[MSrobots]

As long lurking member I want to get your Guys and Gals smiling a bit.

I bought a cheap black 500SL (1993) 8 years ago. Bad shape but - well - it's $1.500 worth . A year or two later I got my second SL, this time a red SL500 (1995). I got it from a forum member (Vasier?) and am still (6+ years later) happy with the purchase.
But I kept the black one as 'The Parts Car', just in case, you know?
Naturally those things on my red one needing replacement where also broken on the parts car, so it never ever had to donate anything.
So I finally broke down and started restoring 'The Parts Car' because without ANY work on it it STILL starts, runs nice, is just in a shitty state overall.
Registered an insured by Hagerty all the time, and driven once in a while.

Needing some distraction I started working on the parts car. Not planning to restore it at all, just looking what is wrong with it, diddling here and there, just fiddling around a bit.

But now I am at a state that I need to order parts, to 'store' them in my 'Parts Car' just in case the 'real car' needs them later on?

Need advice.

Enjoy!

Mike

 

[Vivianautomobile]

thanks for sharing. this car older and has few parts, good luck.

 

[sushipaste]

MB Fresno Parts

FCPEuro

 

[MSrobots]

Obviously the wrong place to expect someone to tell me I am stupid to do so.

Recently I bought a two post lift and installed it under a carport (I had to raise the whole carport by 4-5 feet to get enough height below it).

And now, for the first time I could do some damage inspection of the bottom side of the car.

Actually I am impressed. Besides the usual rotten rubber on parts like engine/transmission/exhaust mounts it looks good!

The whole driveline is shaking badly so I am currently removing the Cat to access the center bearing of the driveline, it seems to be the culprit. Not a easy task. I hope I can pry the single center part out and do not need to remove all of the exhaust starting at the rear end.

Both flex disks seem to be a tad hard but overall in good shape, no cracks, smooth surface, trans mounts are holding up but are in ruff state.

Someone obviously did replace a lot of rubber pieces on the front and rear axles, no movement or signs of miss behavior there.

The 'life time sealed' transmission leaks somewhere on the rear side, but I have not found the source of it yet. But that may be a hint why the reverse gear seldom engages and NEVER when warm.

But who wants to drive a SL backwards anyway

Brake lines fine, no loose or missing stuff. Bottom Wire Harness OK/already replaced!!! Same with top one.

This car is 29 years old and neglected for most of its life, starting as a fleet vehicle as far as I could find out. At my place it was driven for 2-3 years after buying the red 1995 it - well - got retired and just driven once in a while.

Currently at some 198,000 miles the engine is wonderful and pulls way better then the 1995 red one.

The parts car is 1993 so it still has the mechanical fuel injection as far as I could understand things, less environmental stuff and a tad more horse power then the red 1995.

Somehow the ugly one makes more fun then the nice one.

Enjoy!

Mike

 

[robm.UK]

Obviously the wrong place to expect someone to tell me I am stupid to do so...

Not so fast hombre. You don’t get off that easily. haha. 🤣

I believe in always leaving a man his pride, so I’m not going to say you’re stupid. However I think you were asking for help, so here is my considered response to your original question: -

But now I am at a state that I need to order parts, to 'store' them in my 'Parts Car' just in case the 'real car' needs them later on?

If this is a philosophical question, I tentatively suggest that the solution to your problem resides in the principle of Occam’s Razor as an abductive heuristic. Basically you are presented with a paradox, and to justify this you have created two competing hypotheses for the same prediction.

The prediction, as you stated, and I paraphrase is that the older car has such a low monetary value and is not worthy of restoration and will become a parts donor car to help maintain and add value to the newer car of higher intrinsic worth.

The competing hypotheses: -

1. Remain impartial and do not plough more money into the older donor vehicle and concentrate on maintaining to the newer car.
2. Become emotionally attached to the older donor vehicle and endeavour to maintain both donor and newer vehicles in the belief that the new parts that you put into the donor vehicle will, one day, become useful to the newer car.

Occam’s Razor advocates that entities should not be multiplied without necessity (the simplest hypothesis is the most realistic) and would therefore determine that hypothesis (1) would be the preferred route.

Does this help?

 

[MSrobots]

Yes, finally I have a solid answer to all of this!

Now I feel better because I have rational and scientific sounding explanation for myself to allow myself spending the needed funds.

Thank you Rob

Current state is that the loosed exhaust system hangs on longer rubber bands, I try to not remove it completely, but the driveline gets out tomorrow. Enough space to get it out.

Looks like the major culprit is not the center bearing but the mounting bracket around the bearing. That one is completely - hmm - toasted.

But when out anyways I will replace flex disks and bearing also. 29 years old, did there time.

I am still quite surprised how well all the other things I can look at now from under the lift did hold up 29 years.

Amazing cars...

Mike

 

[MSrobots]

 

[MSrobots]

 

[MSrobots]

OK, Guys and Gals.

I replaced the center driveline bearing and the surrounding ring, sorry I did not made any pictures. The Flexdiscs seemed to be replaced already and where in good shape but I replaced the transmission mount, it was sort of bad.

Since I did not want to remove the exhaust system and just lowered it, some screws where really hard to reach. Every one knows that worldwide the most used language of people working on cars is cussing.

Driveline out, marks to keep alignment, bearing off, new bearing on and then everything back together. Took me maybe 8 lazy after work hours fiddling around with it.

The car is now driving fine without vibrations. So far so good.

Now I 'have to' (do I?) tackle the next problem. I should part it out, I am just stupid, but it looks like my water pump is leaking, somewhere I could not locate. All 3 hoses are tight, quite new and dry.

But any coolant i fill in runs out, dripping somehow below the pump and the harmonic balancer(?), where you can't see anything either from top or below. The water drips out even with engine not running.

Engine running fine, no oil in the water or water in the oil and water pump itself is working, my guess is that just some seal gave up after 27 years.

And now again comes up the question of sanity.

Sure water pump and seals are just $70 something, but when you are at it anyways you should replace the belts, right?

You just need to spend some hours to take tons of things apart to get the pump out, order some tool to remove the balancer to reach one last screw and put it back together. Currently this sounds to me like heaven.

One really dangerous side effect of corona is that you be more often home and need still to stay away from family so you go to your man cave.

And do stupid things like fixing up the parts car.

Enjoy!

Mike

 

[robm.UK]

If you’re considering buying an aftermarket water pump, be aware that some makes (Meyle etc) do not bother to machine all the cast mating faces except for the face to the cylinder block, to save cost.

I would go original MB.

 

[sushipaste]

Graf or saleri or remanufactured genuine mb for water pump

 

[robm.UK]

Even Graf doesn’t bother to machine all the mating faces.
Ditto Saleri, which is similar quality to URO. That says a lot.

 

[Lou Erickson]

Maybe it's time to stop thinking of it as "the parts car" and think of it as "the spare car" so you'll have one to drive when you're in the middle of a longer project on the red one?

You're clearly enjoying doing the work and the exploration and haven't described doing anything that's insanely expensive to it, and it certainly doesn't sound like it's in miserable shape. So, enjoy the things you enjoy about it, and work on it guilt-free.

 

[robm.UK]

If I was going to buy an aftermarket water pump, I would go with Graf. At least it has a cast iron impeller and they are known to be reliable.
MB is 7 or 8 times the price. 😡

 

[MSrobots]

Lou I think this is useful advice.

I want to go with Graf, but it seems that 1993 where 2 different water pumps used and I need my engine-number.

Where would I find it?

Mike