Medium Pimpin' - 1995 E300 diesel build

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Ha! I have to roll stockies for a while, at least until I have all four corners on air. The e-Level system needs to do a calibration test with everything installed where it runs through the height range on all four corners before anything functions correctly. With the offset and width on the MAEs, they will most definitely run into the fenders when aired out, so I've got to keep it on the sad little 15s until at least the calibration is completed. Then it will be cool wheel time

[DER E30]

Nice! When do cool wheels come out? Ha

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

stance-tastic!



I love the detail you put into your posts. on to the fronts now! go! get along little doggy

damn I like that!

Thank you thank you!

looks good, cant wait to see this thing finished.

I don't know if you caught it on the last page, but I wound up going to Gary at Cycle Metrics for the welding. Many thanks for the tip - I owe 'ya a beer or something!

Today:

As mentioned above, my replacement pressure sensor arrived from AccuAir on Christmas Eve, and I got around to installing it today. If you don't remember from a few pages back, my air manifold originally looked like this:



You'll notice that all the accessories on the manifold point down, which AccuAir theorizes allowed what little water vapor the water trap missed to collect in the pressure sensor, ruining it as soon as the temperature dropped below freezing. I drained the water trap, and it was FULL, even with as little as I have run my system, so I have no doubts that enough water got into the sensor to eff it up. It is, after all, ever so slightly humid here in the winter.

At AccuAir's recommendation, while installing the replacement sensor, I reoriented the manifold thusly:



As an aside, the pressure sensor from AccuAir is actually a very clever piece of kit, and diagnosing it as failed proved to be quite easy with help from their tech support department. It appears to work as a 5V potentiometer, with input voltage on the red wire, ground on black, and signal on green. The rep from AccuAir had me check the sensor by measuring voltage on the red wire first to be sure the control unit was sending power, then by checking voltage on the green against ground. On a properly functioning sensor, the green wire should read 0.5VDC against ground at 0 PSI, with voltage increasing with air pressure. Mine was reading 4.3VDC at 0 PSI, indicating it had jammed up with the system registering acceptable pressure, and thus the compressor was not kicking on.

In my messing around with the system today, I do believe also that the AccuAir e-Level controller has a failsafe installed that shuts off the compressor after a certain amount of time, whether desired pressure has been reached or not. I accidentally left the auxiliary butterfly valve slightly open while running, and the compressor turned itself off after a few minutes of running, in spite of having only reached 30 PSI or so, thanks to the leak. I don't know whether the system waits for a while and then tries again, or whether it requires an ignition cycle to "reset." Anyway, kind of a nice feature for those of you who have compressors with less than 100% duty cycle.

Today I also ventured out onto the open road for the first time with the rear on air. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life. You never notice how many sketchy noises your car makes until you do something stupid like put it on air . Some impressions:

1. The brackets appear to fit nicely, and I heard zero noise that could be attributed to them on my drive.
2. The progressiveness of the air bags is noticeable compared to coil springs, but it is not unpleasant in my opinion.
3. I appear to have managed not to completely ruin the nice ride of this car. I hit a few speed bumps at 25-30 MPH, and the car floated as nice as it ever does.
4. My stock shocks are a decent length for what I'm doing here, but under-damped. The car has always been slightly bouncy (it is kind of a big boat, after all), but it's a little more bouncy now than I would like, which I attribute to the stiffer and more progressive bags.
5. My lower bag brackets might be a tad low, as I can hear something that sounds like it might be rubbing when aired down. I shall investigate further.
6. I suspect my height sensor and air line are going to have to move to fit the MAEs back on.
7. The passenger side responds to control input slightly faster than the driver's. I might have to invest in some more flow controls to get everybody even.
8. It takes considerably more pressure in the bags than I suspected to bring the car to ride height. My stupid little model I dreamt up is obviously rather simplistic.
9. I am going to have a VERY hard time not fucking with the ride height at stoplights

I didn't get the car above 45 or so just out of sheer abject terror, but I took it over some bumpy roads and was very pleased. If you didn't know it was on air, I don't think you'd be able to tell, at least until you found the control switch .

Very pleased so far. Very pleased indeed.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if you use soapy water for leak detection, don't be alarmed when you fire up your compressor and what appears to be smoke starts rising off the leader hose. It's just steam from water collected in the steel mesh

[Dano]

damn I like that!

[Junya]

stance-tastic!



I love the detail you put into your posts. on to the fronts now! go! get along little doggy

[skiierman]

looks good, cant wait to see this thing finished.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Thanks for the encouragement and commiseration, guys!

