Restoring an old 180db Mercedes Benz (Ponton) from 1960. A barn find ?

[anyweb]

I'm enjoying this thread Niall, please keep going, as you prob no, I love working on the older cars, not as old as your tho.......

great to hear it Cole and congrats on becoming a mod !

 

[robparker]

I am also enjoying your progress!

 

[anyweb]

thanks guys, I've ordered a bunch of 'new' parts and some old from a variety of sources namely:

https://www.niemoeller.de/en/ponton/w120-mercedes-180D/B110/422601/

http://www.mb-huset.se/

and from ebay,

i'm waiting on all these bits which should include

a replacement front brake drum
a replacement front brake cylinder piston 'wedge' (don't know what it's called)
brake hoses (4, 2 front, 2 back)
brake seals and springs (set)

 

[Xtractorfan]

One small tip, in your first video, removing the front wheel. A bit of tape or paint on the . spider wheel brace, on the end that fits the wheel nuts can be very handy, then it looks like you know exactly what you are doing... oh and some more light on those dark areas...

 

[anyweb]

thanksfor the tip, and i'm new to the whole youtube videos thing, and just learning it as i go, but I'll bring some extra lighting to see does that improve things for the next videos

 

[anyweb]

well it's quite a while since i last posted anything about the car as I was working in Italy for 3 weeks, i got a few deliveries while I was working in Italy, and one of them was this box, so I videoed it and put it on youtube, i'll visit the car tomorrow to figure out what is next on the list of jobs...

https://youtu.be/QPxrs_QmyPI

 

[bembo449]

keep up the good work pal

 

[anyweb]

thanks bembo,
today i drove my petrol ponton to the garage where the diesel ponton is stored, and I swapped the tires from both cars so that the winter tires were on my petrol ponton and the summer were on the diesel ponton

 

[anyweb]

today I visited the car again after not seeing it for months, I had a look in the glovebox and found a 'car road test' paper (bilprovning here in Sweden) dated 1992, so the car actually was last road worthy 25 years ago, not 30 as the son's owner led me to believe, but that's ok. I also found a rusty key looking like it belongs to the passenger door, i didn't test it yet, also saw that the mileage reported in that 1992 road test was 500km or so less than what's on the clock now (approx 33700 km),

interestingly the road test also revealed that the previous road test done on the car was from 1981, so for 10 years or so the car stood still...

 

[television]

It will get warmer soon

 

[davemercedes]

I'm enjoying this thread Niall, please keep going, as you prob no, I love working on the older cars, not as old as your tho.......

+1 - Your abilities are way over mine but it's very interesting!
- Good luck!
Em, I was stationed in Germany around 1961-3. Weren't these used as Taxis back then?

 

[anyweb]

so today I went there with my neighbor Peter, and the intention was to try and start the car, so we first opened the diesel filter to find it full of pretty dirty looking diesel, removed the filter and the inside was looking awful,

so the decision was made to remove that whole assembly and clean it, 1 and 1/2 hours later it was back in place, clean and with a new filter fitted, we pump some fresh new diesel through it and it looked good, connected up the battery and cranked the engine, nada, the starter motor turns but the car won't start, and yes we bled it first

further investigation revealed that the diesel high pressure pump isn't sending any fuel out of it's connectors so that explains why the car has stood still for 25 years, i'm pretty depressed about this and don't know exactly what this means other than we'll probably have to remove that diesel pump and hopefully can fix it or replace it,

well that's my news...

 

[davemercedes]

Oh heck, not very good news. But as they say, pick yourself up, dust yourself off etc and tomorrow the sun will shine again! Just keep thinking of the end result you're aiming for!

 

[V6Matty]

Well at least you have a direction to go in Nial, hopefully it will be an easy replacement

 

[anyweb]

yeah that's true, but i hope this doesn't mean that

* there will be engine damage due to it not being 'sealed' for 25 years as there was no fuel in the lines from the diesel high pressure pump
* high cost to replace/fix the diesel pump

we did remove the 4 glow plugs though, one works, so I guess we'll replace all 4, but the concern is still there about what needs to be done, and how much will it cost my already 0 budget remaining for the car

 

[rifiki]

For spares have a look at mbclassics.de Have got quite a few parts from them for my Ponton 190.

 

[anyweb]

thanks that's a great site, lots of interesting parts there, but I wonder do any of you know where these diesel high pressure pumps can be refurbished ?

 

[om613]

I'd say it's the mechanical, very simple, lift pump that's failed here.
No reason for the Bosch IP to have failed from non-used. Old diesel fuel won't cause that. As long as it's not got water in it...

One thing (x 4) that will degrade with age on Bosch IPs are the delivery valve seals, usually evidenced by the top of the IP (by the injector lines) being 'wet'. Not enough to prevent starting, with a really good battery.

Have you replaced all the IP fuel hoses to prevent air ingress (and thus non-starting)? They won't be in great condition, otherwise!

 

[rifiki]

thanks that's a great site, lots of interesting parts there, but I wonder do any of you know where these diesel high pressure pumps can be refurbished ?

Try Bosch, they do have a classics department.

 

[anyweb]

i've sent some emails to Bosch let's see if they reply...