Mercedes Mall Poser

[coachgeo]

I was sent this Mall poser pic. Look at the meaty tires. They willl deeeeeeeeafinetly churn up some
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speed bumps

General XIP

[gunracer1]

i guess i am just a sick fawk, i like it. a set of 35 swampers and some fender trimming and i would make it my winter wheeler. mike

[coachgeo]

Yeah Wheel it. looks like he has some. See the rock mods under the doors

[coachgeo]

hey guess what..... this mall poser is a disguise.

It is the family SUV. A way cool one at that.

Here is what the owner has to say.

...[snip] "the point of my project is not to rock crawl. I don't have anything against it. My goals were, in descending order of importance:
1) Be different
2) Do every thing myself (even make the drive shaft modifications)
3) Have four wheel drive for the snow where I live
4) Have four doors so my four year old daughter can get in and out easily and a place in the back for the Labrador
5) Do the whole project for less than $3K (way under budget so far)
6) Get decent fuel
economy (22 mpg so far)
7) Have diesel power or a manufacture date prior to 1974 to be smog exempt in California.

Since rock crawling is not on this list of goals perhaps you can see why it seems like a poser to you. However, this car is not posing as anything it is not. I'm not into rock crawling but I respect the work that goes into making a successful rock crawling rig.

Brian Roth"

[coachgeo]

What engine, front & rear axle, tranny, and T-case did you use in ur Mercedes Wagon SUV?

[coachgeo]

Hey guess what. Thar is Nissan parts in this thing. I have a write up on how he built it.

Pretty original stuff. I can send it ur way if u want.

[unissamog]

sure send it on over. I always love reading about how someone else basdardized a good vehicle

I'll have:
Nissan
Mercedes
Jeep
Chevy
Ford
and a bit of Rover for good measure!

[PTSchram]

Let me guess, the Rover parts are to explain the oil leaks!

Paul
'95 Discovery
'67 Series IIA

[unissamog]

yup, and the expense!

[PTSchram]

There you go making everybody think Rovers are more expensive than Benz'!

No wonder they think we are all stuck up poseurs:-) Especially with the mud.

Paul

[unissamog]

well of course.....we can't afford to get our rigs dirty......then we'd just have to clean them off again.

[Philabuster]

Originally posted by gunracer1
i guess i am just a sick fawk, i like it. a set of 35 swampers and some fender trimming and i would make it my winter wheeler. mike

I guess I am a sick fawk too because I like it! I have a 300TD same color, but I always thought it sat kinda low.

[Philabuster]

Originally posted by coachgeo
Hey guess what. Thar is Nissan parts in this thing. I have a write up on how he built it.

Pretty original stuff. I can send it ur way if u want.

I just showed the wife it and she likes it! Any chance you could connect me with Brian Roth? I would also like to know what went into building it. Nissan divorced transfer case in thar?

Thanks.

[coachgeo]

1981 300TD 4x4 turbo diesel

In the fall of 2001 my wife, daughter and I moved from Carmichael, California, to Pollock Pines, California. This was a change from sea level to an elevation of 4000 ft. In our new home we get a decent amount of snow which is new to us. I drive 50 miles to work each way and began to think about what vehicle I might like to use for commuting.
In California vehicles which are diesel powered or made before 1974 are exempt from smog testing. I hate smog checks so that narrowed the choices somewhat. I wanted four wheel drive to deal with the snow. I didn't want some big truck and I also wanted four doors so I was down to Audis and Subarus. However, Audi never made an AWD diesel and Subaru never made diesels at all. I wanted to do some sort of conversion (I have done three other major conversions). I considered putting a 6 cylinder Volvo diesel motor (made by VW/Audi) in an Audi quattro. It would bolt up to the transmission but would stick out of the front of the car.
While at the junkyard one day I happened to look under a Nissan 4x4 and noticed that it had a divorced transfer case. I thought that maybe a MB diesel would go in there pretty well. I pursued this avenue for a while but eventually decided the finished product would not be different enough for my taste. On another JY visit I decided to measure the wheelbase of a w123 and the Nissan 4x4. I could hardly believe that the Nissan King Cab was only about 1/2" longer than the w123. I spent a bunch more time measuring and soon concluded that this was a project just waiting to be done. The frame had curves where the w123 did and the one major apparent problem was the Nissan steering box being right where the AC compressor was on the MB. I figured I could move the compressor or space out the steering box, which I eventually did.
The next problem became acquiring a Nissan and an MB. I put an ad in the paper saying I wanted a 300TD turbo. I got a few responses but settled on a car I bought for $950. It was nice enough that it was worth putting the work into but not so nice that I couldn't see modifying it. It had a slight shifting problem but was otherwise in pretty good shape.
I found a rolled 1984 Nissan King Cab 4x4 which I paid $140 for and was able to drive it home. I sold the Nissan engine, tranny and body(I made them take it) for $200 so I got the chassis for less than free. I began work on August 4th. I got some steel bars and inserted them in the stock MB jack points to support the car. I removed all of the front and rear suspension including the front sway bar which I cut out with a torch ( I suppose there must be a way to remove it intact but I knew I wouldn't need it).

