Sounds like a very good day out Conrad ! .
I took a rare day off today to recover from a 550-mile drive yesterday. That also gave Son and me the chance to visit the sole u-pull-it junkyard anywhere near us. Supposedly, they had a single 300SD for him and a single 240D for me.
Amazingly, the traffic gods smiled on us, and we made it there in about half an hour. Even more amazingly, after paying our $2 entry fee, both cars were exactly where the yard said they were. And, although both were fairly stripped (no binnacle, external lights, visors, radio, etc.), there were still worthwhile parts. Son scored a driver's side seat, complete with no tears, in matching Palamino, that felt dramatically better than the seat-shaped object currently in his car. For $20, I don't think you could find a better deal. Son also scored an intact grill, in frame, for another $20--it isn't perfect, but it doesn't have large gaping chunks broken out of it, unlike the one currently on the car. We also picked up a better rear door insert and a nice center dash piece of wood trim, a new (and hopefully working) driver's side seat control switch ($5), a perfect driver's side floor mat (as the one in his car is literally torn into pieces), and a brand new-looking windshield wiper reservoir & pump (also $5). The yard tossed in for free 2 center caps for his bundt wheels (missing) and a cracked rim assembly for his driver's side lights (my scooter fell over in the wind two days about and apparently shattered his current one into tiny little pieces, so even 80% of of the part was better than nothing).
On my end, I picked up a bunch of ice cube relays--$5 for all. I grabbed an air filter assembly that didn't have a hole in it it (another $5), and I picked up two intact Hirschmann antennae that I'll lubricate and try to get going to replace the long-dead one in my 300D. Best of all, I found a driver's seat that felt oodles more comfortable than the one in my car. It's a lighter color than my Palomino interior--the "sand" interior? I'm tempted to install it and put a seat cover on it while I try to rehab my current seat. Based on the yard info, this seat seems to have at least 100,000 fewer miles on it than my current one--it sure felt much more firm than mine. Curiously, once we got it out, I saw that there was duct tape wrapped around some of the seat coils (but they weren't broken!) and someone had shoved some extra foam in there. Also, a plug for a seat heater. I will have to go through the new seat carefully and see what's going on before installing it. Still--$20 is cheaper than any upholsterer around here.
The junkyard 300SD had a fully intact OM617 engine under the hood. No one had taken anything. While I have some ambivalent feelings about opening an OM617 with only 190k to the elements, I'm strongly tempted to go back and pull the injectors ($5/each), the vacuum pump (not listed, but probably around $20), and the turbocharger ($65). Would it make sense to grab the injection pump, too? The car was operational until it was sideswiped on the passenger side and totaled. I tried to get the T-bracket this trip (can't ever have too many of those), but the 13mm bolt underneath stubbornly resisted all efforts. I'll need to bring a wobble socket extension next trip.
The yard was busy, but no one was paying much attention to the lonely W123 and W126. Both had been at the yard for about 6 months--I was surprised there was anything at all left on them.
--Conrad J.
Posted by: vwnate1@yahoo.com
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