MB Guru Help

OK, need some specific help here. My DD is a '91 300SE W126. The dreaded and very common tilt roof problem has occurred. Normally on an older DD I wouldn't care much but this one is MINT, I just rebuilt the engine last yr and this is the only thing that does not function as it should. The drivers side or left side angle bracket broke. Tried to JB weld it, no luck (PITA to assemble everything to only have it break again.... Uggg). MB replacement cost is staggeringly high for a pot metal cast part that is prone to breaking. Even scouring for used parts yields in the ~300$ range!

Now strangely the W124 has an entire aftermarket 'kit' for less then $100 that nets both angle brackets, rubber bits etc.. the W124 kit looks nearly identical to the W126 one, but I don't know if they are indeed interchangeable. Does anyone know?

This really sucks!

I did score a factory NOS cable on Ebay for $80 last week. so at least one WIN!

 

Thanks Mark, i couldn't source or find any tilt roof W126 parts that are still in working condition. I do have a W201 that isn't being driven, so I 'borrowed' the angle brackets out of it. The tracks are identical except the arms that the transom bolts to are 50mm shorter. easy temp fix, used some plate aluminum and made extensions. Tilt roof is now operating perfectly. I'll search out some W201 angle brackets and those are more then likely going to be a lot easier to find as there are tons of 190's out there. Both of mine are '91 model yrs which probably helped here.

After a bit of digging this problem with the tilt roof seems to be a real PITA and exceedingly common. Kinda surprised Mercedes used such crappy castings or even thought castings would work under those loads. Even properly greased a zinc casting is far to soft for that application and the parts start to bend then jam then break, even if one keeps them properly greased they will eventually fail.

After having the sunroof out/in at least half a dozen times, I can see why shops and dealers loath them. I'd guess an easy flat rate of $1k in labor for minor problems.

 

Hahaha.. yeah I know.