This year I didn’t think I would end up going.   A few days before my trip, I checked the inventory at both Junkyards I use in Vegas.   The oldest car was a 1992 190E.    My luck changed though, and a 1991 300E and a 1986 560SEL were both added to the list.   That meant not only were there two good models for me, but both would be not too picked over.

I did my usual thing and bought some tools and took an uber out to the location.    On the way to the Mercedes, I passed a Alfa Romeo Spider and a Jaguar XJS V12.   Not normally cars one sees in the self service junkyard.

In the Mercedes-Benz section the most common car was the W220 this time.   However, the W126 and W124 were next to each other.     The W126 was in much better shape than the W124.   While the paint was faded, the interior was actually quite nice still.   Somewhat sun damaged, but still quite nice.    The 300E looked like it had been neglected for 20 years.

The 560SEL was a very early one.  I looked up the data card (WDB1260391A19661) and it was produced 9/85.     Series 2 started in August with #186069.   This 560SEL had engine number #000196, showing how early it was.   I had read the change to Series 2 did not all happen at once, and this car confirmed that.   While it was basically a series 2 car, it had a series 1 rear parcel shelf.    It also had the fanfare horn button on the console as do 1986 models.     The car was in a striking combination of Anthracite (172U) with Anthracite leather (271).  This combination would have never been ordered by an Australian dealer unless the customer insisted.

My criteria for getting parts is that they need to be easy for me to carry and put in my luggage.   Therefore, an original alloy wheel in the spare wheel area of the 560SEL was not on the cards.

The most obvious and easily flipped parts were already gone, sine the car had been there a week.   Still, there was quite a lot I could get.     Probably nothing especially exciting, but for the cost all good spares to have on hand.  Some of it was similar to what I was able to get last year.

Since I just used up my spare drivers side window motor on my 560SEL, I grabbed the passengers side unit from the parts car here.   I also got lots of useful switches and relays that are great to have on hand.   While I now have other SLS spares, it can never hurt to have more at these prices.   So I set about removing the SLS.   Since I had to remove the rear seat, I grabbed the seat motor too.

The SLS proved more difficult than anticipated, I was able to return early the next morning with a 17mm ring spanner and finalize the removal before I had to start work.   I’m getting quite fast at stripping SLS struts from wrecks. I also took the chrome strip for the boot of the 560 as mine is a bit discoloured,   This one is not perfect but it looks a little better.

On the W124, I took the comfort control module from under the seat and a few small misc items, such as a couple screws that are missing on my car for the mono wiper.   I didn’t bother getting any switches as they were so badly sun damaged.  The Hirschmann antenna came from the W124 too.

if I go again next year, I hope they have more W124s.  Its too much to hope that there will be older cars, but while I now have a good supply of W126 parts, I would like to build up my stock of W124 parts.   The picture above shows some of the parts.   The SLS parts are very greasy, so in the plastic bags.

I did some searching online a day or so before I left Australia to see if there were enough cars to make it worth my while.   Its not an especially cheap exercise, as I have to take Ubers there and back, and buy a few tools.   The Junkyard I visited last year had two cars of interest – a W108 280SE 4.5 and a W126 300SE.   However, both had been there 6-7 weeks, so were probably quite picked over.

Another one in the South of the city had fewer Mercedes, but they did have a pair of 1986 560SELs.   They had only been there 2-3 weeks.  More likely to be something of interest on the cars.   I took an Uber to a Harbor Freight nearby, grabbed some tools, and then headed to visit the junkyard 560SELs.

I don’t have any specific figures, but I would guess that 3/4 of all 560SELs were sold in the USA.   They are comparatively rare in Australia, and in Europe it would appear the 500 was a bigger seller.   Consequently, there is still a decent supply left in the USA.   Sadly many were destroyed during the ridiculous ‘cash for clunkers’ era, but there are still enough around they are reasonably common in junkyards.

Both junkyard 560SELs were US models, and had those odd US style VINs.   They can be translated back into proper Mercedes-Benz numbers though.     Both cars were produced 1/86, which made for an interesting comparison.     As 560SELs came with all the popular options as standard, both cars were very similar.

