'88 W124 Ex- Berlin Taxi - suddenly a millionaire

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Yeah, I've read about that car. But dare I say it? I think the Taxi has survived in much better condition... I expect to hit the million km in about April or May this year. Only 1 engine oil change left until then...

Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hi!

If you don't like filthy pictures, look away now...





















If you ever wondered how it looks if you drive on german Autobahn during winter. That's how. Though, this year is pretty extreme, I've never seen this much salt on the roads ever before... Other than in alpine regions in Switzerland or Austria. It's really bad this year. The driver's door developed a lot of rust along the trim. So I've decided that this was the last winter for this car. Probably.

Anyway, I gave it a good pressure wash and then took it for a little drive to dry it off.





Which took me a lot further than I had planed, but the weather was just so nice, so I drove into the depths of the Black Forrest. Back home I gave it another pressure wash, as it was just as dirty & salted as before

I've also replaced the shot driver's door seal. This made a HUGe difference, much bigger than I had expected. It's a lot warmer inside, there's a lot less draught - and it's quiet! No more wind noises. After being used to the noise & draught for 90.000km - driving it now is a whole new sensation

Odometer count as of today: 985.000. Which means I put on 90.000km since I bought it. Incredible...

Cheers,
Jan

[grizz]

Really nice just enjoying your car as it should.

I love random drives and rides.

[trstarter]

Your car is really perfect.
I wrote to You PM, could You write me back ?

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Far from it... But getting there.

Notice something missing here?



Wait, I'll show you... Again something that's been on the "to do"-list forever. After work there was a little space in the heated workshop, so I drove the car inside to fix two little things. After the huge success with the driver's door seal, another air leak came apparent. The center fresh-air nozzle didn't shut properly. Adjusted, all good.

Which brings us to the picture above; the throttle pedal had snapped a long time ago. When I removed the floor matt to replace it, it sheared right off



So I took the replacement pedal I had in the boot for like - at least 20.000km. Swapped over the rubber.



Better.



Better? No.

Not better. I have to learn how to drive this car all over again, since there are unlimited positions between "off" and "on" all of a sudden...

A working throttle pedal and no more cold air. Why it took me 90.000km to fix those two little things is beyond me. They - once again - transformed the car.

Cheers,
Jan

[welshpug]

quite a similar pedal to my E34, now I have cruise control fitted I appreciate the fairly heavy spring in it even more

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hi!

Still alive, still driving. 988.000km at the moment.

Quick test to hear what the new mic is capable of... Might need headphones or turn the volume up a bit. Stock exhaust. nothing done to it. Just pretty much empty... Love it!Pretty decent straight-six sound for a low-reving engine.



Cheers,
Jan

[bero]

On stock w124 sedan you have 3 mufflers. On om603 if you remove the first and last you get kinda interested sound. But if you put 80mm pipe to second muffler and 80mm after you end up with really interesting sound. Straight pipe really sucks compared to this.
It is really exhausting (pun intended) on long trips, but in city, ohhhh boy.

[TurboDieselWeasel]

About that new windscreen... Current count of major stone chips: 4. Yes, four. It looks like any particle of dirt that hits the wind screen leaves an impression, literally.





It's now about 15.000km old, and looks worse than the old screen. I polished it from both sides prior to taking these pictures. During which I noticed that it also has a big "dent" on the passenger's side - this is where the wiper blade frequently leaves a trail / spot of screen wash or water.

I guess the glas dude got me a cheap windscreen to maximise his profits. Next time I'm doing it myself. That's for sure! And it needs to come out sooner or later anyway, since the frame shows traces of rust again. Next time no more rust converter but sand blasting & phosphoric acid. And a 2k epoxy primer. And a good quality windscreen.

Less than happy.

On a brighter note: the last oil change before resetting the counter is approaching. And the head gasket is leaking.

Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Very short update: 990.000km on the counter as of today...

[mattiwagon]

When you hit a million will confetti come out the exhaust!?

[Phil H]

As long as it's only confetti..

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Black smelly confetti dust

In other news; whilst waiting for delivery of cold cleaner, I built this little contraption:



Very long weekend, 2 days off - time for some work...

Cheers,
Jan

[General Clem]

My windshield was completely specked with chips much like what yours is doing, it was also likely a replacement. I wonder what kind of glass it is to chip so easily, on the other hand it seemed like it could never crack.

<Hijack> Unfortunate side note: my 300 has already been destroyed on its right side by a car who took the highway in the wrong direction... Then crushed by the insurance company illegally and without notice (I never agreed to give up ownership), with a perfectly good complete turbo 603 with replacement head. And I have yet to receive a single euro from them. I might have the courage to write up the complete horror story someday, still very broken from this. </Hijack>

Very happy your taxi is still there for you to enjoy

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Foook, that's unbelievable... I'd feel destroyed as well I know who I'm calling should my car ever get immobilized in an accident

Re: windshiled; this is after about 17.000km. I was a bit shocked when the sun came out.



In other news more pre-maturely failing replacement parts. The belt tensioner bearing is fücked again. After a disappointing 35.000km. I've used a INA bearing, this time I went for a FAG one. Don't have high hopes.


^grease oozing out...


^deep marks in the bearing races.

and - what a blöödy mess underneath the intake manifold....



Bent and tangled up injection lines, repaired knackered wiring looms... Sigh. All works though.

What didn't work was my eBay chain guide bolt extractor... I sheared off almost immediately. I was VERY lucky I was able to saw a slot into the broken off thread and unwind it. Else this would have been a disaster...



So - the old bolt & nut & wrench method worked best, once again.



