I don't know what fuel lines you need but RPM depot from Germany has some of the NLA fuel hose. They were expensive but fit right up.

https://rpm-depot.de/en/product/fuel...5-a2014703975/

 

I am basically doing this myself, but way cheaper. Under all the band clamps on these lines are barbed fittings, which you can replace with a quality hose clamp.
I am using Cohline 2240 which is 100% ethanol proof.

Fuel tank shipped, arrives Monday.
Fuel pump assembly parts arrive Monday.
Fuel lines I procrastinated way too hard, so those will take some time, probably will get here by like Friday or so.

I had a hiccup with a heater hose on my 540iT, that I will get fixed tomorrow, so I can go pick up those tires. I met somebody who happens to be a fellow E39 owner, and has a tire machine, so I'm going to loan him my M60/M62/M62TU timing tools in exchange for letting me mount tires on the AMG wheels.

 

On your turn signal, does the hazard lights switch turn all 4 on? If so chances are the problem is your stalk at the steering wheel.

 

Hazards do not work, the turn signal indicators on the dash are both solid green.

Fuel pump parts arrived back. I just realized I forgot to send one of the parts out for plating, not sure where the hell it ended up, so that's great.
Tank and Bel-metric order arrive Thursday it looks like.

 

On the turn signals you will have to do some investigative work. Sounds like the relay is not working/stuck closed.
You can try to swap it with a known good relay.

The hazard switch can also be at fault. You can take it out and clean the contacts with deoxit.
I see the hazard light intermittently working on old cars. Remember the take the shifter plate off by prying the back out not the front. If you do the front, you will break the plastic tabs,

You can also unplug the stalk wiring at the top of the drivers footwell (behind the bottom dash plastic cover) and see if the always on symptoms goes away. which would point at your stalk as involved with the stuck on condition.

But I would suspect a relay issue from the symptoms.

So basically trial and error method.

-Cheers!

 

TLDR: IT RUNS!



Long story:

Bel-metric order arrived a day earlier on Wednesday.
My "petrol" tank was having some schizo moment on tracking seemingly like it got to PA then went back to the UK but I think it was some system bug. It did clear customs ok on Wednesday, much to my surprise in hindsight, and then was overnighted by ground to Florida and arrived on Thursday afternoon!
My surprise on it arriving ok was because despite being cleaned, it still smelled clearly like gas. Faintly, and not enough to be an issue in being combustible, but to any layman I wouldn't expect them to know the difference. So I'm glad it arrived ok.
I got new fuel lines cut and installed to the fuel pump assembly, with new hose clamps too. Preeeeetty



With the plastic tank, there are some differences, there's a strap for the upper part of the tank, it uses a different seal around the filler neck, but the gas cap itself is the same, and the biggest difference is the position of the other tank fittings for the return line and vent are different (plus the rubber piece). Thankfully I got the rubber piece that keeps stuff from getting into the trunk, the tank strap, and the filler neck gasket. I did however get the two lines on the body backwards, so I had to swap them after it poured about a gallon of gas out of the charcoal canister lol. I still need to replace the soft line on the return line in the engine bay, but it looks like a lot of work to even get that line out of the car so I will do that later. Not super concerned about it because it's on the intake side of the engine, nowhere near the exhaust.



I got the tank installed to the car, but realized the new tank strainer I ordered was an M18 and my car was M20 originally. So I had to go out to storage and grab the old tank strainer (as seen below). It was literally disintegrating the aluminum and the sock itself was nowhere to be seen. I am going to machine the new one from M18 to M20, since a proper new strainer seems to be unobtanium now. This delayed me from Thursday to Friday night for getting the car to run.



Anyway, the car itself. It runs!!! It required a tiny bit of fiddling with the idle mixture screw (which I have some experience with, so it was not a big deal) and it's running great! Especially after I fixed the return line, lol.
I have driven it almost 20 miles, around my (pretty large) neighborhood. It stays nice and cool at 80-90C, and doesn't do anything funny. I put a flush of cheap 20w50 through it, and then put a new Hengst oil filter on it with some M1 15w50, same oil I run in my Porsches. It starts up easy and smooth, everything is working great to my amazement. I was expecting it to need more fiddling or maybe some ignition parts replaced but it needs nothing. Still going to put a new set of spark plugs in it in the near future, after it gets exercised some more. I am working on a few odds and ends with it, trying to fix small issues so I can work towards the next big milestone which is getting some new tires on the AMG wheels and getting those swapped onto the car. Then after that it's body work.

For now, a question about the extra fusebox with one fuse I do not know what it does, and what I have found to be the blower fan fuse. What amperage fuse is this supposed to be? It had an 8A in it, and it failed, after replacing it with another it melted the new fuse lol, whoops. I think it's supposed to be a 25A blue fuse but I'm not sure, and can't find anything online that says for absolute certainty...



