$#@%& previous owner

[The Warden]

Sorry, have to vent...

I'm supposed to leave for southern California tomorrow for the holidays. I spent this afternoon getting my car ready to go, and after making sure she was happy mechanically, I started cleaning out the interior. I found a screw under the driver's seat...uh oh! I then did some snooping around to see if I could find where the screw came from...and opened up a nice can of worms.

The lower seat assembly on a W123 is put together like this:

The sliders that allow you to adjust the seat up-to-down are bolted to the floor.

The sliders that allow you to adjust the seat front-to-back are bolted to the up-down sliders.

The seat chassis (spring assembly and whatnot) is bolted to the front-back sliders.

The assembly's bolted to the floor with 4 bolts; the others use 3 screws per side (so, 12 altogether not counting the floor bolts). The seat was bolted to the floor without any problems, except that the two rear bolts were rounded out (indicating that someone had removed the seat previously). Of the 12 screws remaining, one was missing (the one I found), two were loose to the point where they weren't doing any good and were allowing the seat to move back and forth (backed out at least 5 or 6 threads worth), and three or four more weren't hand-tight.

So, I now have the seat out of the car and am getting all the screws tight and Loc-Tited in place. This may push my departure time by a day, but OTOH, at least I know why my seat was rocking around now... *sigh*

(the fact that I ran out of Loc-Tite and the impact screwdriver I was using broke, after the hardware store closed, didn't help much either)...

 

[Mike]

Sorry, have to vent...

Feel better?

 

[The Warden]

Feel better?

Yes I do! At least school's out for the holidays...but it'd be nice if I could make the stress go away; this is supposed to be a break

I still need to pack, finish my Christmas shopping, and drive 400 miles after the car's back together...I wish I could afford to take the truck

 

[The Warden]

I wish I could afford to take the truck

In case anyone's interested and following this thread, the above statement proved to be a moot point...got the seat back in the 300D at 2130 Friday night, went for a drive, came back, and found that I was about to lose a belt...and didn't have any spares onhand, the parts stores were all closed, and I didn't want to deal with replacing the belt on Saturday morning...so I wound up taking the truck anyways (and my bank account already hates me for it). Expensive, but at least I get to go play in the Mojave Desert some

 

[jharvey]

Well look at it this way, when obstacles are put in your way there's usually a reason.

You were supposed to go play in the desert

 

[Full Monte]

In case anyone's interested and following this thread, the above statement proved to be a moot point...got the seat back in the 300D at 2130 Friday night, went for a drive, came back, and found that I was about to lose a belt...and didn't have any spares onhand, the parts stores were all closed, and I didn't want to deal with replacing the belt on Saturday morning...so I wound up taking the truck anyways (and my bank account already hates me for it). Expensive, but at least I get to go play in the Mojave Desert some

Warden,
With all your expertise, I thought for sure you'd be one of those guys that carries enough extra parts to replace anything in the engine compartment on any trip over 5 minutes in duration. I think you oughta get a trailer for that MBZ so you can keep enough parts on hand.

 

[The Warden]

I thought for sure you'd be one of those guys that carries enough extra parts to replace anything in the engine compartment on any trip over 5 minutes in duration. I think you oughta get a trailer for that MBZ so you can keep enough parts on hand.

The M-B spoiled me she's been so darn reliable that my spare parts collection for her is considerably smaller than the collection for my truck. Other than two toolboxes, everything I routinely carry in the M-B fits into the spare tire well and the two pockets on either side. The truck, OTOH...I have a metal rail-mounted toolbox that's almost as deep as the bed itself, completely filled with tools and parts and whatnot.

I'm having fun with the IDI down here...although my pocketbook isn't

I like the trailer idea, though