I'm enjoying this sort of work again, now that I - for the first time - can really make use of my little carport-turned-garage Awesome to work behind closed doors, no wind, no rain, a bit warmth from the old gas burner. Awesome!





Cheers,
Jan

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Well this whole thread has been a bloody fantastic read and picked up some pointers for my w124 wagon too!

I'm ready for the Retro Rides Mexican wave celebration when you finally hit 1m miles!! That is seriously awesome.

Mines only on 214k currently and in much worse shape, as I think all others on the planet are compared to yours!

Well done sir, well done. Looking forward to more updates!

Little pic of my old boat for ya.

[veldhuijzen38]

Already ordered a 1.000.000km Mercedes birthdaycake? Oohh... can't wait for the magical 7 digits on the counter!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Why thank you kind Sir Been quietly reading both your threads, kudos to you as well! I think it's the wagons that will rise in value the quickest. It's allready hard to find good examples for good (low) money.

----

Back to the Taxi.

My initial plan was to replace the apparently leaking head gasket. After removal of the exhaust manifolds and a good look at the suspected leak - I was not so sure anymore. In fact, I think the head gasket is just fine. It appears the traces of leakage are old ones not fresh. So - I left the head where it was. On.

Instead I replaced the hydraulic lifters, since the contact surface looked terrible.



I found another coolant leak, though. The heater output on the head was well past it's best days...





Also replaced all the glow plugs, since I had the odd bad starting cylinder when I was not pre-heating with the Webasto. and since I bought it, I though I'd use it. The genuine Mercedes OM601/2/3 glow plug reamer



Next issue that became obvious with the intake manifold removed; the slotted leaver and the guide roller are totaly shagged. This guided lever transmits the throttle input to the injection pump (only found on automatics weirdly). It had a LOT of wear & play.



The slotted lever I had bought allready some months back, since it was on sale and cost' like 3€. The little roller however... Not available extra, and not before monday with the whole part.

So - onto the lathe. Had a piece of POM kicking about I used to turn it into a new roller. The original felt like it's made from nylon or something similar to POM. It'll last, if not, it's fairly accesible for replacement.





Gave all the joints a good clean & grease - on it went - no more play in the throttle linkage. Well, almost. But any slack can be adjusted with the throttle cable. Very pleased with this cheap little repair



When I went to put the injection lines back in place, I noticed this:



On the verge of catastrophic failure!! The injection lines were bent and rubbing together - this is what happens. I took a set of spare injection lines and replaced 3 badly damaged ones. The wall thickness is down to a third. Not much longer and they would have split... Glad I cought this!

Also replaced the pre-glow loom and re-attached the proper crimped on nuts for the glow plugs.

Then skimmed the exhaust manifolds with some 120 grit sanding paper, using my work bench as a surface plate. Yeah, it's that flat. At least I pretend it is. It has to.



Installed them installed almost everything else - and called it a day.



Easy, slow extended maintainance, I fixed a lot of little things along the way. I'm enjoying working at a slow pace, I do the same stuff to earn money, the difference is that now I don't have a deadline (well, apart from "monday").

That's all.

Cheers,
Jan

[william123]

Good to see the old lathe coming to the rescue !

[TurboDieselWeasel]

I love that little lathe And stuff like this is what I bought it for.

Yesterday though, I felt like setting fire to that car... Filled up with coolant - started. No noises. In fact only the starter motor. Fair enough the fuel system was open. Not unusual to have to crank it a couple of times. This time, I went through almost two 100ah batterys and the booster pack... Followed by it overheating. Well, at least no noises from the new lifters.

So - out with the thermostate again. Checked alignment (nothing to go wrong, but meh...). Nothing to see. Different approach; fill her up from the top hose. But not before checking that I have flow through the engine (with a garden hose). I had. On the auxiliary pump, there's a little bleed nipple - I guess if the pipes running over the cylinder head are not properly vented, there's a lot of air trapped in the cylinder head... Of course this was totaly clogged up and had to be drilled(!) out to work again. Once it did, I started the car. Well, I tried to. Again it was blöödy hard to start... Somehow I managed to start it with bleeding the injection lines and what not. And a minute after it ran, the auxiliary electric water pump seized up... Starting to feel less exited.

I replaced it - and it was hard to start again... Now the first time is to be expected. But 3 times in a row?? During cracking the injection lines open once again I noticed that the injection pump was soaked in fuel. I though maybe I have the replaced injection lines not aligned perfectly. So I bent them to perfection. But still - fuel oozing out.

Hmmm. Delivery valves!? Why? The pump was dry as a desert before this operation. But - there was so much air going into the pump you could hear it! Very very luckily I had a set of o-rings for the delivery valves at hand.

So - out with the fannymold again. Blargh...





One was hard as glas, the others were actually not that bad. But oh well. I re-aligned all the fuel lines very carefully again until they were sitting without any tension on both pump & injectors.

This time I had to crank it a lot less, it started up, ran well and the pump stayed dry. No air bubbles in the feed line after shut-off. Finally happy.

When stuff like this happens and you don't have a backup car and must rely on the pile of sh!t you can't seem to fix - it all gets pretty serious.

I don't know why the delivery valves started to leak SO bad all of a sudden... Maybe they hold together as long as there's fuel pressure from behind, and get unseated if this pressure drops (from unbolting the injection lines & turning the engine over by hand)? I don't know. But it's the only plausible theory I have right now. Hydraulics seem to love to do stuff like this. It's very often, that if we replace a clutch at work, that the slave cylinder cräps out, even if it worked perfectly before.

Hydraulics are fücking weird...



Cheers,
Jan