Next I rolled the Nissan frame up to the car. I found that I couldn't get the wagon up high enough to leave the frame on its wheels so I took off the wheels and slid it on 2x4's, dragging it with a come along and an electric winch.

I got the frame all the way under and roughly lined up. Then I jacked it up and began to find the clearance problems. I was encouraged to find that my measurements had been pretty accurate. I notched the frame to clear the fuel tank neck and cut in some other spots. I then welded the body to the frame in several locations. I spaced the steering box out 1.5" to clear the AC compressor. I made three different steering shafts before settling on one that does not bind up.
The most difficult part of this conversion has been the tranny/transfer case interface. With my first attempt I took the little Nissan coupler driveshaft and made an adapter on one end to bolt it to the MB three prong output flange. All of the work was done in my shop using my lathe and mig welder. I made this shaft with no provision for length change. I was trying to run this shaft at way too steep of angles and had major vibration problems. I drove the car for the first time on August 18th, two weeks after I first began disassembling the wagon. While staring at a pile of parts not knowing what to do I noticed that the inner Nissan CV joint had a bolt circle that looked to be roughly the same as the MB tranny flange. After some careful measurements I determined they were exactly the same! I made my next shaft using this joint on one end and a standard u joint on the other. Now I had length change and a joint that could tolerate high angles. With this new shaft vibration was reduced but not eliminated. What I found was that u joints generally need to come in pairs. I learned that u joints introduce a velocity change in the shaft. Two u joints properly phased cancel this change. A CV joint has no velocity change so it can't cancel a velocity change from a u joint.
Faced with the unenviable choice of making another shaft or raising the transfer case I chose the latter. I removed the seats, and cut two holes in the driveshaft tunnel. I raised and adjusted the transfer case until I could see no appreciable angle in the shaft. I put a wooden stool in the car and took it for a drive. The vibration was essentially gone. I welded in two floor bulges and narrowed the seat tracks. I had previously installed a transfer case shifter in front of the passenger seat with some fabricated linkage. That is the only evidence inside the car that the car has been modified.
Next came the CV boot expansion saga. I found that I could not keep the boot from dislodging itself. Knowing that I was using the joint at roughly four times its designed velocity I didn't know if it was ever going to work. I eventually cut an access hole in the tunnel so I could bolt the CV joint end of the shaft to the tranny. I did a test in which I put the transfer case in neutral and ran the engine with the trans in drive. Around 65 mph on the speedo the boot expanded so much that it snagged the transmission tunnel and put a hole in itself. After emailing someone at driveshafts.com, I learned that boot growth can be limited by putting o rings in the crevices of the bellows. This worked great and I have been able to drive the car to work three times now with no real problems.
I like to be different and the car certainly is. Most people seem to like it, including the auto shop teacher at the high school where I teach math. I know it is not everyone's idea of good taste and some might even be offended by it. I am sorry if you are. I have a B.S. in mechanical engineering and wanted to be a car designer. These types of projects are an outlet for that pent up desire to some extent. If you have any questions about the car, feel free to contact me: broth@sanjuan.edu


Brian Roth

[Philabuster]

Thanks Coach!

[coachgeo]

what I cant tell is did he remove the Mercedes frame or is the 300TD a unibody?

Also not sure which rear axle he used. the Mercedes or Nissan? I assume the nissan so to have the same ratios in front and rear axles.

I dont like the idea of welding the body to the frame. Think I would use some body pucks myself.

[Philabuster]

Mercedes 300TD is a unibody car with independent rear suspension. It has a swing axle rear (similar to a 1969 and up VW bug). I wouldn't weld the body either. Custom body mounts sound like a better idea.

This is my wife's car. She wanted a station wagon style body of some sort for the baby (SUV--whatever), and I wanted it to be a diesel. I found this car for $3,000 and I was hooked! I don't drive it too much, mainly because it feels so damn low. The thing is great for road trips, and like Brian said, it gets around 22 MPG (at 80 MPH ).

I would love to have my wife follow me in the Scout go wheeling with me, and being an auto, she would have no problem driving it off road. Granted, this is not going to keep up with a Unimog, but neither will my Scout!

EDIT: Normally, I can't stand the look of car/4x4 conversions, but this one just looks right. Compare this picture to a 1992 & up Jeep Grand Cherokee, and they look very similar. It's the camaro bodies with 44" mudders I hate the most!

[JDBlazer454]

I like it!! But I have never claimed to drive conventional 4x's. There was one like that but a sedan, 35" swampers, and a light bar and 5 KC's on it at the Foster Lake Mud Bogs, Sweet Home, Or in 1998. I saw it there and thought what a great idea. He had done it with a 350 engine on a toyota frame and toyota axles. It wheeled awesome and he wasn't afraid of using it. Glad to see someone getting some use out of a MB other then the guy in Or.