W126 300se

[all ahead full]

Hello,

Just taken the plung, and bought an old 300Se for £500 - a bit brave I know - from initial looks, apart from a bit of brake work, and noisy wheel bearing all looks in order!

Two electric windows did not work, but traced that to a blown fuse - the sunroof is broken, but as the motor works, looks like it needs a cable replacing - any ideas on this?

The motor and gearbox seem strong - no blue smoke on startup or hard acceleration - one thing is though it does seem very low geared - 4000rpm @85mph - is this normal gearing?

Aside from that - it's great - looking forward to some decent motoring in car that really does not look it's age.

Any else to look out for?

 

[fwb44]

Hello,

Just taken the plung, and bought an old 300Se for £500 - a bit brave I know - from initial looks, apart from a bit of brake work, and noisy wheel bearing all looks in order!

Two electric windows did not work, but traced that to a blown fuse - the sunroof is broken, but as the motor works, looks like it needs a cable replacing - any ideas on this?

The motor and gearbox seem strong - no blue smoke on startup or hard acceleration - one thing is though it does seem very low geared - 4000rpm @85mph - is this normal gearing?

Aside from that - it's great - looking forward to some decent motoring in car that really does not look it's age.

Any else to look out for?

I have a suspicion that the sunroof is operated by chains not cables, and that it's quite a major whole-roof-out job to replace them. Someone else will maybe verify this or otherwise.

First thoughts about high revs are: is it a 3 or 4 speed auto and is it dropping into top? Does it have overdrive? Working?

 

[pascal]

one thing is though it does seem very low geared - 4000rpm @85mph - is this normal gearing?

That sounds about correct for the 300 with 4 speed auto. You must remember, it is a very heavy car, with a 'Smallish' (190ish bhp) engine.

 

[all ahead full]

Okay thanks for that! - and yes it does have 4 speeds.

I did read elsewhere in the forum, that moving the gearlever from D to 2 and abck D makes it start in 1st - which does make a big different when wanting to pull away smartly