Intro and Our Mercedes Vario Home -Gen rack pg.5. Ideas on uprating rear suspension?

[ianc]

Hi Anton
The diff lock is posing more of a problem than first thought. You can see in the picture the sliding clutch part, this needs to locate into the end of the bearing journal which is also the crown wheel. having now removed the crown wheel 2 of our local engineering shops says its too big to fit on their surface grinders. I have 2x other options which are spark erosion or grind by hand.
I think it could have worked out more cost effective to have have bought another vehicle from the Irish Auctions and removed the parts. :sombrero:

Andy

I can ask the ESB guys if any 4x4 Varios have been broken for scrap or if they have parts of an axle laying around! What specific parts are you looking for?

 

[andylod]

I can ask the ESB guys if any 4x4 Varios have been broken for scrap or if they have parts of an axle laying around! What specific parts are you looking for?

Ian

That would be great...... It needs to be a front loading rear diff ..... the whole thing removes from the axle with about 10 nuts, drain the oil, remove the half shafts, remove prop shaft and bobs ur uncle .... or just the crown wheel would help ( 43:11 gearing would be ace )
Cheers
Andy

 

[Anton2k3]

I'd also be interested in read diff lock axle if they have one ianc.

Sound like a deal, i'll fab mounts, you do control system! Unfortunately, i'm in Sinapore at the moment, so hope you not in a rush! Did they guy as esb give an indication of the price of parts to make up a control system? i'm assuming it will require a couple of pressure gauges too to give independant control, and allow balancing of the bags.

 

[ianc]

Anton,
It was the DriveRite guy I was talking to on the air suspension.
The bags were from €100-200 each (but the €100 one looked the best suited) and the simple control unit was under €100. This unit is just one pressure gauge and two rocker switches which allows you to manually trim each back wheel.

 

[Anton2k3]

Any ideas on the cost of the intelliair system? I think that has potential!

 

[spencyg]

I love the air bag suspension in my van. Without the bags I used to squat badly when the fuel and water tanks were full and I was fully packed for travel. Now I adjust each bag independantly with dual pressure regulators to the desired ride stance and forget about it. I usually don't need to run the bags much higher than 60psi or so.

GREAT looking fan.

SG

 

[andylod]

Hi Anton
The diff lock is posing more of a problem than first thought. You can see in the picture the sliding clutch part, this needs to locate into the end of the bearing journal which is also the crown wheel. having now removed the crown wheel 2 of our local engineering shops says its too big to fit on their surface grinders. I have 2x other options which are spark erosion or grind by hand.
I think it could have worked out more cost effective to have have bought another vehicle from the Irish Auctions and removed the parts. :sombrero:

Andy

View attachment 128897

Dont you just love it when you get a package in the post you had forgotten was coming .... Crown wheel machining finished and case hardened .... excellent job

 

[Anton2k3]

So is that the final part!? Where did you send it for machining is the end?

You still haven't said how much this costs!

 

[andylod]

This is the bit you cant buy from Merc. ..... Costs, the machining and hardening was £650 (very good company near Silverstone http://www.edmprecision.com/ ) internal operating parts in the diff £770, halfshaft £400, machining the diff casing approx £300 so all in all about £2k. I had to buy another complete diff from a breakers yard to be able to do it £350. This did allow me to fiddle with the final gearing as my van had 43:11 and with the new tyres its a bit high geared for towing so the new diff is 40:11 which keeps the overall road speed back to standard even with the taller tyres. Ive got from now until Feb to get it all sorted and fitted as we are doing a 3 week Morrocco trip.
Andy

 

[Anton2k3]

Help needed

Hey guys,

I'm just about to order a cruise control kit for the camper, but in order to fit it need a bit of information. Does anyone know which wire going into the taco is the speed pulse signal wire? Apparently it can be found by putting stands under the rear and running in gear measuring each wire. The speed signal will have varying Hz or V reading. I'm hoping I don't have to go to the trouble of doing this and one of you fine chaps knows the answer!

Thanks for any help,

 

[docka]

Sorry I don't know the answer but I'd be interested to know what model of cruise control you're getting?
Have you tried asking a friendly merc dealer/mechanic if they can tell you which wire?
Alternatively, there's someone selling the merc workshop database including wiring diagrams etc on ebay, can't verify if it's any good tho but was thinking of buying it myself...
Here's the link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-...als_Litterature_ET&hash=item3cce366dd7&_uhb=1

 

[ianc]

I bought those disks from a different ebayer. They worked and were very comprehensive but they were a ***** to set-up. Unfortunately they stopped working when I upgraded to Windows 8 so I cant look it up for you.

 

[docka]

That's interesting. Would it be too cheeky to ask if there's any chance you could make us a copy?

 

[ianc]

The install process involves getting an activation key which is specific to you're machine. It uses the MAC address to uniquely id your machine. That was a major part of the install headache. Having said that, the guy I bought it off was helpful. His ebay handle was futuretruth

 

[docka]

Ok, thanks for that, i'll look into it. It's a real nightmare ordering stuff through the dealers, back and forth with diagrams and such...