, my philosophy is bourne from a different background... > > > > As a young enlisted man, I could never afford a (st/d)ealer's rates. > > It was always cheaper to buy the tools and do it myself. And this > > was with VW diesels. > > > > Now, I take great pride in keeping my 'vintage' iron in good repair. > > Knowing that I did it myself. I hope my children will pick up on > > that as they grow. > > > > Though I could more afford it recently, I had a quote to do my front > > ball joints for $250. I've heard that they needed to be pressed > > out/in with a press, and that the front springs had to be compressed > > with a special "inner" spring compressor. > > > > Well, I got one of those 3-in-1 ball joint servicing sets (on sale) > > from Harbour Freight, the ball joints from Rusty, jacked up then set > > the car down on blocks under the control arms, and 3 hours later, > > new ball joints. Less than $100 total. > > > > > > -Gary in Orlando > > 1986 MB 190D 2.5 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, 2003-04-25 at 05:01, Robert Chase wrote: > > > Come on guys... Gimme a break here..... > > > > > > Cars are machines. Machines break. No matter if you have a brand > > > new machine or an old machine. This cheap Mercedes stuff is just > > > a lot of superstition. There is no way that you can predict which > > > machines will fail and which ones will last forever. The price > > > you pay for the car has nothing to do with how much repair you > > > will have to put into it. > > > > > > My 82 300SD was filled with water when I bought it and had a > > > number of major issues that screamed "stay away" yet it has been > > > the posterchild for reliability and has yet to give me major > > > greif. My car was a super well maintained car that spent several > > > years in a parking deck. > > > > > > Paying on the front end does not give you any additional > > > reliability. If your transmission has a manafacturing defect in it > > > that has taken 10 years or 2 years to surface having perfect maint > > > records and paying full book does nothing to help you. Same thing > > > goes with every other system on the car. The only way to be > > > absolutely sure is to dissasemble the car and look at every part > > > and put it back together. > > > > > > If it makes you feel better to pay more than you have to please > > > feel free. I would rather get a good deal and absorb the costs of > > > the repairs and know that they were done right and its unlikely I > > > will have the same failure within a reasonable time frame > > > (although one never knows cars have that fun way of suprising > > > you). The Important thing to keep in mind is that all cars are > > > unknowns until you get to know them. My dad had an interesting > > > saying "the beast you know is sometimes better than the one you > > > don't". > > > > > > I do see "some" logic to what your saying though. If your looking > > > at a car with a LOT of stuff wrong with it its likely the owner > > > was not forthcoming with you on other repairs that it probably > > > needs as well. Thats just part of kicking the tires and doing the > > > numbers. I have gotten plenty of good deals on great cars. I > > > have been lucky in spotting major problems and avoiding bad cars. > > > I have only been burned a couple of times and usually it was a > > > "gray area" kind of issue and I did not check those issues > > > thouroughly. > > > > > > A friend of mine drives me crazy though with his "used cars are > > > used cars for a reason". He will only buy new cars and thinks > > > that he is safe from issues. His First Volvo C70 Convertible > > > bought brand new was returned under lemon law because it was such > > > a horrid piece of junk. He is on his second one and is already > > > counting the days before his lease ends :). > > > > > > I always look at a broken part as an chance to make that kind of > > > failure unlikely in the future. > > > > > > Hopefully my karma will be good and my car won't completely > > > unravel in front of my eyes like my S70 did because I dared to > > > question the laws of the universe :). > > > > > > Enjoy your cars and keep in mind that every penny you put in maint > > > and repairs is a penny you did not loose in a dealership profit or > > > interest on a loan. You got something for what you spent. > > > > > > Robert. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Apr 2003 00:23:10 -0400 From: gary Subject: RE: Cheap MB's (sorta a flame) I don't know squat about the w123 chassis. But looking at a picture of the lower ball joint on Rusty's site, I don't see why it wouldn't work. - -Gary On Fri, 2003-04-25 at 21:41, Michael Aimino wrote: > Hi Gary. Thanks for the info. I wonder if it will it work for w123 > lower ball joints? The upper ball joint on the 123 cars is part of > the upper control arm, so you have to replace the whole upper control > arm to replace the upper ball joint. > > Also, on the w123, the ball joint is pressed into the steering > knuckle, as opposed to the lower control arm. That baffled me for a > while, since the last ball joint I had done myself was on a '75 Chevy > Vega back in..... ummm, nevermind. :) Anyway, the ball joint tool I > rented had a slot cut into the receiving tube. