MB Spares Newsletter No.142
December 2016
Christmas opening
hours.
The staff at MB Spares would like to wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. May all your dreams with a three pointed star on them come true.
MB Spares will be closed on the public holidays and open
with reduced staffing levels as follows
during the holiday period:
24/12/15 8:00am
– 12 noon
25/12/15 Christmas Day
26/12/15 Boxing Day
27/12/15 Closed
28/12/15 Boxing Day Holiday
29/12/15 8:00am – 5:00pm
30/12/15 8:00am – 5:00pm
31/12/15 8:00am – 12 noon
01/01/16 New Years Day
02/01/16 Closed
03/01/16 Closed
04/01/16 till the 08/01/16 will be normal trading but with reduced staffing levels, so e-mails and phone calls may take a little longer for replies. The workshop will only be doing breakdown work during this week.
It’s a small world.
Thanks to an observant customer of ours we have managed to confirm the original ownership details of the Binz wagon we are restoring. This article appeared in the Canberra time on the 8th of July 1967. Whilst the article is mostly about Australian Inter Church Aid, it somewhat randomly shows a picture of the Most Rev Jobst with his Mercedes wagon in the Kimberly region. The brief description confirms what we have been told in that it was used by the Catholic Church in the Pilbara and Kimberly regions.
Looking at the log books that we have for the car we can confirm the story about the Reverent doing some of his own servicing with his signature appearing several times in the logbooks. The claim of having done 75000miles is possibly a little journalistic licence as the log books show it having an E service in Broome at 12600 miles on the 15th of May 1967.
You can find some more details on the Reverent Jobst here.
Cars for sale.
Stuck with what to buy someone for Christmas? How about one of these? The SLK would look great with a ribbon bow tied around it.
The ML320CDI has the longest list of options we have seen on one of these for some time.
E280CDI Sport Full options and very low mileage.
CL500 One owner with impeccable
service history
300CE-24 Rare Sportline options.
C280
300SE Exceptional example.
SLK230 Ultra low mileage
ML320 CDI Fully optioned.
Spanners &
Sausages
This annual event with the Mercedes-Benz club of the ACT was once again a great success with around 40 people attending. We had our customary array of gourmet snags and some fine ales to choose from. After the food we did a self guided tour and then a general discussion of how various aspects of modern electrical systems work. These included ABS, traction control and cruise control. The text from the self guided tour is below for those of you who couldn’t make it. Pictures of the event have been posted on our Facebook page.
MB Spares Self Guided
Tour
- Against the workshop wall is our forklift with a rather special engine on it. It is a high compression version of the M117 5.0lt alloy V8. The main obvious difference is the dual engine pipes, but there are many differences between this engine and the standard unit. We will be installing this in a 450SLC early next year, making it a 500SLC
- Standing in the driveway you will see one of the entrants in next years Peking to Paris rally. Those of you who were here last year will notice a few changes. The car was completed in May this year and underwent its first test drive of some 2500kms in June. We are now “developing” the car using knowledge gained on the test drive and input from other previous competitors who have inspected the car.
- Against the spare parts building wall you can see our first Smart car brought in for dismantling. The A140 in front of it has also reached the end of its life.
- Further down the driveway we have two cars from our current used car stock. The SLK230 is a one owner car with an interesting history and only travelled 40500kms
- Next is our 300CE – 24 3.4 AMG. Just to prove we do drive it there are bugs on the front of it!! Chris recently took it to the annual Mercedes-Benz club of Sydney Concours, which is a great event we would recommend to all Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts.
- Walk into the showroom, on the counter you will see new slideshow presentation that we having running each day. It includes a plug for the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT. If you stand there long enough you should see it. You will also see we have club magazines and joining forms available for prospective members. We also support the Mercedes-Benz Club of NSW, there are flyers for the Mercedes-Benz clubs of Australia Bi-annual rally which is being held in Sydney next year. Feel free to take one and check out their website for details of this great event.
- Also on the counter is a recent discovery from a club members 280CE! It is part of the steering column. Have a look and you will see what the issue is. This part is hidden up under the dash and not visible during standard servicing. Needless to say we are now checking every W123 car that comes in now.
