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Discussion starter · #123 ·
So I took the day off today, and I've been out dicking around with this buttoning stuff up, putting small stuff in, wiring this, putting a hose here type stuff.

Got to a point where I wanted to see if it would crank.. alas. no crank.

Checked for voltage at the violet/white wire

http://www.autolib.diakom.ru/CAR/Mercedes-Benz/1994/E320/SYSTEM WIRING DIAGRAMS/4965.pdf

nothing during the "start" key command.

What was more disheartening was jumping the solenoid and having it not crank either...

till I realize I never hooked a ground cable from the motor to the chassis. at all. LOL so, im running to the parts store to build a ground strap and complete the circuit.

what kind of sucks though, is that building a ground strap doesnt solve my no- voltage at the violet white from ignition problem.

based on the diagram.. I'm assuming this is because of either the starter lockout relay module (what prevents the starter from engaging while running?) Or the NSS is bogarding the signal.

Also started looking into mounting the gauges.. I'm kind of bent on that front - no idea where to put them. So far I've managed to muster up a 4" tach, coolant temp, oil pressure, voltage. Was planning on using the factory fuel gauge and will probably go with a GPS based speedo.. unfortunately there is very limited space for them, and my dash is in fantastic condition so I'm not really considering drilling holes in it.
 
btw, I've been driving a car with a "GPS speedo" and it SUCKS. my 1992 Volvo wagon has a flakey speedo, so I use my Garmin... but GPS speed lags by seconds, and doesn't read well on turns or in forests, so its quite hard to maintain a steady speed on the freeway or judge corner entry speeds in the mountains.

for the tach, it seems like you could do a 6/8ths phased lock loop divider circuit and run the factory tach. or something like this: TACH-ADAPT meant specifically for this.
 
Discussion starter · #126 ·
I appreciate the knowledge as always volvo.. you've been a wealth of it thus far.

As far as GPS speedos go.. I had one on a cafe bike of mine and LOVED it. If you buy a quality one.. they seem to do alright. I typically drive by feel anyways. rarely do I look at the speedo, unless I see a uniform or I'm moving much faster than those around me lol.

For now, I am going to use the 4" tach I have. its a digital, and will work perfectly with the v8's 4 pulse/rev signal. we have very narrow A pillars on our cars, so mounting some of the gauges there would be tough. Maybe I can figure out some way to affix them somewhere that would be convenient to look at, yet not drastically annoying.

in relevant news. IT RUNS I tried to change the thread title to reflect so, but it seems that that is out of my control..

Here is a quick video of it. Granted, its 98% itself, and 2% me jumping the starter to get it to fire.. but it works! The only wiring left I need to do is figure out why the violet/white is dead now (will probably just jump the relay you mentioned prior..) And install a timer circuit for the fuel pump. Its a little rough at first. combination of air in the lines, a little starter fluid to kick it over and the fact that its been dormant for 2 months. surprised myself by getting the timing damn near close to where it needs to be on the first shot.

The cloud of smootz that burns out the tailpipe is from the muffler. It came off an old catless, turbo'd then supercharged car of mine that liked to run rich.



It sounds exactly how I wanted it to, and was dissapointed at first when I played it back on my phone. The tiny phone speaker does not do it justice.. huge difference in quality and depth of tone between the phone and the computer speakers.

Will be interesting to see how it sounds opened up. The slight lope at the end is a partial vacuum leak from only having the cap for the brake line booster halfway pushed on. should clear up once its secured.
 
Discussion starter · #127 ·
Insert Evil Laugh and white kitten petting pic here...

Sounds good, I like the lope!
 
Discussion starter · #129 ·
Went out last night to do some more tomfoolery. Posting from my work computer.. so no pictures till later.

that being said;

This thing keeps catching me off guard in the best and worst ways.

Best way - Mercedes throttle cable has the same mount for the throttle as pretty much every 80s/90s GM car. found a bracket that was a direct fit to it.

I had no way of linking the end of the cable to the carb armature though. This is because of the goofy spring mechanism (im assuming for throttle "dampening") so.. What I did was take a lock washer and welded it to the head of a small m6 bolt. this allows me to "bolt" it to the armature, then drop the cable through the slightly opened portion of the lock washer. I had one small issue with this, on quick closing of the throttle, the end wouldnt sit perfectly flush, resulting in a slight hold on the throttle linkage. Till I better engineer it, a small wire tie works fantastically and ensures the cable isnt going anywhere.

Not wanting to pay $130 for the carb version of the kick down cable I currently have for the 700r4, I searched my junk bolt drawers looking for something I could use to mount the kickdown cable to the other end of the armature. the kickdown clip has a small slit opening designed to "clip" around a stud with a flat top, maybe 1/16th of an inch thick.

I had nothing that would do this.. so.. I repeated step one for the throttle cable. works perfectly. It isnt the prettiest, or best solution.. but if its ugly and works.. it still works. I operated the throttle via gas pedal close to 300 times last night from close to WOT with no issues. I believe it will be just fine.

now for the worst...

I started working on the shift linkage last night. much to my demise.. I realize that the benz and corvette shifter have different axis of movement with regards to the pivot point. The corvette shifter's linkage attaches ABOVE the pivot point, the mercs BELOW. meaning that they were 180* out of sync.

