An Encyclopaedia Germanica addition if ever there was one.

Nice job GlueckAuf!

 

And very professionally presented too!

 

Real nice. I'll try mine this weekend.

 

Much appreciated and will print and save. Thanks

 

Thanks

I will be needing to give it a try soon.

 

Excellent write up. Have ordered capacitor. When I take out the odometer panel, I will fix the clock.

 

My pleasure, buds. Hope it works for you, too.

Good road,

 

I have done this repair and the results are excellent. Great write up!

 

Thanks for the great write up.
Somebody should let ussun know that there are pics included.

 

Thanks for the advise...again. Had some difficulty finding the capacitors in Canada as Radio Shack is gone and it's replacement The Source doesn't carry all the parts that it used to. Did a little google search and found RP Electronics. Picked up a pack of 5 capacitors for $1.60, followed your very clear instuctions and I now have a working clock. Thanks again for your great instructions. One thing I would like to add, if you don't have a 9v battery you can use the power from one of your interior lights to test, that is what I ended up doing.

Brent

 

Great job, bud! Happy I could help.

Good road,

 

Most excellent instructions with great pictures as well! I've just fixed my clock that has been bust for years, if I had found these instructions before I would have fixed it years ago!
By the way, I think you got ripped off for capacitors, I just paid 62 pence in Maplins for a pair of 50v high temp caps! But it did cost nearly a fiver for a 10mm hex bit to remove the steering wheel.
Many thanks, just need to sort out my fuel delivery problem now

 

Congratulations on a successful repair, bud! :thumbsup:

Yeah, Radio Shack is rarely the cheapest place to buy small electronic bits, but they almost always have what I'm looking for in stock. I figure I'm paying for the convenience, and that's all right if it helps them stay in business locally.

Lots of posts on here about sorting fuel issues. Do a search and I bet you'll find no shortage of helpful advice.

Good road,

 

I'm taking it to a local Merc guy to look at, he's old school Merc trained & I have used him loads, I don't have the time to look myself.
Just as a matter of interest I called Tony Purslow Mercedes in Basingstoke to see what it would cost to get the clock replaced, it was £264 for the assembly, £130 to fit, plus VAT, making £472.80 to fix a clock that needed 62 pence of parts; so if you are ever in this area I'll stand you a pint or ten!!

 

Dear GlueckAuf,
I found a transistor burned behind the capacitors and it´s impossible to discover the strips colors to buy a new one. Could you find out this colors or another specification and send me? Thank you.

 

Sorry, but diagnosing or servicing any of the clock's electronic issues beyond worn-out capacitors exceeds my skill level, bud. The clock I repaired is back in my SL's instrument cluster, so I'm afraid I can't ID any parts for you. But attached are a couple of pics from my repair that show what might be a resistor (not a transistor) that you might be referring to. (I think the clock uses an IC, not individual transistors, which is visible in the photo. The other major component, that silver rectangular can, is the quartz crystal, I believe.)

If your quartz clock shows evidence of being "burned" (shorted out?), maybe it would be best to start looking for a used tachometer at the local salvage yards or on e-bay...or take it to an electronics repair shop. If the very sensitive and specialized IC is burned out too, that may well be your only option anyway. Best of luck.

(You others better versed in electronic repair, please sound off!)

Good road,

 

Dear GlueckAuf,
I´m very thankful of the pictures you posted. I enlarged them and could identify the strips colors that I need. My clock is identical yours and as I changed the two capacitors already, my last chance will be the change of this burned resistor. If it doesn´t work I´ll look for another clock, as you said.

Thank you again

 

You're very welcome. And successful or not, please document your efforts and add it to the knowledge base here.

Good road,

 

Resistor too!

I pulled the instrument cluster out of my '83 380SL to replace broken odometer gears and decided to try and get the clock working while I waited for the gears to arrive.

When I pulled the clock out the resistor next to the 2 capacitors (per this thread) was burnt.

After looking at the burnt resistor, scanning and enlarging it, and enlarging the previous pictures posted, I came up with the resistor colors of: Green, Brown, Red, and Gold which is a 5.1k Ohm 5% 1/4 watt Carbon Film resistor.

I soldered capicitors and the resistor in place and the interworkings are moving. I'm bench testing the accuracy with a 9 volt battery and after 4 hours the clock has kept accurate time.

Hopefully, with my limited knowledge, I chose the correct resistor. If someone knows more than me about resistors or if I read the color bands wrong please let me know.

Also, while the instrument cluster is out I'm replacing all the bulbs, painting the needles, gluing back the loose silver center caps, and cleaning and polishing everything.

Any additional infomation or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the great information on this thread and thanks again for all the previous tips, tricks, short cuts and additional information that the members have provided me over the past several years that has saved me a ton of money!

