Angelfish

Let's not overlook that really nice headlight.

No longer missing a front tooth, although the new one is a little crooked so I'll have to take a look at the mount.

When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, my Dad bought me a red t-shirt and on it he stenciled "Unsafe at any Speed." It was my favorite shirt until I outgrew it.

I'd have to say in the seat. The tires are new but that doesn't always mean they are balanced correctly. It's a simple thing to check. This kind of vibration is commonly attributed to driveshaft flex discs and/or carrier bearing. But I remember when I first drove it before I bought it thinking that it had a tire out of balance.

It has two rubber flex discs, they appear to be in good condition but should probably be changed just due to age. Not too hard of a job from all accounts. Meanwhile, I discovered that the rear end howl is a Mercedes thing and can sometimes be cured by using moly gear oil.

I put 175 trouble free miles on the 380SL today. I wouldn't consider that much of an achievement except that this car had sat for at least 10 years and was only brought back to life in the last few months.The stalling in traffic turned out to be a loose connection to the ignition module that I fixed by placing a single strand of copper wire in each of the 4 prongs in the socket, this shimmed to create a more reliable contact. Prior to this I was unable to drive the car more than 15 miles without stalling. The faster its going the happier it is, Montana's generous speed limits were easily exceeded. There's some vibration in the 65-75 mph range, and little bit of howl under load at the same speed that I'm blaming on the rear end. Over 75 it just flies. The odometer seems to read about 1% high.Handling was a little bit squirrely, not a lot, and I'll blame that on every single piece of suspension rubber being 40 years old. Made it back before the rain and didn't even have to call a guy with a truck and tow rope.

The pictures aren't the best, but I'd be inclined to do the usual fuel / spark / brakes kind of stuff and drive it. Over time the dash could be freshened up and the hood repainted, I don't know that I'd even paint the whole car. The glass fenders don't bother me, at least from this distance.

I want this one pretty badly but I've already got two projects. Winnett is as close to the middle of nowhere as it's possible to get but what a great little car. https://billings.craigslist.org/cto/d/teigen-1946-mg-tc/7626405539.html This was my fathers car. He passed away 10 years ago and it has not been driven since. It did run well in the past. Unfortunately, a few years ago when we had a lot of snow, the weight of the snow cracked a rafter in the garage where it was stored. It did not collapse, but did leak. The car had a cloth cover over it, and the leak dripped on the cover and then froze to the car, which caused the paint to peel as you can see in the pictures. I don't believe there is any rust. The fenders are fiberglass. Chrome is nice.

The radio was missing altogether so I'm looking at options. I would like to have one that looks correct with the car, either new or reconditioned. It was supplied with a Becker but those are pricey.

Gray wire, spliced to yellow, is indeed switched with the parking lights.

Did some testing. Yellow (gray from the factory) Ground Red: Constant 12v these wires go to their own two conductor plug behind the radio Brown (looks orange in the picture): Ground Red / Green: Switched 12v Blue / Red: Power Antenna (because it works!) Does it make sense to have two grounds or do I need to examine this more closely?

No markings on the sleeve. Would I expect to reuse it with a new DIN radio? I'll be looking at the 'retro' style that would have the correct appearance for the car. The car is supplied with a power antenna. With the color code you provided I could easily build a harness into the radio. Are the molex type connectors reliable for this sort of thing? That would save fumbling around in there with spade connectors. I would use a molex between the factory wires and the supplied radio harness. Thank you for your help

The plug on the left has been removed from the sleeve, right side is still in place. The socket fits into the sleeve and then slides to the side to lock in place.

Well thus far the car is running well. Can I accurately test the coil if it is not malfunctioning, or do I need to wait for the car to stall again? The coil, along with the green ignition wire were next on the list, and I may just replace them for peace of mind (not to be confused with throwing parts at a problem, that's completely different). What I did discover was the wire to the ignition module. If I tapped on the plug to the ICM, the car would stumble or die. I shimmed the plug with fine copper wire, one an each pin of the plug, and that problem went away. I have only driven the car about 10 miles since so I'm not ready for a victory lap just yet. And thank you, the more time I spend with it the more I like it.

