Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
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Well, I guess this explains the mysterious vacuum leak I've noticed since I got the car.
Many of the 1950s Mercedes-Benz passenger cars were available with an "automatic clutch". The smaller engines weren't strong enough (i.e. lost too much power) for the torque converter automatic transmissions of the day. So M-B adopted the Fitchel and Sachs vacuum assisted hydraulic clutch ("Hydrak").
Touch the shift lever, clutch releases. Shift into gear, release the lever, clutch engages. Power is from manifold vacuum. Volkswagen and even American Motors had "automatic clutch" systems. No clutch pedal.
But who'd ever have thought that there was a vacuum "reservoir" hidden inside the front left fender. The reservoir provides vacuum boost for brakes and clutch if the engine is off or has just started and hasn't "built up" vacuum. But mine would lose vacuum immediately the engine was turned off.
Seems that regardless of the temp of the car itself, when you activate the Hydrak, the tank pressure drops, and the temp inside the tank drops, so moisture condenses on the outside. After 50+ years, lots of moisture had condensed, which might explain the massive corrosion on the tank, but very little on the rest of the car.
I pulled off the barrier inside the fender, and found "the source of the vacuum leak" (below). Now replaced, the tank holds system vacuum for over 12 hours.
Amazing, those 50 year old technologies.
Many of the 1950s Mercedes-Benz passenger cars were available with an "automatic clutch". The smaller engines weren't strong enough (i.e. lost too much power) for the torque converter automatic transmissions of the day. So M-B adopted the Fitchel and Sachs vacuum assisted hydraulic clutch ("Hydrak").
Touch the shift lever, clutch releases. Shift into gear, release the lever, clutch engages. Power is from manifold vacuum. Volkswagen and even American Motors had "automatic clutch" systems. No clutch pedal.
But who'd ever have thought that there was a vacuum "reservoir" hidden inside the front left fender. The reservoir provides vacuum boost for brakes and clutch if the engine is off or has just started and hasn't "built up" vacuum. But mine would lose vacuum immediately the engine was turned off.
Seems that regardless of the temp of the car itself, when you activate the Hydrak, the tank pressure drops, and the temp inside the tank drops, so moisture condenses on the outside. After 50+ years, lots of moisture had condensed, which might explain the massive corrosion on the tank, but very little on the rest of the car.
I pulled off the barrier inside the fender, and found "the source of the vacuum leak" (below). Now replaced, the tank holds system vacuum for over 12 hours.
Amazing, those 50 year old technologies.