Mark

 

I seriously doubt that this resistor is metal film, judging by the colour of its body, however, going metal film is an improvement in 90% cases.

Cameras often create achromatism and distort the white balance and change the colour appearance.
To me it looks as if this is Brown Red Brown = 120 Ohm - 1/4 Watt resistor, carbon (body colour).

5k1 resistor is rare but valid entry for gold banded (5%) resistors

 

THIS WORKS GREAT!!

I just followed the instructions on this post, and for $2.98 cents and about 2 hours of my time I have a working clock in my 1980 450SLC 5.0

If you are a handy DIY type person, and you can solder, then you should have no problems following the instructions in this thread, and fixing your clock.

One note though:

The Radio Shack I went to did not have any 32v, only 35V Capacitors. But they worked just fine, and it has kept PERFECT TIME FOR OVER 2 WEEKS ALREADY!!!

THANKS A MILLION!!!:bowdown:

JetPaul

 

I just followed the instructions on this post, and for $2.98 cents and about 2 hours of my time I have a working clock in my 1980 450SLC 5.0

If you are a handy DIY type person, and you can solder, then you should have no problems following the instructions in this thread, and fixing your clock.

One note though:

The Radio Shack I went to did not have any 32v, only 35V Capacitors. But they worked just fine, and it has kept PERFECT TIME FOR OVER 2 WEEKS ALREADY!!!

THANKS A MILLION!!!:bowdown:

JetPaul

My pleasure, bud. Congratulations on a successful repair! :thumbsup:

Good road,

 

There's a lot of us beholden to GlueckAuf for this easy repair.

 

When my car sat for 10 days or more the battery would be dead. I replaced it 3 months ago. Everything checked good except I found a 100ma draw with everything off. I traced it to my clock module (87 560). I found the resistor next to the capacitors was burnt and the cicruit board was burnt. When I removed the resistor the circuit board traces came off as well. I replaced the resistor with an 100ohm from Radio shack becasue they did not have a 120ohm. I also replaced the caps. I then had to use very small wire to solder over the broken traces.

If your clock is not working then the caps are bad but the resistor is sitting there getting fried until you replace the capacitors. My clock has not been working for at least 6 years so I suspect it took that long for the resistor to get really bad, slowly drawing more and more current. After I repaired the clock I was seeing a 10-20ma draw with everything off.

The clock is working great with the 100ohm 1/4 watt resistor. After reading the above posts and looking at the pics I went with brown-red-brown which is 120ohms.

The next time someone has the clock out please list the resistor colors here.

 

Follow up to a successful capacitor replacement

First,
Thanks for this thread. The job was actually enjoyable once I got past my jitters, and, Radio Shack still has the capacitors.
I reassembled the tach/clock and carefully soldered the clock ground back in and...
The clock still did not work...
I pulled the clock back out and tested off the circuit board - still not ticking.
I then began fiddling with all the gears to make sure they were threading together and discovered that the main gearwheel at the center of the motor, was stuck.
Using my finger, I nudged this gear back and forth very lightly and the gear came unstuck.
I then tested the clock and it was ticking once again.
Re-soldered the clock back to the tach board, retested to make sure my solder joint was clean and functional, and the clock was working.
The learning: Check to make sure that the main gearwheel at the center of the clock is loose before thinking you might need to do the capacitor job, and find yourself disassembling the entire tach.
Thanks again to this thread for providing me the info to do this job.
Al

 

Great post thank you. Changed the two capacitors in my clock and it now works perfectly.

 

You're welcome, RJV, happy to have been of help. Congratulations on a successful repair!

Good road,

 

An other 560SL clock fixed

Thanks to that great document I fixed my clock too... 45 cents for each capacitor, quite a lot a hours to get to the clock and fixing it knowing that I am not a mecanic nor an electronic guy... But so far, it is working. Thanks again for putting that great document...

PS: note that when removing the 3 screws from the back plate, it's also important to remove the soldering from the negative...

 

Thanks to that great document I fixed my clock too... 45 cents for each capacitor, quite a lot a hours to get to the clock and fixing it knowing that I am not a mecanic nor an electronic guy... But so far, it is working. Thanks again for putting that great document...

PS: note that when removing the 3 screws from the back plate, it's also important to remove the soldering from the negative...

Thanks, troisdsolide, happy you found the post helpful. Congratulations on your successful repair job!

Good road,

 

A good source for all things electronic is Mouser Electronics.

Mouser Electronics - Electronic Components Distributor

If they don't have it, there probably aren't any. There's no minimum order amount, but because of shipping costs it's often more economical to go to the nearest Radio Shack (if they have the part). I usually wait until I'm doing a big job, like recapping a Fender Bassman or refurbishing some Scott hifi gear and then add on some minor bits like those capacitors and resistors.