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 22:39:12 -0700 From: john Subject: portland, fry's... oh boy! :) made it down to Portland, installed the server... ate dinner and made it to Fry's Electronics in Wilsonville before they closed... they had the mercury switches! :) yee haw. also picked up a new motherboard, 2.2gig chip and 512M for $205! Also picked up Lycoris Linux... Love that place... :) john - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- john-at-wagoneers.com from Snohomish, Washington reminding you not to leave life without Jesus. Need a choice of computing tools and operating systems? SEE: http://wagoneers.com/UNIX/options.html ============================================================================= "Microsoft Certified Professionals are to the computing industry what McDonald Certified Food Specialists are to gourmet restaurants." -Michael Bacarella 3/15/2000 (as seen on http://www.slashdot.com/) ============================================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 23:49:54 -0700 From: john Subject: RE: sunroof repaired! At 09:53 AM 4/25/2003 -0700, Robert L Bell Jr wrote: >Ok How easy or hard is it to work on the sunroof? What do you have to do >to lube it? I'm not sure I did it correctly... :) If you don't know what you're doing and you live in a climate like Seattle or Portland... let someone that knows what they're doing fix it. :) john - ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.WAGONEERS.com/ Snohomish, WA - where Jeeps don't rust, they mold... jesus, don't leave life without him, please! - ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 08:52:58 -0700 From: john Subject: Re: [FSJ-XJList] Re: Lighting upgrades The lens on the IPF lamp replacements are thicker and a much higher quality then the others... it's noticeably different. :) Even the quality of the reflector is better... I've compared them side by side with the others. Take a look at the pictures. ARB-USA imports these things, but I've seen 'em at a variety of 4x4 and auto shops. I've got 'em on my J10 and on my Mercedes. > I've got some info on IPF on my site: > http://www.wagoneers.com/JEEPS/IPF/ At 07:05 AM 4/26/2003 -0700, Leonard K. Pennock wrote: >As far as which brand is better. I've ran Hella, Marcell and Cibie. >Liked the Cibie best but they are much harder to find. Never have ran >the IPF; however, the difference between the other three is so close >that I doubt there would be much difference with IPF. Any should be so >much better than the stock headlights or those Crystal junk lights that >you will be happy. - ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.WAGONEERS.com/ Snohomish, WA - where Jeeps don't rust, they mold... jesus, don't leave life without him, please! - ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 12:10:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Richard Welty Subject: Re[3]: Lighting upgrades [only sent to diesel-benz, i just caught the remark about hard-to-find Cibie lights buried in a reference.] At 07:05 AM 4/26/2003 -0700, Leonard K. Pennock wrote: >As far as which brand is better. I've ran Hella, Marcell and Cibie. >Liked the Cibie best but they are much harder to find. Dan Stern: http://lighting.mbz.org/ that's where i get Cibies from. richard - -- Richard Welty rwelty-at-suespammers.org Averill Park Networking rwelty-at-averillpark.net Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security rwelty-at-krusty-motorsports.com 518-573-7592 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 13:20:22 -0700 From: john Subject: Re: eBay item 3020514069 (Ends Apr-30-03 09:06:46 PDT ) - MTX Car Audio System, Subw I wonder if this would fit in my 190D? not sure if it'd fit behind the seats in my J10... need to get something compact so I don't loose space back there... I think this guy has been sniffing too much Johnson floor wax at the citadel... :) interesting write up though... ;) I'm almost afraid to email for dimensions, shoot, the guy make me do some pushups... ;) john At 10:03 AM 4/26/2003 -0700, Jim B wrote: >http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3020514069&category=32822 > >Jim Blair, Seattle, WA '84 J10 Black Jack, '86 Comanche 4x4 - ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.WAGONEERS.com/ Snohomish, WA - where Jeeps don't rust, they mold... jesus, don't leave life without him, please! - ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:54:47 -0400 From: Robert Chase Subject: Re: eBay item 3020514069 (Ends Apr-30-03 09:06:46 PDT ) - MTX Car Audio System, Subw Hmmm, Perhaps he is forgetting to put on his oxygen mask over 10,000 ft Hypoxia can do strange things to your braincells :) Robert. john wrote: > I wonder if this would fit in my 190D? not sure if it'd fit > behind the seats in my J10... need to get something compact > so I don't loose space back there... > > I think this guy has been sniffing too much Johnson floor wax > at the citadel... :) interesting write up though... ;) > > I'm almost afraid to email for dimensions, shoot, the guy make me > do some pushups... ;) > john > > At 10:03 AM 4/26/2003 -0700, Jim B wrote: > >> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3020514069&category=32822 >> Jim Blair, Seattle, WA '84 J10 Black Jack, '86 Comanche 4x4 > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > http://www.WAGONEERS.com/ > Snohomish, WA - where Jeeps don't rust, they mold... > jesus, don't leave life without him, please! > ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:55:25 -0600 From: "JC Jones" Subject: RE: Headlight control relay - repair status (long) Ok, I pulled the headlight control relay out, took the cover off, and very carefully re-soldered all the exposed solder joints. Now my right side low beam works - Yea! That however did not fix the fog light so I decided to track down the wiring and look for a break in the wire - fortunately I decided to start at the light bulb itself. The bulb is good, but the Mercedes mechanic missed the fact that the ground was disconnected inside the fog light housing - now both my fog lights work too - Yea! I assumed this would take care of my "bulb out" light on the dashboard