The first car was WDB1260391A220028.    It was Anthracite grey with a Palomino interior.   Would have been very striking when it was new.    The second car was WDB1260391A222244.   It was originally Pajett Red with a Palomino interior.   Another striking combination.    Neither car were particularly rusty, although the Pajett red car had some minor rust around the rear windscreen apature.   Basically both cars were just worn out with faded paint, ruined clearcoat, tatty interiors.   I would guess that they got to a point where a major mechanical repair was required and the owners decided not to go ahead.

The only real difference between the two cars was the first one had been sold new in California, and the second car was a regular USA model.    Regular US models have code 491, whereas versions for California have 494.  This was generally required as California has mostly had stricter emissions requirements than the rest of the country.     It also looks like California has dealer code 705 in the order number, vs 704 for the rest of the country.     This probably translates to minor differences in the emissions system on the cars, but I didn’t go looking.     Other than the original location, the rest of the options were the same:

• 226:  Footrests in the rear
• 442: Airbag in the steering wheel
• 461: Instrument with miles and English legend
• 491/494:  USA/California version
• 519:  Becker Radio Medico Grand Prix electronic (USA)
• 551: Anti-theft/Anti-break in warning system
• 581: Automatic climate control
• 597: Heat-insulating glass, windshield, band filter
• 639: Elimination of first-aid box and warning triangle
• 806: Change of model year, the last figure showing the new model year
• 872: Seat heater for left and right rear seats
• 873: Seat heater for left and right front seats

As can be seen, USA models were highly specced, with the footrests, heated seats, airbag, climate control and anti-theft system as standard.    The radios were installed at the factory too, unlike in Australia where they were dealer fitted.

After only 2-3 weeks, both cars were quite well picked over.    All doors and front wings were gone, switches, steering wheels, badges, radios etc.   The easy to remove and valuable engine bay stuff like the EZL, idle control valve and fuel distributor gone too.   The red car was missing the dashboard, but nobody bothered taking the badly crackd dashboard from the anthracite car. They were both missing the transmissions, exhausts and fuel tanks too.

However, there were still many useful things for me to grab.  These included:

• Two genuine Hirschmann power antennas.   This is the USA version with the 5 pin plug supporting the height control. ($22 e.a.)
• Both idle control valves ($22 e.a.)
• Both R16 resistors
• Both Becker radio plugs and a bunch of becker speaker plugs
• Large handful of silver Mercedes relays
• An instrument cluster and associated wiring ($38.50)
• Both grille shells ($27.50 e.a.)
• A rear power seat motor and associated cables ($16.50)
• X30 distribution block and associated wiring
• Wheel centering pin
• All eight jacking point covers
• The large control module in the fuse box (I think this is bulb out detection, I’ll have to check)
• Original cards outlining climate control operation and Jack operation
• A pair of SLS struts – newer replacement struts by Sachs ($11 e.a.)

There was plenty of bigger stuff I could have taken if I didn’t have to bring this all back as luggage.     The prices are very reasonable.   SLS struts are just treated as used rear shocks, so USD$11 each is very different to what you would pay in Australia.   Generally if you buy some other stuff, they don’t bother charging you for the small stuff within reason.

Originally I only had one SLS strut.     I was pretty disappointed in that, given there were four on offer.    The valves had been taken, but the struts had been so far left alone.    I had to rule out the anthracite car, as it was sitting on its rear wheels.   While there was a factory jack, there was no way to raise it high enough and secure the car to work underneath.     It looked like the person who removed the transmission had lowered the rear to help get the trans out.

On the Pajett red car, I had the first strut out fairly easily.    This was packaged up and ready to go.    Unfortunately, the final bolt was an issue on the second one.   Strangely, for a non rusty car, there was rust around the bottom of the spring on the rear trailing arm.   This had caused the weld holding the captive bolt which attaches the SLS strut to fail.    Instead of re-welding the bolt, or changing out the whole trailing arm for a good used unit, a previous mechanic just put a regular bolt through the hole.    This meant when I tried to remove the nut, the whole thing was turning.