I got the left rear done this morning, and it went way faster. I removed the rubber bumpstop on the shock and it appears it was the limiting factor, as I had suspected. I managed to eke out another 1.5" of drop with the bumpstop removed, for a total of 4" of drop aired out. I don't think I will be able to get much lower without major and irreversible surgery to the rear suspension.

Here's where I was at yesterday:


and today:


and a shitty overlay of an 18" wheel diameter:


Apologies for the filthy horrible car.

I think I'll wind up setting it up so that the fender just lays on the wheel rim when aired out. I won't be quite as low as some of the other W124s on air, but it's a look I like a lot. Gonna start fighting leaks here in a minute, wish me luck

[Ey3dol]

awesome its starting to come together! Keep up the good work

[A4crn]

Yeah been there when I was bagging my 115 triming, bolting, remove and repeat. Still gotta sort out the rear shocks. I'm hoping the leak situation is settled as I had the same problems. The hoses need to be pretty much spot on, cut straight with no loose ends on the edges, and loctite 565 + thread tape on the threads. Anything less and it will leak, air doesn't forgive
Good job can't wait to see it done

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Ladies and gentlemen, after a half-day's work on the cold wet driveway, I have a single corner on air. It's not much, but the bag plates required a lot of trimming, which took time. It turns out that grinding 1/4" wall A500 structural steel is kind of a pain in the ass. Who'da thunk it?

My day went like this: unbolt spring arm, fit air bag to suspension, bolt up spring arm, cycle suspension, unbolt spring arm, remove air bag, remove brackets, trim brackets, attach brackets, fit air bag to suspension, bolt up spring arm, cycle suspension... repeat until exhausted.

Something (probably the stupid little bumpstop on the shock) is keeping the amount of drop limited to 2.5", which is just totally unacceptable, but it's a damn fine start, if I do say so myself. Here, have a short stupid video:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eMMZR0mqW4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eMMZR0mqW4[/ame]

I've got leaks galore, a pressure switch to replace, three more corners to do, and a lot of fucking around with the shocks ahead of me, but the end is in sight...

EDIT: Also, just as I speak, my replacement pressure switch arrived from AccuAir, just in time for Generic Non-Religious December Holiday! Thank you AccuAir!

[Dano]

Yeah, the M103 is a very solid motor, and the rest of the car is a tank. There are a lot of things on the motor that can make sketchy noises - the smog pump is a common culprit as well on the gassers. You're lucky as well in that if you're ever going to find a W124 in a junkyard, it's a 99% chance it's got an M103. Also, if the car has sat for a while, check the flex discs on the trans and diff. They rot out and get loose, and if they let loose when the car is in motion, it's ugggggly.

IN OTHER NEWS:

MY AIR RIDE BRACKETS ARE DONE!

I'm off to the welding shop to pick them up right now! HOLY FUCK! THIS IS HAPPENING!

I noticed its louder then most of the motors I worked on, which were mostly Hondas. A different ball game so im going to have to get used to it when I start looking at the whole thing inside out. Hopefully no surprises.
Thanks for the input bro greatly appreciated.
Btw stoked to see your benz setup and dropped

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

^ twas my question as well.

[loekaaz]

^is that a question mark?

[mikes02ls1]

Arrgghh.

So, good news and bad news. I have the brackets in hand, and they're beautiful! The welder did an excellent job, and they look like they're going to work great with a bit of expected trimming. I put a coat of primer and flat black just to stave off any rust for the time being:



The brackets at top go on top of the bag, and the bottom go beneath.

Now for the bad news: for whatever reason, my compressor is not being turned on by the e-Level system. I can jumper the compressor relay and everybody turns on, but the e-Level control unit isn't powering the relay itself. I spent the morning basically tearing apart my entire install, and all my wiring is good, so the fault is either with the e-Level control unit or the pressure sensor. My car is all yarded apart at the moment, but as soon as my girl gets home, I'm going to go get a generic pressure switch from the hardware store to hold me over until AccuAir gets back to me.

Damn it all.

Are these brackets for a W124,, would be willing to make another set.

[DER E30]

So, AccuAir called me back almost immediately and walked me through diagnosing the system. Looks like I have a failed pressure sensor, and a new one is on the way as we speak. The gentleman in their tech support office recommended that I rotate my pressure switch 180º, because as it's oriented currently, condensation can collect in the switch, which probably froze and busted the switch. Many thanks to AccuAir for their awesome customer service!

That's good info, I'm filing that away in my brain for later...

Great work, I can't wait to see it laid out!