too, but it is behaving strangly. When I shut off the car and remove the key it appears to reset the light on the dash. When I start the car the light stays off, turn on the parking lights - light stays off, turn on the headlights - light stays off, turn on the fog lights - light turns on (even though both fog lights work fine), turn off the fog lights - light turns off, step on the brakes - light turns on and stays on until I "reboot" the car again (Can you tell I have to deal with Windows alot?). Both brake lights work (all 4 bulbs), so I don't know why the "bulb out" indicator is coming on when I step on the brakes. Are there other bulbs that are supposed to light when the brakes are applied other then the 4 rear facing bulbs? The other strange thing is that before I pulled the light control relay out the other day, the electric cooling fans in front of the radiator appeared to be working fine. With the car off, while I was pulling the light control relay the electric fans started just turning on and off, even when I let go of everything and let it rest the front fans kept turning on and off. After about 5 minutes of this, they turned off and did not ever come back on (even when running the A/C in warm weather today). I had to turn off the A/C today because the engine temp was climbing. Tonight I tried wiggling around and inspecting all the harnes's around the fusebox finding nothing unusual. However, while I was reconnecting the ground wire to the front right fog light, the fans started turning on and off again (this time with the car running and the lights on), then the fans came on and just stayed on for about 10 minutes. I fixed the fog light ground, and put everything back together and the fans stayed on. Then about 10 minutes later the fans turned off and I have not been able to get them to turn back on again. I really need these fans working so I can run the A/C this summer - I'm tempted to make my own harness and put them on an auxiliary switch somewhere inside the car at this point. Any ideas? JC Jones :) - -----Original Message----- From: john [mailto:john-at-wagoneers.com] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 11:52 PM To: jcjones-at-ifsja.org; diesel-benz-at-digest.net Subject: RE: Headlight control relay At 11:44 PM 4/24/2003 -0600, JC Jones wrote: >I'll give that a shot and see what happens. The symptom is that the >right low beam and right fog light don't work, and the "bulb out" >indicator on the dashboard is lit. The headlight bulb and the fog >light bulb are both new and the harness/plugs appear to be in excellent >condition. The right high-beam does work however, as well as all the >other lights on the car. the german electronics don't hold up well... I was able to salvage much of my cruise control by reflowing the solder... >I am quickly learning that 560SEL parts are not nearly as cheap as >parts for the 300D. I am also learning that buying a 560SEL for 2k >under low book can quickly turn into having average book price into it >by the time it is all fixed.. ;) yeah, I know, I know, my 190D went the same way... got it for a couple hundred under book, now I'm probably well over a grand in it beyond book... :) john >JC Jones > >-----Original Message----- >From: john [mailto:john-at-wagoneers.com] >Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 10:53 PM >To: jcjones-at-ifsja.org; diesel-benz-at-digest.net >Subject: RE: Headlight control relay > > > >try resoldering the circuit boards... carefully, use >a good 60/40 rosin core solder and a 700 degree pencil tip. > >john > >At 10:45 PM 4/24/2003 -0600, JC Jones wrote: > >Unfortunately, I did take it apart and discovered that it's an > >extremely complicated solid state device - no contacts to clean :( I > >was thinking the same thing about just cleaning/repairing it - it has > >about 30+ pins, it's about 5" long and has 2 circuit boards inside, > >and 3 different plugs - 2 to the harness and one hard mounted in the > >fuse box. Here's the strange part about the whole thing, while I was > >wiggling it around just to see if it was a contact issue, the front > >electric fans started turning on and off, then finally just > >completely quit. I think I'm going to pull the fuse box and see if > >there is any wiring harness damage under it. > > > >JC Jones :) > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: owner-diesel-benz-at-digest.net > >[mailto:owner-diesel-benz-at-digest.net] On Behalf Of Robert Chase > >Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 2:50 PM > >To: jcjones-at-ifsja.org > >Cc: diesel-benz-at-digest.net > >Subject: Re: Headlight control relay > > > > > >Hmmm, > > > >Its under the hood im pretty sure and just a simple relay. I have > >never messed around with mine but I would think you could probably > >open it and try cleaning it to get some more life out of it. > > > >Robert. > > > > > > > >JC Jones wrote: > > > > >This is not exactly Diesel related, but it is w126 related. > > > > > >The car is a 1990 560SEL, and I am looking for the "headlight > > >control relay". I put that in quotes because I'm not 100% that it > > >is actually called that, but what I need is the relay that all the > > >light circuits go through and it also sends the signal to the bulb > > >out indicator on the dash. The price I was quoted was $240, so I > > >was hoping somebody might be parting out a 126 with that relay in > > >it. > > > > > >Thanks, > > >JC Jones - ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.WAGONEERS.com/ Snohomish, WA - where Jeeps don't rust, they mold... jesus, don't leave life without him, please! - ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of diesel-benz-digest V1 #992 *********************************