The bolt head was inside the spring, so there was almost no clearance.   I tried using a screwdriver to jam against it, but I couldn’t get enough force to stop it spinning and had to admit defeat.   Even with one strut, I was still happy with my other finds.

However, when I returned to my room, I found another problem.   The grille shells were too wide to fit into my bag.   I needed a solution that wasn’t going to break the bank.  I also didn’t have a tape measure to work out the size I needed.   Thankfully, URO parts came to the rescue.   While I don’t like the quality of their parts, their website has the dimensions of their reproduction W126 grille shell.    This allowed me to work out the dimensions I needed to fit the two grilles.    Luckily Target carried a plastic tub that was nearly the perfect size, and they had an outlet next to the Harbor freight near the junkyard 560SELs.   This allowed me to go and pick up my tub (plus a roll of duct tape to secure it), and try one last assault on the recalcitrant bolt.

Back at the junkyard 560SELs, I tried a few different ways to secure the bolt head so I could remove the nut.    I had purchased a stubby ratchet with a hinge and another set of metric sockets.   I was able to get the ratchet but the head was too wide to stay on the bolt.    In the end, the best solution was a 17mm socket on a medium sized extender, with a small vice grip holding the socket extension.   This didn’t fully stop the bolt from turning, but after trying for a while, eventually I had it loosened.    The picture does a poor job of showing this, it was very fiddly.

In removing the strut, I found the sound insulation under the rear seat is a great way of catching the ZH-M that spurts out of the strut as its removed.      I was pretty happy with the result and the extra trip to the junkyard 560SELs and tools were worth it.    I now have a spare set of SLS struts for each of my cars equipped with this type of SLS (W116 and both W126s).   The S124 uses a different type of strut.

In a couple of years, cars like the W126 are not going to be regularly found at self-service junkyards anymore.   There will be no more easy plundering of junkyard 560SELs with cheap prices.   Right now the most commonly seen models are W210s and W202s as well as the ubiquitous W163 ML.     I’ve been to a fair few of these junkyards and W116s are almost never seen nowadays.

Online, I had spotted a junkyard in northern Las Vegas that had a few cars of interest – principally three W126 models.   Those were a 1988 560SEL, a 420SEL and a 1990 350SDL.   In addition, there were two W123s – a 300D and a 240D.   The 560SEL was intriguing – the 560 was the only model with SLS sold in the USA.   It had only been there a couple of weeks, so there was some chance the SLS struts were still there.   Even if not, there was bound to be something useful to me over the three cars.  Even if they were gone, a trip to the USA junkyards is always worth it.   The prices are very reasonable and there is almost always something worth having.

I decided to rent a car instead of taking Ubers.   In the end this was a mistake.   I had found a good special online (AUD$86 for the day), and given I wanted to pick up some tools, plus visit a few other shops, I thought it would be better.   What I hadn’t accounted for was how much the standard insurances have gone up since I last rented a car.   Those proved to be more than the rental fees.  Plus I had the uber to and from the rental facility and 3/4 of a gallon of petrol.

I headed over to Harbor freight to get some cheap tools.   Given all of the costs of chipping and trade wars with China, it’s surprising they are still as cheap as they are.    I didn’t mind getting a few new things, as I want to built better tool kits for my cars than the factory ones.    It was useful on the drive to Adelaide to have a bit more than the factory tool roll available.    I also stopped by Walmart to get a bag, a hat and some sunscreen.   It was getting really hot.

After all that, I finally got to the junkyard.   The easy stuff had already been stripped from the cars, such as the grille, alloy wheels, radio and so on.  Importantly for me, the SLS struts were still there.    There were still other useful parts too.

I set about getting the struts off the car.   The ball joint at the bottom is held on with two 17mm bolts.   They were easily removed.   I also wanted the valve, so I cut the metal lines, and attempted to unscrew the two bolts holding it to the car.   The heads broke off both, but I was still able to grab the valve.  It looked quite clean and wasn’t leaking, and plenty of fluid came out when I cut the lines.

Inside the car, the rear seat must be removed.   On cars such as 560SEL with a power reclining seat, this bolts to the power seat frame, rather than just popping out.     I was able to get the seat out with no problems.   Being a US market 560SEL, it had front and rear heated seats, so there were additional electrical plugs.

