1967 Mercedes 250SL

Pagoda Brakes

Our 1967 Mercedes 250SL has had the handbrake cables on the rear replaced. This involved the removal of the road wheels, callipers and discs on

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Pagoda Fuel Pump

The fuel pump in our 1967 Mercedes SL250 has been dripping consistently since the workshop team got the car up and running. Peter removed the

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Rear Brakes on the 1967 Mercedes 250SL

Our technician Pete has been completing the final jobs on the recommission of the 1967 Mercedes 250SL ‘Pagoda’ at our Suffolk HQ. This time, Pete has installed the new handbrake cables along with, new discs, the calipers and new captive backing plates.

Once everything was in place and tightened to spec, Pete performed final road tests before signing off the car.

Replacing the Gearbox Mount on the 1967 Mercedes 250SL

Our technician Steve has been working away on the gorgeous 1967 Mercedes 250SL ‘Pagoda’ that we currently have in our workshop. The car had reportedly developed a knocking or clunking sound which was isolated to the selector rod hitting the gearbox mount due to excessive play in the mount itself.

Steve swapped out the old perished mount, which tightened everything back up and allowed the selector rod the clearance to operate fully and freely.

Servicing the 1967 Mercedes SL250

Steve has been working on the 1967 Mercedes SL250 ‘Pagoda’ here at the Bridge Classic Cars HQ in Suffolk. This time, he has been servicing the beautiful straight-six.

After removing the various filters, and thoroughly cleaning out their respective housings, Steve gapped the new spark plugs before fitting them to the car and running it up to temperature.

Pagoda Brakes

Our 1967 Mercedes 250SL has had the handbrake cables on the rear replaced. This involved the removal of the road wheels, callipers and discs on both sides to access the cable ends inside the drum of the discs. Once they were stripped down, Pete found a few more issues hidden away – one of the rear discs was scored very badly on the inside, and the calliper captive fixings were rotted away on the driver’s side, this made calliper removal very difficult as this is a round captive insert with minimal access.

Pete modified a set of grips to be able to hold this while he loosened the calliper bolts. Luck was on his side as it was seized as well as snapped! One of the cables was wrong so we have replacements on the way as well as the captive retainers.

While Pete was waiting for the replacement cable, he started work on the subframe mounts. These, again were tricky to access and remove/replace as the front subframe held the engine and gearbox respectively. Both sides had separated and needed urgent replacement, these are now renewed and the engine stays exactly where it should.

Mercedes250SL Brake Callipers

During the appraisal of our 1967 Mercedes 250SL, it was noted that the nearside front wheel was binding. Pete removed the wheel for a closer inspection and found that the inner piston was seized in the calliper body. He attempted to free this while the calliper remained on the car. He removed the pad retaining springs and pins and the pads but no amount of fiddling would push the piston back – operating the foot pedal didn’t affect a push-out either.

The calliper was removed from the car and separated on the bench where better access to each piston was available. Pete removed the dust seals and gave them a liberal coating of penetrate oil and allowed it to soak while he worked on a fix for the fuel pump.

Regarding the pump, Pete’s gasket repair from last week didn’t allow enough clearance for the pump to spin on the motor and as such there was no fuel supply. He stripped the base plate from the pump again and removed that gasket repair. He actually found an o ring that was a close match to the size needed although it did require hand stretching with the addition of some heat and fitted perfectly. The pump was remounted, pipes connected for the final time and the guard refitted.

Back to the calliper, given time to soak and the addition of plenty of force Pete managed to break the rust that was holding it solid, each piston was slid out by hand, cleaned with a scotch pad so the surface wasn’t damaged and refitted back in the calliper body with some clean lubricant. The dust seals were cleaned and greased and refitted, before Pete fully assembled the calliper and fitted it back in the car. The brakes were bled, the wheel refitted and torqued to spec.

After this, Pete then stripped the faulty washer pump. He found that the mating faces were well worn, where the internal pump cogs rotate against it much like an oil pump. He cleaned and reversed the plate, fabricated a new cork compression gasket as it was missing and sealed the assembly with a liquid gasket. He then re assembled the unit and put it back into the engine bay, tested it and there is now a much quieter operation, and a lovely clean windscreen!

Pagoda Fuel Pump

The fuel pump in our 1967 Mercedes SL250 has been dripping consistently since the workshop team got the car up and running. Peter removed the pump and stripped it. He found that it had previously been sealed using normal silicone sealant.

After everything was cleaned off, fuel safe liquid sealant was used as a replacement.

Working on the 1967 Mercedes 250SL Pagoda

Recently, we welcomed a new addition to our Suffolk HQ with this stunning 1967 Mercedes 250SL Pagoda which was recently picked up by our transport coordinator, Tony.

Once safely back at our workshops, the team took their time to take a look through the classic German GT car as part of the cars appraisal, where every inch of the care was carefully inspected and evaluated by the team.

The Pagoda, is truly one of the most beautiful classic Mercedes in the eyes of our team and its always a pleasure to have them on the ramps.

Our technician Jon has been working alongside our new technician Pete to carry out the appraisal of the Pagoda. They worked together to get the car started (as it came in as a non-runner) and into the workshop for the pair to get to work on the car.

The team have checked over the car thoroughly both in and out of the car to get a better idea of its condition and areas which will require attention.

Jon has made extensive notes on the car which are as follows:

”Front number plate damaged, drivers door trim and window channel loose, washers not working (pump runs noisy), engine oil black but level OK, Coolant level low and brown and low antifreeze content, Fuel pipes to inline pump starting to perish, intake pipe unsecured, gear position cable on bulkhead insecure and held on with wire, nearside front brake binding, front anti roll bar link rod bushes starting to perish, handbrake cables slack underneath, slight play in both front king pins, all tyres aged and perishing, spare tyre pre-dates others and flat, front pads 20% worn, discs OK, nearside shows some signs of heat but appear OK, Rear pads 10% worn discs OK, fuel pipes from tank to pump aged and deteriorated, fuel pump at rear leaking and requires repair kit and rebuild, torque up wheel nuts, attend to some items so car can be safely moved out, grease all points on car, play in kingpins now gone, adjust handbrake shoes, top up coolant with water, top up screenwash and inflate spare tyre to correct pressure.”

Jon could then move on to checking a few issues with the classic Mercedes such as the heating in the car but to begin with he needed to sort out some of the trims on the car which had come loose or were fitted incorrectly. He removed the chrome weather strips to adjust the clips and have them fit correctly to the car before refitting back into the doors. With the loose window channel, Jon found correct hardware in our stock to get refitted onto the car and then refit the rubber seal back into place.

He then could move under the bonnet of the car to check the coolant and heater system. Firstly, checking the coolant levels and then running the car up to temperature checking for correct operation but at that point noticed that the heater direction lever was broken. Once the car was up to around 80’c Jon noted that the heater began to warm up in the car somewhat. On road test, Jon also noted that the brakes didn’t feel quite right so the car came back into the workshop for some adjustment – his recommendation for the heater system is a full system flush and replacement thermostat as found with the low level, discoloured coolant with very little antifreeze in the mixture.