Luckily I realised I can just flip the arm on the 700r4 to achieve motion in the same direction. This of course makes it tighter, and no less difficult than it was before. I'm REALLY trying to keep the interior as stock as possible.. otherwise I would have just gone with a different shifter already. I also picked up a 4ft section of 5/16th rod. dumb me measured the rod portion of the linkage as opposed to the threaded portion. As it would turn out, the threaded portion is 9mm... the rod portion is 8mm. So, I havent decided if I want to retain the threaded portion, and weld it to the end of the longer rod? or If I want to just keep it one piece and weld the nub for the merc shifter to the end of the 5/16 rod.

Worst case scenario.. I just find a shift cable and use an aftermarket shifter, which I may have to end up doing anyways if the shift gates dont match up between the two.



now question time.

From the best of my reading, it appears that the merc heater core inlet is on the passenger side frame rail, while the outlet returns by the brake booster? they also look flow specific due to the mixing? valve right behind the firewall in the battery compartment.

I also need to figure out how I am going to affix the vacuum line to the brake booster, as of course.. it is metric and threaded instead of just your standard push nub.
 
Discussion starter · #130 ·
It won't let me edit the post.. so here's a new one with pictures... doh.



Here is the throttle linkage. still retains the factory length adjustment, and the factory cable is about 6" too long, same goes for the kick down.. but they work, and its nothing I cant just extend down the firewall to clean up the bay a little bit. looking at this picture, I forgot to tighten the lock nut on the throttle cable linkage bracket that squares it to the carb body lol. one more thing to add to the list.

here she is so far.. in her ugly glory wires strewn all over the place.



yellow, thick one is obviously the coil primary feed to the distributor cap.
purple is the coil +, pulled from a switched ignition source in the battery compartment.
red is the distributor lead to the coil
thicker red dipping behind the distributor is the fans b+ feed.
white on the right hand side is the switched 12v fan trigger for the relay.
the grey resting on the alternator is the "switch" wire for the coolant temp switch.. that currently just runs all the time when switched on. oh well. #yolo
the white hanging out on the left hand side is the wire I was using to jump the starter solenoid to get it to crank until I jump the anti theft relay.

Trying to figure out how to get the heater core outlet alllllll the way around the motor to the water pump return on the front left corner of the motor (if looking at the motor, right behind AC delete pulley)

Also probably going to have to use a different coolant overflow tank. I don't have a need for the lower hose off of it since it no longer has to hold pressure.

And lastly.. hood closed, and pinned. with the exception of the wheels, muffler and pins.. the car *should* be fairly inconspicuous.



Also visible is some of the hail damage from tornado number 2 LOL, and yes.. the grill is just resting in place.
 
Discussion starter · #131 ·
It took me embarrassingly long tonight to find the k27 relay... mainly because it's completely NOT where the hell its supposed to be

http://w124-zone.com/downloads/MB CD/W124/w124CD1/Program/ETM/relay_control.pdf

its stuffed up behind the bracketry that holds the ECM and TCM, NOT right next to the battery/OVP relay. dammit.

I also discovered that the cluster is very easy to remove and the Anti theft module is quite easy to find.. and bypass.
 
Discussion starter · #132 ·
So I started this project yesterday:



I have a whole bunch of gauges to fit in here.. and looking at what I was up against, decided to go a different route. After seeing how cheap w124 clusters are, I decided to start cutting some things... might as well make my own.



toyed with the idea of just mounting the Tach and Speedo in the cluster, and ditched it when I decided to use a HUD style read out for MPH.

I trimmed some of the internal plastics out, and didn't take a picture of it.

ONWARD!


shitty cardboard mock up.

first cut and mock up out of 1/4" high temp plastic sheeting. Note: nothings deburred here, just testing the size of the wholes and placement.


first mock up in the cluster itself, didnt like the fitment, So I took some more material out and slightly rearranged things.



TADAAAAAA.

It isn't perfect, but its functional. I'm super impressed with Merc for using modular VDO gauges in there clusters, super easy to remove, and If I were going to a different trans, or different merc motor, it would be easy to swap in the matching gauges.

The left side of the cluster, I am going to leave alone for now. It is much more than just the fuel, coolant temp and oil pressure gauges, it is an entire circuit board that controls turn signals, the warning lights for the parking brake, high beams, coolant level and oil pressure So for now, I'll have two dead gauges and an inop dummy light and everything else that works.
 
Discussion starter · #133 ·
only other annoying part is that there's the hole for the clock control in the plastic cover.. but like I said, I'm happy with the results. function > form.
 
Nice work on the gauges. I'm pretty sure there is an aftermarket white gauge face available so that way they would all be the same color.
 
Discussion starter · #140 ·
Nice work on the gauges. I'm pretty sure there is an aftermarket white gauge face available so that way they would all be the same color.
Yes they do! They make a couple different font styles. I looked briefly last night to try and find something close to the other gauges, and found one. Just waiting to hear back from the manufacturer about density of the stock.

As you guys know, the merc gauges are all lot from the front of the cluster. The four I added are backlit. I would like that to match as well. If it's not possible then oh well, I'll just get the face and deal with it at night
 
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