Can anyone tell me what weird fastener is supposed to go here? I imagine it threads into the post off the fuel distributor.



This is the camshaft, since somebody asked to see it, to maybe tell if it had the recall done?



P.S. If anyone is wondering, the bumper goes back on soon. Trying to correct some damage around the front left corner, pushing the bottom of the fender in so much I can't properly install the headlight

 

Welcome stitch2k1, I’m late to the party but have restored my 87 2.6 that sat 20yrs with the help of all of the ppl who have responded here, you will get the car sorted soon enough. That’s bracket i believe is just to hold the air box lid.

Here is a pic of my car, I just bought a dremel and will be tackling all my rust over winter. Places to check are the jack points, the inside of the bottom of the door trim, the battery tray, under hood drains and under the plastic buckets on each side of the trunk, all heavy water collection areas. My 2.6 has been the most reliable car I ever owned it took a bit to get it in a competent state but they are not hard to keep that way. I’m in Ohio

 

Good progress!

I was the one who asked for the camshaft adapter photo.
Sadly you have the old style camshaft not the updated one from '89.

Like I said, you need to check your cam/rocker wear before spending too much money on the rest of the car.
You may ending up having to spend the funds on the valve train replacement.

So you will need to remove the valve cover and the dripper and have a peak at the cam wear before too long.

If you are lucky, it is fine, if not you will need to source those items which will be 1000's of dollars, or you need to find a newer donor car in the JY.
I went the JY direction and for <$100 I had the entire valve train of the updated parts. Can't replace the head with a newer head but you can replace the valve train.

Happy Motoring!

 

Great color! Petrol blue!

 

It's so nice to see another W201 being put back on the road. Great job. You might want to look a little deeper into your fuse issue. I'm suspecting that your fuses might be getting too much current and that's why they're blowing. Where that extra current might be coming from might take a little detective work to track down.

 

Your car looks great. Your rust project is a good winter project for when the roads are both icy and salted with destructive salt.

 

Nice!
My car is relatively rust free, it has some spots, and a lot of surface rust in the front associated with improper accident repair. I am used to not dealing with rust, since my Porsches are all galvanized, and my E39s are not rusty. I have looked at the front left emergency jack point and it's not great. I will eventually get them all open and clean them off. I intend to do a lot of rust repair to this car prior to paint. I have bigger issues to deal with first (read below).
I know that hole is related to holding the airbox lid down, but I don't know what weird fastener went there originally. I have taped it over for now, to not let unfiltered air in like the POs have.

I don't think it has any significant camshaft wear, since it would be running funny, and it pulls strong all the way to redline. Perfectly smooth. If it needs a valve train or anything major I am going to put a 3.0 M103 into it, or an M104.98 instead of fixing the 2.6.

And either way, I have a bigger priority, which is that I have found two bouts of improperly repaired crash damage (on top of the damage that finally let me buy the car) that I need to get fixed, so money is going into that first. I have already considered the cost of fixing it versus getting a clean 190E to swap into, and I have already made the call that fixing this car is cheaper in the long run, and it's in a color I like. I have a friend of a couple friends of mine that is an auto body tech who thinks we can straight it pretty easily, with some time and effort. I am going to get some tires on the AMG wheels and get them fitted, before towing it from Orlando to Jacksonville, since getting the new wheels to fit is related to body work (fender spacers).


I need to do this anyway, since the gasket leaks and I want to strip and refinish it. I'm probably going to be lazy about it, and do another valve cover in the future with more effort than I am going to give this one for now.


These cars unfortunately just do not exist in yards here. I have discovered that I missed two parts (joys of learning a new platform from scratch), a bracket for the late model dash console, and the tail light plug for the left side, since I grabbed parts off a 91 2.3, which meant it had a rear fog lamp on the left tail light! And I need that plug so I can even use my new left tail light. Yay!
Jokes aside, finding that out was kind of nice since I wanted to fit a rear fog lamp to this car anyway. The bracket for the console really sucks because the wood trim on mine is absolutely coming apart and looks AWFUL.

Yeah it is growing on me, wish it was still two tone instead of the one tone abomination it is currently.

The fuse issue isn't one of current, it's that I don't know what the correct fuse is. I took a gamble for now and a 25A fuse seems correct. The fuse box does not list what amperage those fuses are supposed to be, nor does the owners manual (fantastic).

 

If you are willing to swap in another engine then do not worry about it.

Just so you know you may not notice a worn cam/rocker until it is too late. Mine was worn 1.5mm on cam and about the same on the rocker. So a total of 3mm loss and I stumbled into it trying to change the valve seals. I never noticed as the engine was running great, it even passed smog test in CA with the worn cam.