- And finally on the counter you will find our rego reminder stickers, feel free to take a couple.
- Walk towards the oil filters, though the gap and turn left. On display at the three desks here is a snapshot of how the parts business works. The first screen shows you the Mercedes-Benz electronic parts catalogue. The next desk is where we arrange the dispatch of parcels around Australia and the world. On the screen is the Star Track dispatch system. The final desk show our TecDoc system a program that allows us to find Original Equipment supplier details for a given part number, thus enabling us to bypass Mercedes-Benz and there margins.
- As you walk back out towards the driveway you pass our Dispatch desk, on display you will see some of the methods we use to freight parts to our customers.
- Walk out into the driveway and under the car on the hoist. Past the white 280E (which has only done 154000kms on the odometer) up the back you will see our EPA approved steam cleaning facility and our tyre fitting equipment. The wheel balancer is a Mercedes-Benz specific balancer. You will notice that it grabs the wheel by the wheel stud holes just like it is fitted to your car. This is the Mercedes-Benz approved method of wheel balancing.
- Walk back outside and into the workshop. Then walk anti clockwise around the workshop. The first vehicle is a club members 300GD. We have recently fitted a Factory OM617A turbo charged engine to it. A conversion that has a myth associated with it that it can’t be done. As you will see it its fits in fine. On the bench is the turbo system that was previously fitted to it. I think you should be able to see the difference....
- In the corner you will see another 300GD. This vehicle is being converted to a later model OM606 Turbo engine and 6 speed manual transmission. The owner purchased the kit and we were supposed to just fit it up. Unfortunately the kit was less than complete resulting in a few dramas, the clutch plate drama can be seen on the bench nearby.
- In the same corner you will see an M127 980 engine from a 1960 W128 220SE Ponton coupe. This is part of a full restoration for a Sydney based customer. We have already finished the front and rear suspension assemblies and the body is away being painted.
- The laptop on the trolley has our Mercedes-Benz Star Diagnostic system running on it.
- Next up is a chassis from a club members 300d Adenauer. Once again full restoration in progress. You will see that the rear suspension and diff is no in yet as we are waiting on a crucial part for the slip joint in the differential.
- On the hoist is another club members car. This used to be a humble 280S, but now has an OM606 turbo engine with a 5 speed manual transmission. The owner wants modern power in a classic car.
- Moving down the far wall you will find a broken windscreen and a W123 differential stripped down. The windscreen (which was already broken) was removed from the 300d Adenauer. After a 12 month search we have recently been able to locate a new screen, which is now in storage waiting for the body to return. The diff is part of the ongoing development of the Peking to Paris car as we explore different diff ratios and LSD options. Check out the technical drawing.
- Continuing on past the lathe to the last bench you will see the gearbox for the 1938 W143 Type 230 cabriolet. Those who were here last year will remember we have the gearbox out after one of the synco sleeve exploded. With help from the Mercedes-Benz Classic center in Germany and ZF-Tradition we had the parts made to order by ZF to repair the gearbox. The hardest part to get was the springs that control the rate the sleeves engage at. As you can see we had spares made! On the same bench are some Ponton 220a foglamps we are restoring.
- Onto the final hoist and you will see that there is more than the gearbox now missing from the Type 230. Once the gearbox was repaired we found an odd noise in the engine which turned out to be a piston seizing in the bore. The engine has been removed and returned to the company who overhauled it.
Facebook Update.
Here is a summary of what has been posted on our Facebook page.
- We found some odd parts like these diff
bearings removed from a W123 and this new
A/C compressor clutch. Who said that
Mercedes parts were made in Germany.
- We posted up some pictures of a major
heater fan job on a W114 coupe. We are convinced that when these were built
they hung the heater fan on a piece of string and then built the car around
it. Look at the hole in the fire wall in
this picture, this is where the fan is.
- One of our own cars the R320CDI had an air bag pop in rather spectacular
fashion. This is what
we saw when we pulled the wheel off.
Until next year, drive safely and look after your Benz.
John & Sandra Green.
