Project Andy-Rice: 86 Mercedes 190E 2.3-16

My OCD nature for wire repair, ran short on time to complete anything today (closing shift tonight)



By the way, what is this big arse black wire?

Did some more wire repair. All of the damaged wires under the blower motor have been repaired.

That big black one was actually two wires in separate insulation, a green and a white one. The insulation for them was considerably softer though, and the color of the copper wire was silver versus copper. I hope that this wasn't part of the ignition system, as the damage was quite extensive. I just ran 2 layers of heat shrink tubing, one on each individual conductor and one for the pair.









There were some wires with excessive damage that I had to cut short and add jumpers to them. Of course I didn't have the MB replacement wires, so I came up with my own coding system using heat shrink tubing.


The smaller bundle:


the larger bundle:


Now the fun part of putting it all back together

Well I'll be darned!
Also, good progress

Turns out that I need a new fuse box, I believe that the original one is the source of my electrical issues. Wanna see why I think so? sure!



The connections for the relay pins are soft and brittle, one of them actually fell apart in a nice powder. Time to find a new one.

Sorry I haven't been here much lately, I've become the new admin over on the competition site.

Wow, I wonder what cause that fuse box to get to that condition?

Was it under water.....lol.

The fuse box got into that condition because the cover was off of it for a long time as it sat. new box is in place and the electrical system of that car is in far better shape now. Still a lot of work to do to it.

Well I got some good news, I was finally able to get a new belt tensioner (thanks to an eBay certificate that I had gotten) and got around to installing it today. It isn't that hard really, just tedious with all the bolts being behind various brackets. Belt is on tight again, but alternator STILL isn't charging past 12.6V. So as of now I'm looking at replacing the alternator and the OVP relay (not in that order.)

I also decided to take it for a little test drive today, as I wanted to burn out some of the old gas that might have been sitting in the lines, and to get some of the pollen/leaves/dirt off my wheels/tires. Do note that I am used to driving my 95 Civic (daily driver since 2005,) so when I took my turn and accelerated/shifted like I was used to, I found myself very quickly redlining and shifting. It is amazing how much power this little 4cyl has, much more than my GF's V6 ZN Cougar! I can't wait to drive this thing at 100%

Well, the new alternator is installed, charges very nicely. I ended up replacing all of the wires as the old ones were, well, old. Instead of having 2 wires going to the power distribution block, I used a single 8ga wire (leftover from an amp install I did a while ago) to connect to the main lug on the alternator, and a new smaller wire as well (whatever it is for.) I used copper compression lugs and soldered them in, and protected the ends with heat shrink tubing. I also put on a new cable cover (the corrugated kind) and ran it through the factory heat shield tubing.

The idle has smoothed out a lot as well, but startup was still a b***h. Nice 13.6V with all of the lights on. I still need to replace the vent fan and to rebuild the passenger side seat switch. The AC will also be redone as the compressor sounds like a rock tumbler. However I will accept today as a major victory.

Ok, I swapped radio and antenna from my parts 300D into the 190, I now have music (only on passenger side though, something wrong with factory radio.) I also did a little touch up on the front grille.

Before:


After:


And a side shot:

Did a little bit of work on my 190 today. I got lucky and found a wood handled shifter in a 95 E300. Yes it was an automatic, but I can make it work with a little welding and cutting.


old torn leather boot


old deteriorated handle


cut the threads off


cut the wooden auto shifter handle down


threads welded to the new manual wood grain shifter and hanging to dry after a fresh coat of poly.


More to come, including how I plan to use the original boot.