There are a number of good products that are a kind of self adhesive rubbery mat, Dynamat, Hushmat, etc. These work very well to take the ring out of raw sheet metal. I would never put a car back together without it. I will try to find what I used in an old truck, it was the adhesive rubbery mat and then a second product that was a thin foam rubber. The foam rubber claimed to stop any sound from bouncing off the surface. All I know is that the combination of the two made for a very quiet truck and I'd like to use the same thing in a Buick I'm working on.

These kinds of problems are a pain. I assume you've looked, but there are many discussions about ML320s doing what yours is doing. Crank shaft sensor is commonly blamed. And I found this, it would be easy to try: I've taken the car key off the ring and I've turned my ignition key all the way on without cranking the car up for 60 seconds, waited 10 seconds and started it. I drove all day today and the car never cut off. I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. I'm just curious though, was it the keys or the 60 second thing? reply: The truck lost throttle settings due to the battery disconnect. That '60 second' procedure resets the throttle settings.

I did get the sleeve out and the factory harness is plugged into the back, appears to be in good condition. Do you know source for a wire harness to plug into the factory connectors? I haven't located one but car audio is not something I'm good at.

I'll have to look at bench testing the ICM. It's a solid state unit that sells for $30 on ebay. Not a hopeful combination. And the plug doesn't seat as firmly as I'd like, thinking about using some fine copper wire to make shims inside the socket. I did discover (later than I should have) that the distributer has been neglected and is very scorched. New cap and rotor are on the way. If it's not the problem it would have been at some point. That leaves the infamous Mercedes Green Ignition Wire, the coil, and the discount ICM.

So I set off this afternoon in my reassembled car with the clock working for the first time in many years. New fuel pump relay, new bulbs in the instrument panel (LEDs did not work so it's the standard 194), new speaker in the left side, no cruise control module. It is the perfect teenagers' car, it will drive 10 miles, but not 15. Far enough to get to school or work but not much more. And like a teenager, when it's had enough, it just quits and sits and sulks. It stalls out at 10-15 miles with amazing regularity. Just shuts off without warning and quietly rolls to a stop. I had brought along my custom made yellow wire with bullet connectors on each end. I pulled the NEW fuel pump relay, jumped 30 and 87 and the pump whirred to life. Cranked, tried to fire, and died. No start with the jumper. I replaced the relay, it cranked, tried to fire, and died. I waited 30 minutes, it cranked, fired, and I drove it home. The Ignition Control Module was recently replaced by the PO with a solid state unit. The green wire appears to be original. Plugs and wires are new, cap appears new but not for sure. The car runs perfectly except for when it doesn't run at all, there's no in between

Are you saying that the radio just mates to the sockets in back without an intermediate wire harness? The radio was a Becker and I could look up the model, it's part of the option list stamped on a data plate. They are available but very expensive and have limited capabilities compared to what's available now. Pulling the sleeve should be easy enough.

Speakers and wires are in place, along with the power antenna. Just a big empty hole in dash where the old Becker used to be.

Missing altogether. If they had at least left the harness I'd have something to work with.

Any leads on a radio wiring harness? I haven't been able to track one down and all I have are the sockets in the back.

And naturally the pump relay showed up today, but even with that corrected I can't even start the car until I have the instrument panel back together, and it's possible I won't see those parts till next week. Talk about first world problems. Planning to make it my daily driver to replace my trusty 23 year old GMC Yukon, why not replace an old daily driver with an even older one? And you may recall I've got the 57 Buick that has been neglected since January and I really should spend some time on that one. Lance sent a few critical parts that should be here any day that will help get it underway once again. At this point, another $700 is a rounding error. My secret weapon is Corrosion X, far and away the best terminal cleaner I have used. Works wonders on things like dimmer pots.

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