560SEL EHA replacement

Today’s job was EHA replacement (Electro-Hydraulic Actuator) on my 1987 560SEL. The EHA is part of the KE Jetronic fuel injection system and makes minute adjustments to the air/fuel mixture. One of the sources for these adjustment is the oxygen sensor, if present. The EHA can leak either because the o-rings between the EHA and the fuel distributor have gone hard, or because of internal leaks in the EHA itself. In the case of my car, it looked like the EHA was leaking, not the o-rings.

The EHA is still available from Bosch, but it is not cheap. Still, I […]

November 2020 Night drive to Bilpin

The monthly late night drives are really starting to gain momentum. This month was a bit different. It started out as a Night drive to Bilpin. As well as a drive, we had late night dessert and coffee. Summer in Sydney is a great time for night drives. The weather is pleasant and its a great time for convertibles or sunroofs to be open.

The drive started from the McDonalds car park in Windsor. From there, the drive took us up Bells Line of Road to the Apple Pie Cottage in Bilpin. The Apple Pie Cottage is run by a […]

W126 battery tray

The W126 battery tray serves a dual purpose. The first and most obvious is to keep the battery in place. The other is to protect the body work. Over time car batteries can leak acid and the removable tray catches all that. It is worth checking the condition of the battery tray each time the battery is replaced. If the battery tray becomes too corroded then it can no longer protect the body work.

It is also worth checking the W126 battery tray for another reason. It is easy for leaves to accumulate under the battery tray. This can cause […]

300SE low oil pressure gauge

Today I took my 300SE on a Mercedes Club Pop up drive. The Pop up drives are short notice mid-week drives. I normally take the other cars to club events, but the 300SE had not been on a decent run for a while and the weather was terrible. The drive was down through the Royal National park to Mt Kembla, Mt Kiera and then back.

The other cars on the drive were rather varied. There was a Ferrari 458 Spider, an Audi SUV, a race prepped Toyota Yaris and a couple of other Mercedes including a C63, C250 and E400 […]

Youngtimer Sacco Day 2020

The Mercedes Benz club NSW ran an event today to commemorate the cars of Bruno Sacco. Sacco was head of design at Mercedes-Benz from 1975-1999. The event was called Youngtimer Sacco day and I understand the intention is to make it an annual event. Given the success of today’s event, I can easily see why.

The event started out at Tynan’s Mercedes-Benz dealership in Southern Sydney. They were also the sponsors of the event. Tynan’s is a large dealership, but their forecourt was soon overwhelmed by Saccomobiles as event attendees started to roll in. The event was capped at just […]

250SE extended test drive

After all the recent work done on my 250SE, I wanted to take it for an extended test drive. Its had motor and transmission mounts, front crank seal, re-sealed power steering pump, injectors, distributor cap and rotor, points, condenser, coil, plugs, alternator, voltage regulator and more done. The spark had been quite weak and the engine was carboned up.

The Mercedes-Benz club have started running mid-week pop-up drives. I’m not normally able to attend mid-week events but I have a bit of time at the moment. This weeks drive was down to Berry via the Royal national park then back […]

250SE Alternator replacement

On the way back from the September night drive my 250SE stopped charging properly. I was able to make it back home about an hour on the battery. Even using the headlights the 250SE does not use a lot of power. As it happened, a friend of mine had a rebuilt alternator that was correct for my car. He drives a 280SE 3.5 W108 which uses a 55A Bosch alternator. The earlier cars (to 1969) used a 35A alternator which is what he had. This is the correct 250SE Alternator.

Initially I assumed I would replace the alternator myself. It […]

M129 rough running

Over the last couple of months I’ve had issues with the M129 rough running in my 250SE. The car was hesitating, idling poorly and just not running very well. I’ve done a few things over the last few months to improve this situation.

One of the first things I did was change the injectors. The stutter when accelerating and hard starting when hot felt like a symptom of poor injectors. I also didn’t want the situation of a leaky injector washing down my cylinder walls. While not as cheap as the K Jet injectors, the MFI injectors are still available […]

Fuel leak damage repaired

I recently changed the fuel pump and rear fuel hoses on my Jaguar E-Type. In doing this change I learned a few things. Firstly, the old pump had not been delivering enough fuel, as the car was significantly more responsive. Secondly, fuel had obviously been leaking for a while as the paint had been eaten away in the spare tyre well.

For both these reasons I wanted to take the car in to be checked my by mechanic. Now the engine was getting enough fuel I wanted to make sure the tune was right. I also wanted to repair the […]

MBCNSW Dam Drive

Today I went on a drive with the MBCNSW to visit some historic dams to the South of Sydney. The idea was to supposed to be to go to each dam and check it out and then have a picnic lunch at one of them. Unfortunately the Sydney weather did not play ball and it was a rather wet and wild day. I brought a couple of my kids to the dam drive as they liked the idea of a picnic at the dams.

The meeting point was at a carpark in the Sutherland Shire. The weather had been […]