Again, yours might be just fine like my second car which is an '88 with the same CAM. But when you replace the valve cover seal at least make sure the dripper was updated to the later design.
It is an easy improvement. If it has a V washer to hold it down in the middle or some drippers just have a bolt holding it down that's good. If not you should buy the V-washer from a dealer. This improvement was made and the customers were not alarmed to it if the car was serviced at a dealer. Mine got the improvement at 60K miles. I guess it was a bit late.

 

You can check with the MB Classic Center to see if they have the parts that you're having trouble finding. The can also tell you the paint code for the plastic clading on your car. That paint code will be different than the paint code for the body of your car which they can also tell you. I found this out from personal experience.

 

Do you have pictures of the difference in the dripper rails?

I sent them an email about 4 weeks ago, and never got a reply.

 

Yes I do. The dealership has the V washer and new drippers. Always best to change the dripper too since the old one might be dirty and not its best.
One of the pictures show a new dripper and a new V washer I put in. The oil comes in the pipe under the bubble in the middle. What happens is under high oil pressure if one does not have the V-washer or that second bolt holding it down the dripper bends and leaks at the joint at the bubble. That causes the pressure in the dripper to drop and the cam lobes at the two ends are starved for oil. I am also including the cam wear for your viewing pleasure.

Happy motoring!


This is where the oil comes in

This dripper only has the V washer in the middle and this type dripper does not have the provision for that second bolt. I believe they used these in 90-91. These are OK too.

This one has both a V-washer and a bolt towards cylinder one.

This one is my final one that has all new dripper and V washer. I bought these at the dealership 5 years ago or so when the head was pulled off for a valve job. Shiny and new...

And my worn cam. Not pretty....

 

Hey,I have several NOS OE strainers. Do you know the MB part number that you need. I bought several till I finally got the one that fit. My tank project got delayed due to Prostate Surgery just after labor day. In any event I have a 1985 pre face lift. I purchased several and by the time I got to work on my car the return option expired. So, If we can determine if what I have will fit your needs let me know. Happy to help.

 

great information Dolucasi!!👍👍

 

Gotcha, I will have my valve cover off sometime soon anyway since I have my bead blasting cabinet operational again, after some upgrades. Ironically specifically for blasting magnesium 16 valve 944 parts (valve covers, cam gear covers, intake manifolds) and my BMW V8 valve covers (M62TU, but also M62 and M60).

I need a 201 470 05 06 strainer. If you have one let me know, I can Paypal you. I'm in the US.
What is your tank project? Replacing rusty one?

 

One word of caution. Be super careful sandblasting the M103 valve covers. My original got ruined by I powder coating company who claimed they are experts.
I warned them it is Magnesium not Aluminum, and yet they blew holes in the cover. The grey epoxy finish under the black metal is super strong. So people try to get that off sandblasting and that is futile.

It needs to be removed chemically with a super strong solvent and that is no fun. Instead I opted for removing the peeling black paint off and leaving the grey epoxy on there. Looks OEM to me.
This was a cover I found in a junk yard and I just peeled of the black paint with a blade. This was many years ago, still looks about the same.
And no mess, just patience....




Original cover with black paint peeled off

 

That's very strange on the MB Classic Center. Did you try classicparts@mbusa.com? You can also call their toll free number as well. They know the W201 well and will be able to help you.

 

I have experience with magnesium from being an aircraft mechanic.
The dark gray is the color of oxidized magnesium. It will turn to an aluminum looking finish when blasted. I am skeptical that Mercedes put some kind of a primer on it that doesn't corrode and come off while the paint does. I think you are mistaking the magnesium oxidization for primer.
As for holes, if there is mag corrosion present, assuming you strip and blast it properly, the damage you find to the metal was already there. Pitting, worming, etc. You can't stop that from happening.
I've been working on trying to perfect a method to restore my very corrosion susceptible mag parts on my Porsche. I plan to experiment with ways to fill in the pitting to make them look "new" again.

classiccenter@mbusa.com is who I emailed. I will forward my email to the address you posted.

 

Sounds like you know what you are doing. That is not oxidation, it is some sort of a primer that has a super strong bond to magnesium. Oxidized magnesium turns white from what I've read. This is dark grey.

I also read that Magnesium is somewhat porous to oil meaning oil can penetrate it. Which is probably why they chose to prime it prior to applying paint.

I find it best to just leave it on there because it looks good and does not come off.

 

Using classic center instead of classic parts is likely the problem.

 

Nope, oxidized mag is dark gray. White is corrosion particles, it's like aluminum corrosion where it turns to dust.

Yes it's a very pourous metal that absorbs everything. A good corrosion pre treatment is necessary before applying an epoxy primer, and then paint only on the outside where necessary.

I will post here if and when I hear back