Once the seat is removed, two plastic covers are all that is in the way of getting to the strut connection.   The upper one reveals the top bolt and the lower one reveals the hydraulic hose connection.   Unfortunately, my sockets were not deep enough to grip the bolts, so I had to use an adjustable spanner.    It was very slow work, 1/8 of a turn at at a time.   I found it easier to remove the top bolts first, let the strut fall down, and then remove the hydraulic fitting.

Once I had the top bolt and hydraulic fitting out of the way, I was then able to compress the strut and remove through the hole in the trailing arm.    Hydraulic fluid squirted everywhere.   The struts were not all oily at the start of the job, so I am hopeful they are OK.   The issue is not just leakage, but also the bottom ball joints can fail.   It’s easy to have the leaks repaired by rebuilding the strut, although the  ball joint can be more of a problem.

The second strut was similar to the first, but the angle meant I couldn’t get the bolt started with the adjustable spanner.   I even tried removing the power seat frame, which I didn’t have the right socket for, but made an imperial bit fit.    At that point I noticed that the fuel tank had been mostly removed.  I was able to get it out, and sit in the spare tyre well to remove that last nut.

At this point it was getting close to when I had to be back, so I grabbed a few other parts that were easily accessible and small.   The most useful was all the connectors for a Becker radio with the premium sound package.   For some reason this was never offered in Australia – which is odd as its the main thing that makes the update interior better.   Without it, its just ribbed panels on the doors and a slightly different seat design.

I also grabbed a few of the extended lug bolts, a tool roll without tools and a few other misc bits.   I could have grabbed the rear amps, but since there are no cars with the system in Australia, it seemed pointless.

While I had to get back from work, by this time I was really starting to feel the sun.   The hat and sunscreen had prevented sunburn, but a few hours in 108F (42C) temperatures starts to take its toll.   I needed to get out of the sun and re-hydrate.   Even though a lot of the work I was doing was from under the car, or inside the cabin, the sun would make any exterior metal surface of the car too hot to touch.   Even leaving tools out in the sun for a couple of minutes made them burning hot.

On leaving, I paid for my purchases – the grand total for everything being USD$36.    Not bad for what I got, although the real price includes the rental car, tools etc.    I took everything back to the car and then made a really stupid mistake.   I had put the keys down in the boot to arrange my bag, and I forgot to grab them before closing it.   Now I was locked out of the rental car.

After 30 minutes of various dropped calls, being on hold and providing my life story to the rental company, I finally managed to arrange roadside service.    I was really suffering from the heat by then, but I noticed a service station a few hundred meters away.   I walked over there and managed to drink two liters of cool water.   In the end roadside assistance got the car open in a matter of minutes (great security Hyundai) and I was on my way.    The meeting I was supposed to be back for was delayed, which was lucky.

I spent most of the time on the 560SEL, but spent a few minutes looking at the other cars.   The 420SEL had suffered a bad engine fire.   This was obviously the reason why it was there.  I didn’t get a chance to get the year of this car.   The 350SDL was an interesting one.   It had good paint and a lovely interior, better than many cars asking quite high asking points.   It probably still had its original Becker before hitting the junkyard, as this as the car that yielded up the Becker connections.   I can only assume it had a severe mechanical problem.

The 3.5 diesel was known as the rod bender in the day.  From what I understand though, if the engine didn’t grenade early in life they were generally OK later.  It’s a shame to see such a nice car in the junkyard, especially a rare one like the 350SDL.

The 240D had been in the yard for quite some time, was tired and fairly well picked over.   The 300D has suffered a bad side-swipe.  It was a great illustration of the Mercedes-Benz rigid passenger cell, 40 years later.

I’m pretty happy how the day went.   I’ve wanted some more spare SLS struts and now I have two sets.  Between this and the struts on the parts 420SEL, I should have enough for my needs.   The second set provides backup if the first set are too damaged to be rebuilt.   I was also able to get a few other things as a bonus.    Not only was the range better, but this junkyard, being in Nevada was not full of rusty wrecks like the Ohio junkyards I visited a few years ago.   The USA junkyards have yielded again.

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